I'm completely against child pageants, and I have so many reasons to be, I won't even get started on half of them... I think most of them are mothers or fathers living vicariously through their children, or a messed up sort of show-and-tell, "look at me, I made this in my womb!" And I think they can either kill a kid's self-esteem or swell their head past the point where it's healthy. There is such a thing as too much self esteem. Not to mention that they're going to grow up someday and if they learn to bank on being a cute little kid, they don't know what to do with themselves later, if they don't turn out super-attractive, or when they're going through their awkward-phase in adolescence.

It makes me sick.

If the child pageants were about little girls just being cute little princesses, I think it would be cute. Spray tanning and false eye lashes and wigs and gallons of make-up on a little girl are hideous!

I was asked to do some training classes for a traveling pageant circuit last year. They flew me down to Orlando for a pageant weekend and to meet with the officials and some of the contestants and asked me to interview them. I am in no way a pageant person so the offer was a little bizarre, but they were paying for me to go to Disney for the weekend so I thought what the hell.
Let me tell you, everyone from the directors to the parents to the spectators are crazy as hell and spend the most ludacris amounts of money for the chance to win nominal prizes. My oldest son is an actor, so I've seen the stage mommy craziness before, but these pageant Mom's are on a whole other level. They saw that I was going to be part of the decision making process and they stalked me all over the conference center!! I would never get my child involved in these pageants. The pageant producers tell these parents that these kids have a chance and most of it is already pre-determined before those babies walk out on the stage. They pile on fee after fee for different competitions within the competitions. By the time those parents walk out of there they have spent upward to $1500.00 in entrance fees, God only knows how much they spent on some of those dresses. Some looked like they could have cost more than my wedding gown!
The saddest part is to watch some of these girls, who clearly looked like wanted to be anywhere but there, get screamed, and I do mean screamed, at by their mothers for making a misstep on stage. It is an insane atmosphere.
Needless to say that was my only weekend in the pageant world. It's a rip off and a scam for the most part and those parents are too blinded by some kind of strange glory to see it. The pageant owners take full advantage of that.

Really, I think that the parents (mostly mothers, of course) do it for their OWN self gain. Why else would they dress their child in skimpy outfits for attention and fame and money?

It's sickening. Most of them aren't even 5 yet.

I think it's horrible, and I'm against it completely. The thought of that shows sickens me. I've never watched it but I've seen advertisements when I'm on that channel and my husband and I both comment how ridiculous it is. It's bad on the girls because they are going to grow up thinking they have to be "perfect" which could potentially lead to eating disorders and self esteem issues. NOT GOOD at all.

i don't see a problem w/ children doing pageants, but i think there is a point where it's going too far. i've seen that show. when your spray tanning your child, making them wear a "flipper" b/c they have missing teeth like any other normal child at that age, & putting more makeup on them than actors in movies wear, then i think that's going too far. i think it could be a fun thing to do if it was just a fun little pageant where they wear cute dresses & maybe curl their hair. but buying them dresses that cost more than a car is too much, the child is 5 for crying out loud. plus, some of the costumes i've seen them wear are WAY too inappropriate for children that age. & i think that having a swim suit section of a pageant for kids that age is also very inappropriate.

Creepy. Exploitative. Creepy.

I think it depends on the situation entirely!

Sometimes the moms take them too seriously, and ruin it! When it's all about living a dream through the child, it needs to stop.

My little sister got every ounce of confidence she has through doing pageants but she was not ever forced to join them or continue them. She has gotten medals and other types of awards. She always talks about her memories of wearing the beautiful dresses and makeup and tiaras. She always had a lot of trouble in school with being bullied and teased, so this was like an outlet and escape for her.

I hold the opinion that shows like 'Toddlers in Tiaras' and well most of TLC programming as of late is made just to make TLC viewers feel normal e.g. "I'm not that bad!"

But I do feel that some parents try to live out their own fantasies through their children, and this is one way to do it. I don't feel that this is acceptable behavior for a parent who is supposed to care for their child, not pressure them during early childhood.

I think it's creepy. It continues the idea that women can only offer their bodies in society and even though there may be benefits for teens in pageants, this is just far too young. "Honey you're three now, it's time to go out on stage with all of the random people watching you and FLAUNT your money maker. Huh, saying it out loud makes it sound really creepy... Oh well."

I've seen the show a few times and it was annoying everytime I watched it.

The whole thing just makes me uncomfortable. Maybe it does build self-esteem for some few, but I can only imagine that it's WAY too much pressure on the majority of the children.

I don't think there's anything wrong with dolling a little kid up . . . for a reason. For example, when I was in dance class, we got these pretty outfits and tons of makeup and hairspray for dance recitals. But looking cute was just something to add on top of the main thing - the dancing, the talent.

With these events, being pretty is the most important thing. "Talent" portions are secondary. I think that sends an awful message.

I can't watch Toddlers and Tiaras. Somehow making a 3 year old get a spray tan and put on a whole bottle of make up and prance around stage hits me wrong...just my opinion.