14 DAY TRIAL // A woman from North Dakota has realized that Halloween might just not be the healthiest holiday for kids, since they do get to eat copious amounts of candy.
When trick-or-treaters come to her door and she dubs them overweight, she gives them letters instead of sweets.
According to KVLY, the letter is meant to address the parents, who don't realize that they should be putting their kids on diets to avoid health issues further ahead in their lives.
"I just want to send a message to the parents of kids that are really overweight. I think it’s just really irresponsible of parents to send them out looking for free candy just ’cause all the other kids are doing it," the woman says.
NDSU Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology Dr. Katie Gordon claims that telling the kids that they are fat is not helping them, but making them self-conscious and insecure.
"It's just that kind of thing that for some kids, if they're vulnerable, might trigger major problems," she says. She adds that the parents and pediatricians should be the ones to decide when a child is overweight.
"That's not something that someone can judge- the health of someone- just by looking at them. I think that's the main thing. Even if a child is overweight, they might be very healthy because of what they eat and how they exercise. It's ineffective anyway because it's not likely to help the kid," Dr. Gordon explains.
However, the person giving out the letters, identified as Cheryl, chatted to a local radio station about how she felt that some of the kids asking for candy were "moderately obese."
"I'm contributing to their health problems and really, their kids are everybody's kids. It's a whole village," she explains. She believes that her neighbors should also refrain from giving overweight children sweet treats.