TODDLERS AND TIARAS AND THERAPY

I recently caught an episodes of TLC's "Toddlers and Tiaras" and I have to say that that it was more terrifying than any horror film ever made. In case you have never seen the show before, it's basically an inside look at beauty pageants for girls and boys about 6 years old and younger. The episode that I caught had one baby in the pageant who was two weeks old. No lie. Two weeks. I'm pretty sure that the baby should have been home working on basic things like breathing, eating, sleeping... but noooooooooo Mommy needed to show him off to an audience of strangers for hours. What was his talent, you ask? Well, he couldn't hold his head up, he didn't have any teeth, and he was probably gassy, so I'm guessing just sitting there looking at the audience and sending silent cries for help. The newborn baby, however, was not the saddest part of the show.

What really broke my heart was a pair of six-year-old fraternal twins, we'll call them 'A' and 'B', who were competing against each other. One of the little lasses, A, was clearly the golden child of the family. She was juuuuuust slightly prettier (by pageant standards) than her sister, and she very obviously enjoyed being on stage and showing off her personality. The other little girl, B, was so painfully introverted that it was hard to watch her suffer in front of the judges. She clearly didn't have the heart for pageantry, but since her insane mother felt that "competitive beauty" was more important than her daughter's happiness, the poor girl just had to endure the shame of it all. Needless to say, A (who turned out to be a huge brat) won 2nd place and B received a consolation prize. I could hardly bear seeing the pain in B's eyes. The only thing that makes this story worse: there are three more daughters in the family who will all likely be shoved into pageantry. Why aren't these children out enjoying life like other six-year-olds? What happened to swim parties and sleepovers and museum visits and sports and reading and culture?

Little girls will have all of high school to deal with competition, cattiness, and superficial beauty. Why not teach them when they are young that there is more to life than this?

Also, on a side note, why do all of the mothers of the pageant children seem to have "let themselves go"? I know that they would say it is a result of pouring all of their time, money, and energy into their children, but I think that it would be so much better to set an example of health wisdom, and beauty for their kids than to hypocritically scrutinize and demean their children at every turn.

And do you know the grand prize at these competitions? A $1000 Savings Bond. That's all. That amount of money does not even cover the cost of the ridiculous little dresses the girls wear. Well, all I can say is that I hope that these girls will be able to use the money for college, or at least therapy.

Thanks for listening to my rant. If I had any wish in the world it would be to end these debasing pageants. Or for World Peace. Whichever.