Toddler Pageants: Enchanting or Creepy?

CREEPY.

Nothing says "you can grow up to be a stong woman" like hair spraying, fake tanning, and adding false eyelashes to your little girl.

The mothers - and fathers - who do this should be ashamed.

VERY CREEPY.

I'd go with creepy. The UK doesn't really have kiddie beauty pageants the same way the States does. If I entered my daughter and she didn't win I'd be worried she would be thinking - I'm not pretty enough. Not to mention the tiny tots in makeup and adult clothing just looks strange.

I am totally creeped out by pageants. The fake teeth, spray tans, dyed hair and parading children around like dolls. I think it's ridiculous.

This is horrible, on so many levels. To anyone who says, "I put my daughter in it because it gives her self esteem, etc.," I say, please, please, please, provide your daughter with an outlet for self esteem that is not contingent upon her appearance.

BLECH!

these parents are disgusting.

Creepy indeed! What kind of life do those kids have? That's very sad! A kid should be playing outdoors and being a kid, not having to worry about makeup, hair and getting dirt under their fingernails, their parents are brainwashing them, IMO The parents should Let them enjoy their childhood!

In my view, its bordering on child abuse. I think its sickening, and totally bizarre. Why exactly do small children need to be trussed up with things i find ridiculous on ADULTS? Why exactly do they feel the need to make them look like fake adult dolls... god it gives me a stomachache. I really wish it wasn't accepted.

I completley agree about the comment about self esteem and their looks. How teaching someone that the faker they can get their appearence to be the better they are as a person (winning and such) is something these parents feel is okay to teach their poor little girls is beyond me.

I don't normally watch reality shows, but stumbled across this show. I saw the July 23rd episode and immediately hated the Sterling mother.

I think she is creating jealousy and resentment between her twins, beautiful girls who would otherwise be dependant upon one another’s love and encouragement. It seems as though Mrs. Sterling favors Breanne, her star we might say, and leaves the other twin, AshLynn, believing that she is second best. Mrs. Sterling’s own opinion, as stated in the July 23rd episode, is that Breanne is prettier than her twin sister. It is unbelievable for me to think that a mother could bestow this kind of emotional weight upon a child’s shoulders! She seemed to always be putting down AshLynn, in performance at home and at the pageant. Not only do I think that AshLynn is prettier on the outside, she also has a more beautiful personality. Only to her mother’s fault will BreAnne soon lose the pursuit for inner beauty. I hope Mrs. Sterling realizes what kind of damage she is doing to these girls.

Sickening and gross. I also find it bordering on child abuse.

I really hope the parents will regret this when their kids are teenagers and making the parents' life a living hell, because they've been spoiled so much and trained to focus on all the wrong things in life.

It's more than creepy to me it's downright disturbing and sad.

I saw on Good Morning America yesterday that there is a two week bot competing not that is beyond creepy, not that the toddlers are acceptable.

F*cked up.

Anyone see that part in Bruno with the child pageant people? When he was asking if their kids would be fine with taking pictures with live wasps, dressed as Nazis pushing another child around in a wheelbarrow or pretending to crucify another child (like Jesus) and all the parents gave a resounding YES.
Creepy isn't even the right word for this. I've see shows like this before (train wreck indeed) with parents giving four yr olds can after can of RedBull to keep them awake, and one little girl telling her mommy she just wanted to play outside and her mom told her "Only fat, ugly little girls do that". I even saw one with a pageant for babies only a few month old, they are carried out by a stage hand (they can't even walk) and the judging were saying things like "Oh, i liked that one, he had a sassy attitude", um, he's a baby!?!

That is so disturbing. I loathe child beauty pageants.

I think these pagents are exploitig the children & can only have negetive relults on their development. Something is wrong with the parents who subject their toddlers to all of the cosemetics, hair weaves, false eyelashes, etc. I think it is abusive & I don't understand how it is legal.

im not a mother yet, so maybe this is why i feel that its not thta bad. i think the mothers get a little too involved and may push their children too much, but the makeup and outfits and all that is just for fun and the girls look really cute all done up!