[mum74]

I hope this won't offend anyone...

I'm just so disappointed that American beauty pageants (for toddlers) are making their way to Australia . I hate seeing pictures of the little girls made up to look like adults, and shows I've seen where parents are catty, pushy, generally go crazy and spend thousands of dollars on outfits to make sure their daughter wins. I just don't see how it can be a good environment for the child to grow up in - that if they don't win a BEAUTY pageant, their parents are angry/disappointed. I KNOW that what they show on tv would be parents who take it to extremes as that's what makes good viewing, but ugh, I just hate it!

Sorry, nothing against the US I promise, but this is one thing I just thought would never be a hit over here - guess I was wrong!

Claws are out over children's Universal Royalty Beauty Pageant | News.com.au

And then there's the UK woman who gives her 8yo daughter botox!!
Kerry Campbell loses custody of 8-year-old daughter she injected with Botox | News.com.au

Anyway guess no one asked me to be the morality police .

[MomtoKatieB]

Lenore, you didn't offend me in the least. I have seen mothers and fathers do so much harm to their children because they were so into winning these pageants. When I think about these children, it brings tears to my eyes.
Ashley Marie was a little girl in my ex SIL's girl scout troop who also was in dance/gymnastics classes with her. Please understand that this was roughly 20 years ago so I have no idea where this woman is now, but when I close my eyes I see this five year old being told by her father that she had to always act as though she was in front of pageant judges and while he was stage managing her backstage at her dance recitals, her mother was taping the performance so they (the parents) could critique little Ashley Marie. How can you say you love your child and berate them so much in public that when someone thinks of your child two decades later, all they think of is how horrid you treated her?
Megan is a woman I have known since I was in elementary school and she was a newborn. Her mother packed carrots, celery and water as lunch for this five year old (oh, Mom was a teacher by the way) because by the time she was in kindergarten, Megan had a little baby fat and her mother was concerned she was not going to look pretty enough to win the pageants. WTH!!! When Megan did not win a pageant before she started school, she would comment to her babysitter that she was so sad because she wasn't good enough. When she was a teenager, she had to be hospitalized for an eating disorder. She just became a mom in early 2011 and during the pregnancy, everyone was worried that she would have problems when she started gaining weight.
Guess, I am not the morality police either but I just wanted to vent because people tell me Katie is pretty enough to be in pageants and don't understand why I refuse to consider putting her in pageants.

[mum74]

Yes Beth! It is surprising to me they don't understand why you refuse to do it! I guess that is just part of the culture and so a lot of people don't even blink an eyelid at it? But even just what you're saying about your friend Megan being a little girl and being sad that she wasn't good enough (not to mention her Mom packing her off with hardly enough to eat).

I Know I wouldn't want my daughter to be associated with anything that made her feel like that. Nor for my boys to grow up thinking it mattered SO MUCH how girls looked.

Look I get that some of the Australian mums quoted are saying 'my little girl just wants to be a princess, she's not going to wear make up' etc so then that sounds harmless. But the article talks about a women who set up a FB page for 'Australians against toddler beauty pageants' and she's getting death threats! Who does that??

Is it so gung-ho because there's big money to be won??!

[Counting our Blessings]

Lenore, no offense taken. I'm not proud of the things that go on in the US.

I feel so bad for these girls. It's sick. Ah, all we can do is not support it and raise our girls to be Godly woman and not support those kind of things.

I'm sorry they made their way there.

[mum74]

Ah well everything makes it's way to Australia eventually - I was just always sort of proud that this hadn't, so that's why I felt disappointed to see it. Sounds like an American company bringing it down under - I guess they see there is a market for it which is unfortunate!

[BeckyM]

You're not offensive at all. I don't like to see them either, especially don't like seeing the little girls all dolled up with makeup & hair done. It's just so sad.

[MarieJ]

I agree that its sad; these little girls are beautiful princesses without requiring any of the hair, make up, spray tans or botox; its too bad their parents don't reinforce that