Do you like to watch television shows that make you rather squirmy and uncomfortable? I do!
On a weekly basis, my DVR records shows featuring people shooting heroin into their veins, working out so hard they puke, and women that live in filthy, bug infested homes and have more cats than they do teeth.
They’re are freak shows, but let’s face it, we watch them because they make us feel better about our own crummy circumstances.
Sure, I’m broke, but I’m not prostituting myself for Oxycodone this week. And yeah, my kids might be driving me to drink, but I don’t have maggots in my kitchen, and I don’t collect margarine tubs filled with nail clippings and squirrel carcasses.
So, I have that going for me.
But, few things make me more uncomfortable than the show Toddlers & Tiaras. It’s a train wreck of bad parenting. Tell me you don’t feel like a model parent after watching a woman (or an astonishingly unaware effeminate male) living vicariously through her child by putting fake eyelashes, cake makeup, and hair extensions on kids that are barely potty trained.
I think each and every parent thinks their kids are gorgeous and talented enough to win the Ultimate Premium Platinum Grand Supreme Whatever the Grandeur of the World title. But, the parents on this show are willing to go that extra Koo-Koo-for-Cocoa-Puffs mile to prove it, including, but not limited to:
- Combining names or the “let’s get creative with the spelling” names. Unless they have names like Calliemay, MichealaJo, or Madyllynn they won’t stand a chance.
- Pantomiming the child’s routine from the crowd, looking like an ass. It’s physically painful to see how badly these women want (their child) to win! All for a crown and, what, $50? That’s totally worth a life of narcissism and body issues, no?
- One word: flippers. Fake Hillary Duff horse teeth that hide the age appropriate teeth that a child has—you know, the ones that fit the size of their face.
- The head shots look like the kid has been drugged, covered in high gloss and turned into a doll, and not a sweet life-like doll. The creepy kind of doll that kills people in horror movies.
- Forcing a kid to do a personal maintenance that you don’t do REGULARLY and with a smile… spray tan, waxing, wearing fake nails.
- Bribing the child to make mommy proud with Red Bull, Pixie Stix, or video games.
- Dressing a kid up in a Vegas Showgirl whore outfit with Bobbie socks.
- Paying $1500 for said Vegas Showgirl dress, dance lessons, travel expenses, stylist and pageant entry fees as opposed to, oh, I don’t know, upgrading from the trailer.
,
(Yeah, I feel pretty good about my parenting right now.)
So tell me, do you watch the Toddlers & Tiaras? Could you be a Pageant Mom in a high glitz pageant? Do you think it’s good for their ego and self-esteem, or is it going too far?
I have no problems with kids that do pagaents provided that: (1) for small children it is a one or two time thing, in the local pageant, for fun and giggles that everyone does when they are three or four for fun & games or; (2) older kids that CHOOSE to do pageants, and it doesn’t interfere with “normal” kid routines like school, friends and and being in the choir or on the soccer team. The parents on that show make me want to throw up, for no other reason than comments like “bring home a trophy for Mommy.”
I’m sorry, for Mommy? Is Mommy competing? No, she is not. I loathe watching these high-strung mothers living vicariously through their kids and laying on the guilt so thick you could eat it with a spoon.
Thank you. I’ve let my daughter do a pageant twice because she begged and begged. It is small and local and she loves it. But I still feel kind of guilty because of how much pageants are dogged on so much. Part of me feels like I’m keeping her from something she loves (even though I think it is annoying as hell) and the other part feels guilty that if I let her do it I’m warping my kid.
my 11 yr old loves watching that show and wants to do them, too. Unfortunately, she’s a total diva and she would want to do the high glitz crazy pants one and I don’t think I am strong enough for that.
You’re a better mom than me for letting her try it and I’m sure you’re careful to not let her become one of the bratty ones.
I actually was a pageant kid, but it was never like what you see on TV. My mom made our dresses. And there was no talent contest until we got older.
I cannot stand that show. I’ve only ever seen the previews, but it’s enough to make me sick. I didn’t know about the flippers or the waxing. Waxing is painful! It is beyond appalling that someone would do that to their child.
I accidentally watched this show once while I was on the treadmill at the gym. It was like a train wreck – I couldn’t look away.
The whole premise of the show makes me want to vomit, but what struck me most is the HORRIBLE behavior of these kids and the way the moms just let them act that way. “Mackenzie’s” mom even laughed for the camera about it, saying that she was a “diva”. Bratty behavior is not “cute”. These kids are going to grow up to be entitled, spoiled monsters. Oh, wait. They already are.
5 year olds getting their eye brows waxed…yeah, there’s nothing right with that!!
I’ve watched a few times. Most reality shows are horrible train wrecks that you can’t help but to stare at burning brain cells for hours on end. Toddlers & Tiaras is not that for me. It just makes me too angry to watch regularly!
hate that show! ugh! so creepy!
I can’t stomach it either. I prefer to get my fix of “I’m an awesome parent” by watching Supernanny. Those bratty kids all running around . . . hitting the parents, tantrums, throwing food. And I don’t feel like I want to kill myself at the end of the show like I do when I watch T &T.
I have to admit, I love watching Toddlers and Tiaras. Such train wreck fun! I don’t agree with how 90% of those moms handle their obsession with living their dreams through their daughters, but for the 10% who are there to support their daughters because *they* wanted to do a pageant that’s awesome.
Soooo…. You’re telling me I am a bad parent. Cool.
JUST KIDDING!
These people kind of suck at life. My parents were not obsessed with me. This almost a sickness.
One time? The little girl is looking at the camera after a long day of pageant-ing or whatever you call it, and she was so tired and couldn’t keep her eyes open and they are making her sit there and talk and then she FELL OFF THE CHAIR. And it made me cry. I wanted to call child services or something. But I was also on my period, so hormones. But, hey weird mom and dad, if you feed your little girl 14 pixie sticks in an hour and she can’t stop fidgeting? It might not be her fault….. I won’t be watching that show again. Too hard to watch.
I can’t watch Toddlers and Tiaras. At all. My heart just breaks for those little kids. Ugh.
I was a pageant kid/teen. I grew up in it and it never dawned on me that they could get this bad. But then again, we never had flippers or any of the stuff they do on this show. I’ve never seen such a group of parents who would be willing to put their own flesh and blood through this just to get the satisfaction of winning.
I have to admit, I like to watch it because, well, its hilarious. Its like teens and the Jersey Shore. It’s like a way to see that we are actually raising our children right.
My daughter and I watch this show and I hate to admit that, but it’s a way for us to bond, and laugh. We have a good time, watching these parents act pretty ignorant of their children.
I’d never force her into it, because not only is it a waste of money, but these kids grow up to be spoiled and bratty. Society doesn’t need that. I mean, she’s 6. I couldn’t do that to her.
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