Dear Lady from North Dakota...

There is something bothering me and I want to take a moment to get it off my chest.  I understand if you would rather just smile, nod and move on - no worries and I'll see you tomorrow with some cute pictures from tonight's events.  Stay safe and have fun if you're going out.  Mwah!

Now, for those who have stuck around, have some coffee and let's chat.  I'm sure many of you have seen the news article that has started circulating about some woman who will be handing out letters to some children instead of candy because she has deemed those children to be "moderately obese".  She goes on to state her disdain for these children and their parents by saying that she hopes these parents will "step up" and "not allow your children to continue with their unhealthy eating habits".

Excuse me?!?!  Those of you who have been around these past three years know about the challenges we've had with how people have treated Hobbit.  She is a big girl - 90th percentile for height and weight - but she is healthy.  She is taller and weighs more than 90% of her class so when she stands next to little Suzie who is only 3'5" and weighs maybe 40 pounds, my 4'3" and 100 pound girl looks big.  As a mother who has raised both "willowy" and "fluffy" children, both body types are healthy.

For this woman to take it upon herself and judge a child by their physical appearance is absolutely asinine.  To make such ignorant assumptions about what we do or do not feed our children is foolish... especially when you know that our tiniest weight child eats like a horse and our heaviest child eats like a bird.  Our tiniest child eats a bunch of junk and our heaviest child eats healthy food.  Both were raised the exact same way and fed the exact same things - both have different metabolisms and body types.

Perhaps instead of this woman attempting to be the village that educates the masses, we should educate this particular village since it is all too apparent how ignorant she truly is in her position.  You can't tell how healthy a child - or adult for that matter - is by simply looking at them... what you can do is hurt them.  You can tear them down, belittle their self-worth and make them feel horrible about themselves.  You can do irreversible damage on what may already be wobbly self image.

So my 'open letter' to this woman is to simply turn off her porch light and do not participate.  Go to the movies or out to supper but in no way, shape, or form should you interact with children tonight.  Shred your letters, have a piece of chocolate and instead of insulting innocent children by gazing at them through your judgmental and hateful eyes, take a moment to really look at the children.  They are laughing, smiling and excited.  They are feeling like a million bucks because for one night, they are living out their fantasy of being a super hero or a princess or their idol.

If you can not look upon a child with love and respect, do us all a favor and simply stay inside tonight... because your message of ignorance and hate is not needed.  We have enough of that in the world already.