Obese Children Should Not Be Allowed to Trick-or-Treat

Ineffective?Ever heard 'any press is good press'?. This is because psychologically, when human beings are engaged in an idea, whether an advocate or thoroughly opposed, it remains in the brain and shapes their actions and values. Even those who are furiously opposed to the letters of Fargo will have the ideas in their head long after the fact. Furthermore, scientific studies love to play devil's advocate. So the more negative media attention, the more scientific studies are undertaken, thus the more information there is on the subject.We are already beginning to see large changes happening in schools where junk food bans, vending machines and cafeterias with healthy choices only are appearing, etc. Moreover, I'm not sure where you are getting this information on drugs and smoking. Smoking levels have plummeted drastically since more information has become available on the health risks involved."Health care advocates hailed Wednesday's findings as evidence that higher cigarette taxes were paying off, combined with federal curbs on youth-oriented tobacco marketing and sales and a sweeping anti-smoking media campaign."Furthermore, the same is true about the dramatic decline in hard drug use; namely cocaine, methamphetamine and illegal pain killers. "Reported availability of [these drugs] has not been reduced. Instead, increases in perceived risks and disapproval appear to have contributed substantially to the recent declines in the use of [these drugs]. The findings provide strong support for the use of realistic information about risks and consequences as an important ingredient in the efforts to prevent drug use." -Jerald G. Bachman, et. al., "Explaining the Recent Decline in Cocaine Use Among Young Adults: Further Evidence that Perceived Risks and Disapproval Lead to Reduced Drug Use"So, after doing your research, you'll find that yes, more information has contributed in an enormous capacity to reduced tobacco and illegal drug use.Emotional Consequences?"This is no solution...Children are going to know about Trick-or-Treating. There is no avoiding it or acting as though it doesn't exist. And kids are naturally inquisitive: they are going to ask why they cannot go out and trick-or-treat"Suppose your child's teacher was Keegstra, a well known Holocaust denier. He wants to take your child to presentations denying the Holocaust but is required to get a signed permission slip from you in order to do so. Do you sign it? Probably not. Because it is not in the best interest of your child. As parents, it is their duty to create parameters and boundaries for child's development, even if all the other kids are going.You don't tell them you are denying them ice cream because they're fat; it's because you want them to be healthy. You don't tell them they have a tutor because they're stupid; it's because you want them to have more ways of learning.All children are not the same, all children have different needs. It is the parent's job to determine when those needs begin to conflict with the parameters of other children, and there is definitely no need to harm their emotional balance in the process.Furthermore, you may not be able to judge the health of a child just by looking at them, but in no situation is being obese healthy, or conducive to health in any way.None of Your Business?There is a large difference between buying someone a drink, and buying a reformed alcoholic a drink. While both scenarios are potentially hazardous, the latter would, in any fair assessment of the risks, be far more hazardous. This is where balancing the freedom of people to make choices with the risk of harm comes in to play. Giving a fit child a Snickers may still be somewhat hazardous, but giving one to an obese child is much more so.Alternatives?"Trick-or-Treating is not contributing to the "epidemic" nearly as much as TV and video games are."While I would love to get into the specifics about this, unfortunately the debate is about Trick-or-Treating alone, not the overall contribution of all factors to obesity. This point is therefore completely irrelevant to the discussion.Let me reiterate my point which actually does contribute to the argument: we do not live in a society at the current time that follows the rules of healthy snacks at Halloween, and thus, Trick-or-Treating does contribute majorly to the problem of obesity. I would assume you couldn't come up with a counter to this argument, and that is why you started a new discussion about completely irrelevant topics. Unpopular? Our standards of morality change. Slavery in the times of Aristotle was thought to be very moral. The days are starting to arrive where feeling obese children more fattening foods is equally as immoral because it sets them up for a lifetime of health problems. So it really is no different than the abolition in slavery, segregation, and gender inequality. Unpopularity should never be a measure of societal fitness.