I just love feel-good holiday stories, don't you?

News has been making the rounds about a North Dakota woman who, a couple of days ago, called into a local radio station to say she plans to hand out a special treat (or trick) to select trick-or-treaters: A note telling them they're too fat for Halloween treats.

(Don't worry, though: The skinny kids will get candy from her.)

The letter, which the woman emailed to radio station Y-94, reads in part:

"You [sic] child is, in my opinion, moderately obese and should not be consuming sugar and treats to the extent of some children this Halloween season. My hope is that you will step up as a parent and ration candy this Halloween and not allow your child to continue these unhealthy eating habits."

The woman is right in that child obesity is a real problem in our country.

But she's terribly wrong in everything else.

There are a whole host of problems with this: First, who is she to determine which kids are fat? What are her standards? She has no knowledge about them. Sure, one kid's parents might be feeding him frozen dinners and candy bars for dinner each night, but another might be overweight naturally, though still healthy. (Oh, and I'm sure with kids trading things, and hanging out together, the letters will end up in the hands of thin kids, too.)

Instead of promoting healthy behaviors to everyone (how about handing out apples to trick-or-treaters? Or, God forbid, turning off her lights and not handing out any candy at all?), she's promoting discrimination and imparting a flawed sense of worth and beauty to vulnerable kids.

If she wanted to send out a real message about "rationing" candy, wouldn't she refuse to give out candy to any and all kids who come knockin' on her door? Shouldn't all kids — fat and thin — refrain from gorging on copious amounts of candy? Isn't that where this childhood obesity problem starts?

I don't have to explain how vulnerable kids are, and how many bad messages are sent to them about beauty and false standards. My completely tiny, slender 8-year-old niece has started worrying — to the point of tears — that she's "getting fat" or already is.

That's not OK, and behavior by a woman like this is only exacerbating this kind of shallow and upsetting message.

If I saw that letter as a kid (or now, mind you) I would have been devastated. There's no way you forget that stuff as a kid. Ever.

Though the woman says she'll seal the letter and tell the kids to give it their parents, if I got that letter as a kid, you know what I would have done? Opened it. You really don't think a kid is going to be curious about a letter given to you on Halloween? C'mon, that sounds like the beginning of a kids' Halloween TV movie: You get a mysterious letter, it has a treasure map in it, you begin a mystifying  journey in which you begin to battle witches and goblins, and when you get to the end, you secure yourself some magical powers!

I'm all for discipline of children — including their eating habits — but sorry, that's up to the parents. And yeah, some parents aren't great about that, and it's sad to see. But the only person who should lecture parents about their kids' eating habits or weight is a doctor, not some crazy woman who lives down the street who you never talk to.

I'm sure this woman — if she follows through — will ensure that she and her house get a bunch of tricks from some — and sadly, some applause from others.

I think a letter back to her would do, saying: You, in my opinion, are a witch (or something that rhymes with it).

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