Toddlers & Tiaras

[Tilden]

A local museum is running an exhibit on the history of underwear. In the section on corsets in the 19th century, they showed infant-sized corsets. Mothers were advised to start getting their daughters accustomed to corsets by age four, but companies also produced infant-sized corsets for mothers who wanted to start the process earlier. Corsets, of course, could cause internal damage in grown women who wore them too tightly. Imagine what they did to children.

The parallels to Toddlers and Tiaras stuck me immediately. Apparently such behavior is not a new phenomenon. Now it's spray tans and cone bras. Then it was making sure your toddler had a tiny waist.

[PA Snow Bunny]

What really stuck out for me was the Mom of the girl that won mentioned that this was her daughters"s "job" every weekend. Hmmmm I always believed that the weekend job for a 9 year old was to be a 9 new old. The Mom WANTED that crown with the spider. Okay Mom...here's an idea...YOu want that crown so bad why don't you get sprayed tan, have your hair curled & teased high enough to make Snookie jealous, slop on a ton of make-up & YOU shake your butt in a Daisy Duke outfit. Sheesh...

Syrenity(sp?) is such a sweet girl but when I saw her I instantly thought Little Miss Sunshine.

[its_glinda_now]

I noticed that as they were running late, the lady who was there to help Serenity with her hair/makeup was using a curling iron on Serenity's hair. The adults were inexcusably unprepared. If Serenity's mom wants her to do pageants, I think she would be better suited for the natural rather than glamor pageants anyway. She was a very sweet natured little girl, and she seemed to enjoy herself.

Ya know, I didn't even think of that but she really would be perfect for natural pageants. And I think her step-mom might actually be more comfortable with those as well. I hope someone suggests this to them.

[Holly in SoCal]

MacKenzie reminds me of Gia from Jersey H/W's and her mom reminds me of Jacqueline, also from Jersey H/W's.

On another note...what brats these kids are!!

[Harmony2000]

I just watched this episode, the mom didn't say it was the daughters job every weekend. She said it was hers, the mom's, job. She did say that the daughter knew how to get the job done. But she didn't say that it was the daughters job. Also, the little girl wanted that crown every bit as much as the mother did. That one is definitely a chip off the old block! The intensity on that kids face, she wanted it. This was not just a case of a stage mom pushing her child.

I actually preferred Mabrie's looks over the one who won, Chloe? I can't remember her name.

I thought the step-mom was a bit bonkers. I felt sorry for Serenity, a bonkers step-mom who sort of makes a fool of herself everywhere she goes and then they show up unprepared and styling her like she just tumbled off some backwoods hay stack. I thought Serenity was a nice kid but I'm not too sure she will stay that way because again, the step mom was a bit off her rocker (if very sweet natured, she was still wacky! LOL).

On another note, what the heck is an 11 week old doing competing? It's one thing putting the kid up there who wants to do it (Serenity) and another putting one who can't even hold it's head up yet....well maybe it can but the way the mother was holding it made it seem like it couldn't. I think there should be some sort of age minimum on these things.

[ButterflyFaery]

thats why I keep saying that these mothers don't realize that these girls in this day and age grow up so fast as it is...there is no time for them just to be "little girls" and enjoy it..when my daughter was about 3 a lot of people tried to get me to get her into padgents and I refused...now I have no problem with the natural ones..where the girls where their Sunday clothes and don't look like a plastic Bratz doll and the judges are looking for something real

but those glitz padgents give me the heebee jeebees..that these 5 and 6 year old girls look like they are in their teens...all it takes is one pervert and these girls will be in trouble and IMO its where they are headed..and I can't place the blame on them enterilly...its more on their moms than them...I don't know what in the world goes through the heads of these mothers and why it is so important for them to put their kids on display like this...99.9% of the time it won't lead to anywhere

[nanarama]

Does anyone remember how they felt first seeing the pageant pictures of Jon Benet Ramsey is glitz mode? I was truly sickened by them at the time. Now, years later, and having watched this show and some other documentaries about pageants, I'm less sensitive to how appalling it is.
My six year old granddaughter isn't in pageants, but I see her dressing less "sweet little girly" and more Miley and Brittany. So sad.

[AJane]

For the money that is spent preparing these children for pageants, I wonder why the parents don't use that money to encourage any natural talent by investing in music, acting, dancing, and other lessons. Certainly there are kids that love being in the spotlight, but there are positive ways to reinforce that. And by "dancing", I don't mean the display put on by that child in the Daisy Duke getup. All that was missing from that performance was a pole and some creepy guys waving dollar bills. It's really hard to watch this show and not judge the parents, but that particular mother - lady, if you have to ask yourself if your 4th-grader's onstage routine is "too risque", then it probably is.

My 8 year old daughter loves to watch this show. Still can't figure out why. She likes to gasp at how bratty the kids are...I guess in 5 years she'll be an avid Top Model fan.

[canadian_angel]

There was a bit of a marathon today. I ended up watching the Halloween Pageant. The religious mom really got to me! Her constant justification of what she's doing is really over the top. Chloe's Mom is also a little ridiculous. It made me sad when Chloe said she she doesn't like to look like a Jack-O-Lantern because they are fat. Ugh!

[jenniferboston1]

Sad thing is that 99% of these little girls will look like their mother in 20 years.