I am very sure that no parent involves their child in pageants to hurt them. Few parents would devote the amt of time and money to a child's activity if they thought it would hurt the child. I have no idea who Eden Wood is, and I think I maybe caught part of an episode of this show a couple of years back when I dozed off with the tv on at my inlaws and woke up iwth this show on. I thought I was in some bizarre dream because the things they show kids doing was so far out of my world. I am the girl who as a child cut the ruffles off of those horrible itchy underpants with the ruffles sewn on them and would flat out refuse to leave the house if anything itched. Luckily for me, my mother had a childhood of being dressed in itchy clothes by her elderly relatives who were trying to stand in for her mom after her mom died. So she swore, as a kid and again when she became a mom, that we would NEVER wear itchy clothes. I don't know if I would have actually survived childhood if I had been forced to wear itchy clothing - it is such a sensory problem for me that I cannot cope with even good/fun things and it has been that way all my life. It sure ruled my clothing choices and the choice of what my kids wore. Given that, I have no clue what I would have done iwth a child who wanted to be in pageants and wear those clothes. Other than have my mother sew the clothes (she is amazing with clothes and can design and sew the most wonderful things), I have no idea how I would have coped/
As it was, I had a really hard time with other things my kids wanted to do because my own aspie traits got in the way - esp with soccer. I have NO idea why the kids liked that, why husband liked helping/watching. I found/find it mind numbingly boring although I went to games and cheered and made snacks and team ponytail holders and even little flags for the parents to wave (felt glued onto pencils or short pieces of dowel rods). If Jess was not dealing with healht stuff i would still be going.
So if a kid truly likes this, well, I guess it could be worse. they oculd be watching tv all day or eating all day or be beaten all day. I hope that those who are in pageants are in it more for their own fun than because a parent pushes them. Having had 2 pcs and 1 difficult child, none of which could have been forced into pageants even if we had wanted it, I do know that if a child really does not want to do it then they just won't or will make the parent so totally miserable that it isn't even funny.
I just have a real problem with dressing a little kid like a *****. I don't care why it is done, or how tasteful the later outfit is. It is inexcusable. Out of ALL the images on films in the last few decades, WHY did the parent choose to dress a child like a ***** at any time? I don't want my kids to be whores and I sure as sugar will NOT ever set a ***** up as a role model in any way except as a what not to do type model. THAT, yeah, I have a problem with. Julia Roberts has had a LOT of roles, why not do one of them, or Sandra Bullocks role in Miss Congeniality? I can think of a dozen characters that would be vastly more appropriate.
My problem is NOT with putting the girl in a pageant, it is with dressing a kid like a ***** and then having everyone who KNOWS it is dressing her like a ***** applaud her. I thought that there was supposed to be some element of taste and appropriateness in most pageants. It doesn't really matter that the clothes were not revealing, it is that they were modeled after a *****. The pageants in our town are not something I know a lot about on any in-depth way, but I do know some of the people involved and there is NO WAY that the little girl would have been permitted to be on stage in an outfit modeled after a *****. They have to have appropriate characters to model after and the rules for appropriate include not any position that violates the law and also a couple of toher things I know this would violate.
As for fake boobs on a Dolly Parton dress, in my opinion that is a bit different. Dolly is an appropriate role model - she came from less than nothing, worked dang hard to get where she is and works dang hard to give back as much as she can. She is a woman that ALL of our daughter's should respect. Yes, her chest is rather strangely large using the standard of MY tastes, but it works for her. I know a LOT of little girls who play dress up and shove all manner of things into their shirts to look grown up. I had friends who did it when I was a kid. I don't know that doing it in a pageant is the greatest choice for a little kid, but I can easily see a little kid wanting to do it and even asking to do it. But Dolly is a very long way from being a bad role model OR a *****. So in my opinion that is different.
I do, at least a few times a year, thank my lucky stars that Jess never had any interest in pageants even when we knew a couple of girls her age who did. I would vastly prefer to be bored at a soccer game or practice than at a pageant. But if Jess had set her heart on it, we most likely would have tried it. So I am NOT throwing stones at pageants in general and that was NOT EVER my intention with this thread. My intention was a sheer O. M. G. have these people totally lost their minds and all sense of what is appropriate for a child to use as a role model!!!!!
Janet - I am glad that Keyana enjoys the things she likes. Having a daddy who wants her dressed like a nun after his own wild times will temper her and MacKenzie's exposure and ability to fall under the influence of inappropriate role models, and they will keep him in the real world. NOTHING like a daughter to make a daddy live in the real world, lol.
I DO have problems with sexualized clothing for little girls. I find it stupid, unneccessary and makes kids too much of a target for those who want to hurt them. Yes, evein thinking of a child as sexy is sick and disgusting - but then again, dressing a child as a **** sort of puts them out htere like that. So who is sickest? The person who is attracted to them or the person who dressed them/allowed them to dress that way? I am in NO way saying that responsibility for pedophilia be lessened on the offenders, but that parents need to use some sense also.
I object loudly to those low rise pants for little girls for more than just that they are too sexualized. Actually, that is a hugely minor objection in my world. I see the kids at school in those pants and they go about their day with one hand doing what they need to do and the other holding up their pants. WTH is wrong that a kid can't even have both hands free because her pants won't stay up?
While I am appalled at the adults who think these things are good ideas, I do NOT, in any way, shape or form, criticize the kids. The kids are NOT responsible.
I will say that pageants are a way for girls to start getting $$ for college. It is why my friend got in, and with-o it she wouldn't have been able to pay for college.
