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New York, 7:28 AM
Mon Nov 9
19 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/23/09
Remember when you were little and you bought Christmas dresses with your mom in the fall? It was too big because you'd "grow into it" in three months. CHILD DEVELOPMENT FAIL.
Also for a $1200 it looks like it has white bra straps showing. Ick. #toddlersandtiarasrecap
10/23/09
10/23/09
10/23/09
If it's sad when it's a hot mess sitting at the quarter slots at harrah's for 8 hours, this is sadder.
(the sermon is over. sorry so long)
10/23/09
10/23/09
Ex: Alyssa's mom loses her shit on the regular, Alyssa kicks a judge in the chest.
Where this frays is at the point of behavior acceptance; Mom is sending confusing signals to her daughter: "My attention is on you, but only as long as you adhere to my rules and not my practices."
Child adheres, parents rewards with (positive and negative) attention, cycle begins again.
Ex: Mom eats doghnut in front of daughter she's forced onto an unhealthy crash diet, child eats junk food provided by overcompensating relatives, mom waits till the cameras are off and most likely gets crazy on daughter.
Daughter reaches out for help by publicly sharing details of mom's rage issues.
Cameras turn off, pack up, head for next week's family.
Why can't I stop watching? #toddlersandtiarasrecap
10/23/09
Also! The mom is a plus-size pageant contestant...
So, it's okay for her to be "plus-sized", but her growing daughter must starve herself to fit into a dress?
Talk about mixed messages... #toddlersandtiarasrecap
10/23/09
By participating as a plus-size contestant she's telling us that her (and by proxy her family's) commitment this will not be stopped by mere reproductive inconvenience, or any other weak excuse.
Seriously, who does a girl have to kick in the chest around here to get out of this craziness? #toddlersandtiarasrecap
10/23/09
10/23/09
It may not sound so bad to us, but a week of one kind of food could wreak havoc on a young digestive system, causing cramps, bloating and diarrhea and the lack of nutrients and vitamins would likely leave the girl without energy. It's a bad idea for an adult to do it to her/himself but it's just crazy to force that on a child. #toddlersandtiarasrecap
10/23/09
Then again, I'm biased against the whole child pageant thing. It cuts way too close to child porn for me to be comfortable with: little girls done up as women, striking suggestive poses, in skimpy outfits. I don't get what values this teaches young girls to strive for? Poise? Confidence? I've heard these reasons come out of pageant parents' mouths, but can't athletics and academics instill those same values at a better level for children to understand?
I also lived in Colorado when the Benet case broke, and one doesn't forget something like that. Ever. Exposing your child to a wide audience, filled with people who you don't know, some of whom are bound to be mentally ill? Bad decision. #toddlersandtiarasrecap
10/22/09
10/23/09
That's what we are dealing with here. #toddlersandtiarasrecap
10/23/09
10/27/09
10/22/09
10/22/09
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10/22/09
10/23/09
It doesn't help that she likely equates losing a competition with losing her mom's love. #toddlersandtiarasrecap
10/22/09
Is this the girl that drew the really funny and yet really sad picture of her Mom? (I can't watch the videos, I'm sorry. I never would have seen the bit I did without the aforementioned meds. I watched a documentary on HBO and haven't been able to stomach the subject much since.)
These women make me seethe in rage. They are terrible fucking mothers. Just because they're not as "bad" as they could be (horrible psychical abuse, neglect) doesn't mean that they shouldn't have their kids removed for just a bit to teach them a lesson on what's really important when you're a Mom.
Every single one of these women should be slapped. YOU DO NOT GET TO FORCE YOUR KIDS TO GIVE UP BEING KIDS TO LIVE YOUR DREAM. ASSHOLE. Rage inducing. These poor girls who are taught not just by society, but their own MOTHERS that all that's valued is their looks. They have nothing else to offer for pay. Girls have enough trouble with that later on. Let them be little kids.
They need to get dirty, spill play-doh crumbles on the floor, cut their bangs off (instead of drowning in hairspray), skip a bath, wear 2 different socks, and lick cake mix from a bowl.
10/22/09
10/23/09
10/23/09
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10/22/09
It's like she's already more grown-up than her mom -- she's doing the care-taking because her mom is the frantic, out-of-control one. So she's staying calm and trying to do what her mom needs. Really, she's not being allowed to be a little girl times two: first, because she's being trained by these fucked-up pageants to not have fun or be spontaneous or act her age, and to judge herself on whether she can fit into a freakin' bespangled dress. And second, because she has to take care of her mother's feelings and that chaos instead of just focusing on herself and what she feels like doing. The "loser" breakdown at the end made it seem to me that she's not as "mature" about these pageants as the previous clips show her to be -- she's still a little girl who feels like a loser.
I really want to adopt her. And I wish I believed in hell, because her mother deserves a reserved space. #toddlersandtiarasrecap
10/23/09
10/23/09
Yes. I have a lovely and wonderful mother and family, but certain dynamics growing up gave me a deep need to keep things happy and smooth and take care of everyone else in the house. I felt terribly responsible for being a "good" kid so everything would stay happy. That's what I saw in this girl. Some folks here earlier were saying, well, at least she seems to have her head on straight, but to me, she just seemed way too responsible for her mother's feelings. That's not the job of an 8-year-old. #toddlersandtiarasrecap
10/22/09
10/22/09
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10/22/09
That said, there isn't any reason to compare the two. Obviously dog shows exist already and people watch them on TV, and even if there weren't such shows, it's not as though treating animals well means we aren't treating children well, or vice versa. I can be outraged by animal abuse and still be outraged by child abuse; there isn't a limited amount of kindness that might run out if we spend it on the wrong species.
Sadly, there isn't a limited amount of abuse, either... #toddlersandtiarasrecap
10/23/09
For the record: I can't stand that shows like Survivor have contests where people eat live bugs to win a prize. But I must be the only one that has a problem with that...otherwise these shows would be off the air, right? #toddlersandtiarasrecap
10/23/09
A man who breaks a child's legs goes to jail; a man who breaks a dog's legs gets a fine. There's really NO comparison between animal abuse and child abuse-- except this, someone who is abusive to animals will probably be abusive to humans in their life.
And, erm, can't the whole dog show industry be seen as a ""pet pageant'"? Last time I checked, people weren't exactly boycotting Westminster.
10/23/09
And no, you're not the only one, I hate those shows too. I remember seeing Fear Factor years ago; they were constantly putting people in tanks with reptiles and such and all I could think about was how some of the animals were inevitably going to be injured and were probably terrified out of their minds. Fear Factor, indeed. That show was on the air forever.
@Melpomene: I was thinking of Westminster when I was writing. All the clipping of ears and tails to give the breed the right "shape" and surely many of the dogs are on very limited diets...doesn't some cable channel make a huge deal out of Westminster every year? I don't remember hearing about any protests. #toddlersandtiarasrecap
10/23/09
10/23/09
You said "we as a society routinely treat our dogs better than our children" and I disagree. It's simple: abandoning a being to starve to death, die violently, or be put to death is a terrible thing to do; this is not being done to children in record numbers in our country right now, but is being done in record numbers to dogs, and many people see it as a reasonable thing to do; ergo, as a society, we treat dogs worse than children. Yes, there are children (and dogs) who are unloved, abused, beaten, neglected, and starved physically and emotionally, but only one group is routinely being taken to shelters and put to "sleep" because the owner can't afford to feed them, or left to fend for themselves when they have no skills or ability to do so.
But again, this isn't a contest. I don't want any of them to be abused or abandoned, and my main point- that caring about animals does not in any way supersede caring about humans- still stands. #toddlersandtiarasrecap
10/23/09
10/23/09
IMO the issue with PETA is that they are an abolitionist organization, which is a viewpoint that 1) many people find offensive or incomprehensible and 2) brooks no compromise. Of course, they also have a horrid PR department that really needs to get a grip on reality because at this point they are indeed causing more harm than good with their public campaigns. That said, even abolitionists do not think that animals are more important than humans, just that they are equally important.
Anyway, this has kind of become a big ole threadjack and I think we understand each other and agree more than disagree at this point. #toddlersandtiarasrecap
10/22/09