A while back, I was flip the channels to kill some time out of my day when I saw something that disturbed me.
I landed on a show about mothers who raise their childern to compete in pagents. And these moms were just CRAZY. They we'er yelling and scream at their duaghters to pose better, and to look cutier, when they themselves aren't the prettiest flowers in the garden.
And their duaghters were just... Ugh. They had fake tans, layers and layers of make up on, fake hair, bleach teeth, fake nails, and some of them, color eye contacts. And what the girls were suppose to wear made me sick. What kind of mother would force their childern to wear some of the clothing they did?
And these girls were so young too! They shouldn't be wearing layers of gunk on their faces, worring about their wieght, and if they'er going to when best face competetions! They should be running around, playing and enjoying life! Not being exposed at a young age to people who will only judge you on your looks!
Then, they showed how the girls were suppose to pose... I turned the TV off when it started...

So, DDs, what are your thoughts and views on raising you child to be a model?

Raising children to be ANYTHING that restricts their freedom is wrong. Um... but with a few exceptions though like:

- Raising them in the same religion as the parents
- Showing them the ropes of the trade if the parents have a business like trucking, carpentry, auto mechanics, etc. etc. etc. Also applies if parents have black belts or something. :)

But as a child reaches a certain age... they should be given a choice whether or not to continue with what the parents want be it the religion or the trade their parents are involved in.

Though from a parental perspective, parents are known to be unreasonable just to encourage or discourage their children from certain fields.

------

Back to the topic, raising kids to be models will have the following effects:

- Sarcasm and Cynicism at a later age. Modelling or anything that involves acting of some sort needs time and practice and dedication... that can make you stressed out if you are not committed to it with your heart.

- These kids will learn at an early age that this world is a shallow cesspool of filth... based on the superficiality of the idea that looks are judged first. And with that knowledge learned too early, it may crush their spirits and drive them to suicidal rage.

- Skankification. Those who might LIKE it will learn that their looks will be able to benefit them at a later age. (ooh can you buy me a drink?!?) They'd learn how to dangle their sex organs to the males and exploit them. Since there's a severe shortage of guys who think with the head between their shoulders, it will benefit the skank.

However, in the long run, the skank is doomed to a miserable life after Mr. Thug uses her up and leaves her with a couple cranky kids...

---

Therefore, this practice is EVIL and equivalent to child abuse. Ruin the children, ruin the future.

Kyupol, raising a child in the same religion as the family is fine. People don't seem to understand that religion is mainly a social thing rather then belief... It's simply a another part of societal adhesion: Culture!
Teaching children about their culture is actually extremely important and vital in order to help them be able to understand it and exist within it successfully! I remember that I had some religious instruction when I was little, and that didn't turn me into a religious person, but I understand belief and most religions better than most religious and non religious people I know. (they've said as much).

Hahahaha, stupid religious stuff. Anyway, raising a child like that is just plain exploitation. In the documentaries I've seen, mainly mothers and grandmothers treat the child as a meal ticket. They quit work and make their living by sexualising and exploiting their baby, it's rather sad and a little disgusting... Maybe that's just how the documentary makers just wanted to make it look though? they're like that :(

Still, it looked quite nasty, and given what I said about teaching religion to socialise a child, what they do to the kids with this pageant stuff is the exact opposite of that, and would be negative to the child's social integration because the instruction separates them firmly from all reality as other growing children know it, and even as other adults do.

I've seen this from both sides though.

There's a lot of so-called "Documentaries" which seems intent on only focusing on all the negative aspects of pageants, and even to a point where they would only single out the more crazier parents and not focusing on the more sensible parents out there.

Where as in other more unbiased documentaries, they've actually interviewed some of the kids and got to the gritty stuff about how they felt doing this.
Some of the kids in those interviews actually said that they didn't feel pressured to do this sort of thing. and that it was just like playing dress up for them. plus they had fun competing against other kids when it came to showing off their talents. And guess what? A LOT OF THEM LOOKED NORMAL, AND NONE OF THAT "FAKE" STUFF YOU TALKED ABOUT UP ABOVE.

one thing we have to remember--no pageant are the same at all. Yes in the more "famous" pageants that has a lot of cash there's bound to be parents who would exploit a kid.

But in other pageants where it's not all about the cash at all, it's just more like a normal competition for kids and the kids has fun in those other types.

Remember, like in anything else, everything is relative.

After all, There's always people who don't deserve to be parents based on how they use their kids. Whenever it be exploiting the government money checks that they get for having kids and or women exploiting men by lying that they weren't on the pill so that they could leech off the men's money for child support.
There's SO MANY different types of ways to exploit having kids for money in all walks of life. it's just not only pageants who are used by those types of parents.

So you see.... it's the exploitive parents who are evil, not the pageants themselves.

As a psychologist, I have to say that it is criminal to put a child through any sort of contest / competition from a very early age, but it is absolutely ghastly to put them through a competition where they do not actually compete about skills (or it would not be a beauty pageant) but about appearance, which is something they can do little to change, and what they can do to change is superficial or at least feels like it, feels fake.

This teaches the children to believe that they can do nothing beyond the boundaries of what they were born with, makes them overly dependent on those who 'accept' them even though they are not 100% perfect, stunts their personality growth as they fixate from a very early age on something and everything else fades into the background, makes them either under-achievers or sets them up to become obsessive compulsive and in general it renders them exposed to an industry that is cruel to adults, let alone children.

...and let's not begin with what all the cosmetic, dye and other chemicals they come chronically in contact with in a time of development and growth can do to them.

As for the girls saying they have fun, you try to say you are unhappy when the only way for you to exist in a family is to 'look pretty, win contests, and love it all the way'. Children often internalize what is their parents demand or ambition. And certainly they wouldn't open up on TV where the entire audience is watching to say something 'unsavoury' or what would not be expected by all the adults.

Also, seeing Marylin Monroe's face on a 4 year old is profoundly disturbing. It's not just the appearance, it's the attitude, pose and expression. In order for the child to carry these out successfully, as the one I am thinking of did, you need to have explained concepts to the girl that she should not have to have come in contact with at that age.

Finally, a fun topic that's not about religion and/or politics!

I'd say forcing a kid into any contest or pageant is bad. But if your child gets the idea to enter on her own accord, what do you do? I suppose if the situation arose, I'd let them, but there would be absolutely no pressure from me... just the support of a cheering parent in the audience.

I agree with Tantz that skill-based contests should be encouraged rather than beauty contests.

Tantz Aerine
As for the girls saying they have fun, you try to say you are unhappy when the only way for you to exist in a family is to 'look pretty, win contests, and love it all the way'. Children often internalize what is their parents demand or ambition. And certainly they wouldn't open up on TV where the entire audience is watching to say something 'unsavoury' or what would not be expected by all the adults.

ummm... those were girls who entered on THEIR OWN accord. So I doubt they were just saying good things to keep their families or other adults out of the "bad light".

Remember, everything is relative. For every three kids who were forced into this kind of thing by their parents, there'll be five kids who entered of their own accord and only had supportive parents backing them up.

Heck, I even entered into those kind of competitions myself at a very early age myself (I was like 6 at the time) at my own school. I entered of my own accord because I only wanted a shot at to be in a picture on the local newspaper. my own 15 seconds of fame, if you would.

I thought all I would have to do is pose and look cute/beautiful. And that they'd just only judge the girls by how "beautiful" they were... So I was sure to have it in the bag right? (I had a very high opinion of myself as an kid). Boy, was I ever wrong.

You see a beauty pageant has all the following:

--Talent portion
--Talking portion. (the part where they all interview the girls on stage about different various topics. But for young girls, it's usually just about themselves and their hobbies).
--teamwork portion. (the part where all of the girls has to work together to form a entertainment piece together, etc. This way the judges can see how well some girls work together with each other.)
--The "modeling" portion at the very end.

And they will actually judge a girl more on her interview on stage, how well she worked with others (teamwork), her talent. More than they would judge how cute/beautiful the little girl looks.

They find something else about the girl to judge besides thier appearance, in that she must also have a "beautiful personality" too. and not just some one-dimensional "character" who only looks pretty. That's the whole point of beauty pageants, or else they would only like take 8 mintues to do instead of an WHOLE HOUR.(which is usually how long a pageant is thanks to all those talent/talking/teamwork portions).
If pageants were truly only the shallow cesspools of superficality like most people seem intent on thinking, then all they'd have to do is look over some girls and go: "That one seems the most beautiful! let's give her the prize" in less than two mintues if not 8 mintues. instead of sitting though the talent/talking/teamwork portion for an HOUR.

I didn't win back then because my jokes sucked for the talent portion, I didn't have any hobbies or anything so I didn't have much to say in the interview section, and I had the bad luck to be teamed up with a girl who I didn't like very much.
So the only thing I aced was the "modeling" part.

And I honestly don't remember the contest being that superficial mainly because a fat girl won that. (She had the talent, interviewed well, and worked in a team the best out of them all and most of all she looked adorable in the dress she had on).
I don't feel bad that I lost back then... to be honest that girl deserved it more than I did.

Aurora Moon
ummm... those were girls who entered on THEIR OWN accord. So I doubt they were just saying good things to keep their families or other adults out of the "bad light".

Remember, everything is relative. For every three kids who were forced into this kind of thing by their parents, there'll be five kids who entered of their own accord and only had supportive parents backing them up.

I am not sure we are actually disagreeing on the actual point, as the case study (about your experience of a school pageant) is not about the pageants I was having in mind. Still, let me tell you that in many cases (I am not saying all, nor that your case is part of this, mind you) the child may appear to be acting on her own initiative, but if you look at it closely, ask the right questions, perform a little content analysis, you will see that the child has been led to do this.

Again, I am not speaking in essence of events that are small scale, involve little to no coverage and cannot be used as a springboard to bigger, larger competitions where the real money can be. I am talking about 'career kids'.

You see a beauty pageant has all the following:

--Talent portion
--Talking portion. (the part where they all interview the girls on stage about different various topics. But for young girls, it's usually just about themselves and their hobbies).
--teamwork portion. (the part where all of the girls has to work together to form a entertainment piece together, etc. This way the judges can see how well some girls work together with each other.)
--The "modeling" portion at the very end.

I would agree that there is more meritocracy than what is widely believed, and less attention to outward appearance if the contest was not called a 'beauty' contest. ;) Tags are very important, especially for kids. Kids will look much more at the tag (from a developmental and cognitive perspective) during childhood than what is included in that tag. That means that skills, speech, congeniality or what have you are all bundled up under 'beauty' in a 'beauty' contest. The kids cannot understand unless someone takes the time to make the differentiation for them that while physical beauty is more or less a given from birth, all other kinds of beauty are cultivated and developed through our life experiences, our investment in emotion and energy and our choices.

So it is even more dangerous to have children participate in these things (even the exploitation variable aside) because in essence they are taught that all attributes of a person (verbal skills, congeniality, team work, creative work, leisure interest, etc) is something you are BORN with, instead of that the truth of the matter is, you DEVELOP them.

Do you see my point?

Also I have to ask another question: is it pedophile proof to flaunt kids in ways that can be taken every which wrong way by perverts all around?


Still, let me say that your experience seems part of the childhood experimental stage where you gather up experiences and your parents obviously did not seek to make money out of you or turn you into a career kid that way. So I am not talking about such cases.

I have no problem with kids entering any kind of competition. The only creepy part is when parents try to make them look like and act like grown-ups. :(

Kids should just be kids.

They need to be like kids not little miss americas or whatever, give them thier childhood back

But that's just the thing. Why single out pageants as being evil when "career kids" has been found in many other places and organizations?

Take all those kids and babies in commercials, Movies, so on forth.... The public media is full of all those "career kids". Did you know that the kids don't even get access to 90% of their own money until they've turned 18? Granted, it could have to do with the whole "responsibility" of the money...

however most of the time when they turn 18 they end up not having that much money to start with since their parents would had already used up most of the money on a variety of things. That's why you hear about a lot of child stars falling on difficult times when they turned into an adult... because the parents had basically used them to their own purposes and then pretty much let them go when they couldn't perform anymore.

There's more demands for children in various roles from selling grape juice on TV to various horror movies, etc..... than there is actually for pretty pageant kids. Hollywood is where it's at when it comes to exploited kids.

So why isn't anybody just as outraged about kids in Hollywood as opposed to those beauty pageant kids?

You may have a point though, on dressing the kids up like mini-adults. if anything else they should look more their ages when they do those "modeling" parts.
it's certainly a possibility that pedophiles may look at those kids dressed up as an adult and make the excuse that those kids were "mature" enough to handle sex and all that.

I'm just curious, everyone.... at what age do you think it would be acceptable for a minor to start into pageants? In their teens only? or at age 10? or.... never..until they're of a adult age?

Aurora, in all those cases I see the parents as being the "evil" ones. After all, they're the ones who enable the children to be part of this industry (beauty contest, advertising, TV etc.), they're responsible for the kids, they drive them to auditions, get all (or most off), the money from the jobs, they're the ones that pay for the cosmetic dental work, the fake tans, the special hair cuts lol!

In all cases it's the parents who are benefiting from the sale of their own children... Seems rather cynical to me. A twisted version of the parental love, in many ways akin to (but not like) paedophilia in that regard.

Maybe I'm being too harsh though? I accept that I can be. ^_^

...It's just the idea that they're using the kids like a financial asset that's a little disturbing, and not really acceptable in our modern Western culture...

The lines might seem to blur when it comes to soccer training camps and things for young kids, as well as special schooling and special music classes etc. But It's still pretty much the same thing, when it's part of an enriching and or fun thing for the kid; like team sport, learning to play music, being taught advanced maths, fine art or whatever, then that cool; but when it involves exploitation and stuff that's not fun, then it's bad; making a young child train severely for competition ice-skating, gymnastics, competition tennis, pushing them hard to be a concert violinist, trying to train them up to do university level studies etc... In those cases "parenting" becomes "abuse", at least in my opinion.

There are several issues here and it's difficult to separate the more rational "should beauty pageants be held at all" arguments fom the inevitably more emotive "should beauty pageants be held for children" arguments.

For my money, I've nothing against beauty pageants per se. I know that type of view has upset some feminists in the past but, over the years, I've come to see them as no better and no worse than any other form of contest, whether it be athletic, intellectual or physical. Some people are born naturally athletic; let them go and compete for medals. Some are born naturally clever; let them enter Mastermind. For those who just happen to be born physically attractive instead, why should we deny them the chance to compete on their terms?

On the other hand, pushing children through these pageants does leave a nasty taste in the mouth. The parents are to blame obviously, but are they really any worse than parents who obsessively push their children into the cut-throat worlds of sport, acting, dancing or singing? Taken as fun (as someone here said children view beauty pageants), there's nothing wrong with any of those fields. Taken to the extremes it requires to make a successful career out of any of these disciplines, they all require huge sacrifices on the part of the child. The number of damaged "child stars" in all these areas hardly makes any of them any better than a beauty pageant.


EDIT: Oops - just read Ozone's post again. I think we may have actually agreed on something!
;)

that's just what I was saying basically. Why should we blame Hollywood/pageants/etc for the evil actions of the few who would abuse those organizations along with their own children to their own ends?

After all, it wouldn't be fair to a GOOD parent if he/she was labeled one of the "evil" ones just because his/her child said that she wanted to be a actress-beauty pageant-magazine model-whatever.
All the "good parent" would had done in this case is support his/her child in his/her dreams. They'd say things like: "Well, if you really want to follow this dream then that's fine with me. I'll support you anyway I can. However, I can't have you missing out on school or do some other huge sacrifices so soon in life. Plus all that winning money you may have earned goes toward your college education and your adult life. Do we have a deal?"

Those good parents would certainly think that they were doing a good job supporting their children's dreams while drawing the lines on what was acceptable or isn't acceptable for their own kids. Those are the type of parents who wouldn't go so far as to give their own kids fake teeth, fake tans, and adult-looking clothing just so that they could "sell their own children".
So it would certainly be a rude shock for somebody to go: "OMG!! You LET your kids be in something like that?! Jeez, how EVIL CAN YOU BE?!"

It's a shame how in this world we let the evil actions of the few define a lot of things that could had been GOOD.
Whenever it be religion, marriage, jobs, money etc....

So there's whole "that two sides of the same coin" deal. Now the question is, should we let something be defined by the evil but not the good?

If we continue to define something purely based on the evil actions of bad parents rather than good parents... then we might as well outlaw a lot of things for our children.

Can't have any kids playing any types of sports, no matter how much they want to. TOO COMPETITIVE, AND PLUS THERE MIGHT BE THOSE INSANE, EVIL PARENTS WHO WANTS THEIR LITTLE JOHNNY AND LITTLE SUSAN TO BE PRO PLAYERS WITH A LOT OF MOOLAH.

kids can't enter into any kind of competition, even on their own. After all, bad parents might just be indirectly MANIPULATING those poor kids and reaping the benefits of having a kid who wins at competitions!

Ban child support too, while we're at it. Why? Because there's so many bad parents out there who's getting pregnant at the drop of a hat just so that they can reap the money befients just for having kids.
Oh, never mind the fact that there may be those who actually NEEDED it... there's still people abusing that sort of thing for evil. so BAN IT!

Even adoption should be banned.... After all, there's all those bad, evil "parents" who doesn't even care about kids like they should. they're just collecting the gorvenmental benefits they get for adopting as many as kids as they can!
Oh, never mind the fact that there have been some good parents who gave adopted kids loving homes.

oh, and telling your kids to think about their own futures in terms of jobs, etc and going with whatever they wanted to do is also banned. After all, that could be seen as bad parents vicariously living though their kids and pushing them into a specific job. Never mind the fact that it could help the kids to have time to think about what they wanted to be before they found themselves as an adult who didn't know what he/she wanted in life.

No.... if we only see the evil side of it without even looking for the good.... then the whole thing becomes unfair.

After all, what if a teenage-aged girl decides to enter into the local "Miss Sunshine" competition on her own with only minimal support from her parents in terms of driving her places? AND if she wins that, she moves on to other competitions because she found it a rewarding experience.
How would she feel that people jumped to conclusions about her based on her age, and said things like: "Tsk, tsk... so young to be competing in such a shallow evil thing! Her parents MUST be putting her up to it somehow!"

so in total--It's not fair to the KIDS and even the parents to judge them just because they joined in an competition that many people could only see the evil side of.

ah, sorry... I seem to have engaged into a full-blown rambling moment.

Aurora Moon
So why isn't anybody just as outraged about kids in Hollywood as opposed to those beauty pageant kids?

Oh, I never said I'm okay with everything else kids are forced to do. Dress it up as you like, it is still child labour and I hate it. I have tried a lot ever since I considered the matter not to rent movies with kids in them, exactly for that reason.

Children's labour is against the rights of Man, no matter how you look at it.

Aurora Moon
So there's whole "that two sides of the same coin" deal. Now the question is, should we let something be defined by the evil but not the good?

If we continue to define something purely based on the evil actions of bad parents rather than good parents... then we might as well outlaw a lot of things for our children.

Can't have any kids playing any types of sports, no matter how much they want to. TOO COMPETITIVE, AND PLUS THERE MIGHT BE THOSE INSANE, EVIL PARENTS WHO WANTS THEIR LITTLE JOHNNY AND LITTLE SUSAN TO BE PRO PLAYERS WITH A LOT OF MOOLAH.

kids can't enter into any kind of competition, even on their own. After all, bad parents might just be indirectly MANIPULATING those poor kids and reaping the benefits of having a kid who wins at competitions!

Ban child support too, while we're at it. Why? Because there's so many bad parents out there who's getting pregnant at the drop of a hat just so that they can reap the money befients just for having kids.
Oh, never mind the fact that there may be those who actually NEEDED it... there's still people abusing that sort of thing for evil. so BAN IT!

Even adoption should be banned.... After all, there's all those bad, evil "parents" who doesn't even care about kids like they should. they're just collecting the gorvenmental benefits they get for adopting as many as kids as they can!
Oh, never mind the fact that there have been some good parents who gave adopted kids loving homes.

oh, and telling your kids to think about their own futures in terms of jobs, etc and going with whatever they wanted to do is also banned. After all, that could be seen as bad parents vicariously living though their kids and pushing them into a specific job. Never mind the fact that it could help the kids to have time to think about what they wanted to be before they found themselves as an adult who didn't know what he/she wanted in life.

No.... if we only see the evil side of it without even looking for the good.... then the whole thing becomes unfair.

After all, what if a teenage-aged girl decides to enter into the local "Miss Sunshine" competition on her own with only minimal support from her parents in terms of driving her places? AND if she wins that, she moves on to other competitions because she found it a rewarding experience.
How would she feel that people jumped to conclusions about her based on her age, and said things like: "Tsk, tsk... so young to be competing in such a shallow evil thing! Her parents MUST be putting her up to it somehow!"

so in total--It's not fair to the KIDS and even the parents to judge them just because they joined in an competition that many people could only see the evil side of.

ah, sorry... I seem to have engaged into a full-blown rambling moment.

You are mixing things up here, when nobody is actually disagreeing with you. A very specific line was drawn between 'children's leisure/experimentation' and 'children's labour'.

No, I do not think that any child should engage professionally in ANYTHING, because that means that they are cutting out other stimuli just as important which could have been beneficial for them in other areas during their forming years.

Yes, I do think they are entitled to and SHOULD engage in sports, leisure activities, games and team work tasks as a way of being properly socialised into becoming balanced adults.

Adoption and child support/welfare/benefits is completely off topic here, because it is not money earned by the child or any work the child performs. It also is not a matter of the parent's motive in this case, but of the child's welfare. Also, if it were to work properly, that's why there are state agencies to make sure children are not exploited even in that manner. So the above statement does convey anger (which I do not understand the source of, given the posts in this thread) but are not at all conducive to the discussion, except to convey that you think taking care of and paying attention to what children participate in and how they are pushed/inspired/led to do so is irrational.

Is it though? Many victims of pedophilia have reported that they thought they were the ones who wanted to have sex with the adult, instead of the other way round. If that is not manipulation, I don't know what is. And if you think it isn't, you'd better seek to teach yourself what manipulation really is.


And competitions that involve money being made out of the children (and I don't mean just a prize for a good project or a nice dance that is about 10 times a kid's allowance, but instead real income a family can live off of) can be and often are turned into shady businesses. And that is something everyone should be concerned with, either by putting the appropriate stoppers so that the contests CAN'T be used in an exploitative towards children manner, or stopping these contests all together.

What you do in your neighbourhood, school, backyard qualifies as leisure and/or experimentation, so there should be nothing wrong with that.

Sorry if you think this is absolutist, but having seen what I have seen, I am very happy to stand by this view.

Aurora, as I said, the "evil" has to do with the exploitation. Take the father of Serena and Venus Williams for instance.... They're great tennis players, but I defy anyone to tell me that the guy didn't exploit his kids in the process of moulding them into that.

As for the competitions, it's not as blurred as you think: when kids are winning because they're sexualised in an adult way, when the prizes are in the thousands and involve 40k cars, stays in expensive hotels etc, that has nothing to do with "children" does it? ;)

We don't need to blow this up to drag in parents, kids, competitions, and activities that AREN'T part of that blatant and extreme exploitative industry, that does them and the issue a disservice. But just because there are people that aren't exploiters, that doesn't mean we should ignore or accept all the ones that are.

I belive in a simple value when it comes to raising kids, let them have fun, and keep them safe.

When your waking your child up at 4 in the moring to drive 3 hours to throw a gallon of gunk on them, and make them prance around on a cat walk so that a panal of judges can decided whether your child is good looking enough to be there, isn't fun at all.

I, Crazyninny, have a deep dark secert. I, Crazyninny, was once in a child beauty pageant. *Holds her head down in shame.* There was a local beauty show in town, and my Mom decided to show off how naturally beautiful I was, so she signed me up, through some cloths in the car, burshed my hair and took me to the show.
What I saw there really hurted me, all the gunk the girls we'er wearing, things other mothers we'er saying, it was disgusting.
Since we were there, we went through it. The only thing done to me was that my hair was brushed, that was it. No make up, no tans, not even my hair was dressed up. Just brushed. I did everything else the best I could against the other freakishly looking girls, got a lot of nasty looks, and at the end...

I WON FRIST PLACE BITCHES. YYYYYEEAAAAHHHH!!! TAKE THAT YA NASTY MOMMIES!!!

And then we ran out of there when some of the pageant Mommies started walking to us with murder in their eyes.
We ate McDonalds, and played in the garden for the rest of the day. ^_^ That was the first and only time we ever went to a pageant.

So, I guess the moral of the story is... I WON BITCHES. And that I was slightly tramatized by those mothers there.

EDIT: Oh wait, I know the moral, Pageant Moms scare me.
And also, no, I didn't have a say in it if I was going to do it or not, Mom just tolled me I was going to show everyone how cute I was.

crazyninny
I WON FRIST PLACE BITCHES. YYYYYEEAAAAHHHH!!! TAKE THAT YA NASTY MOMMIES!!!

And then we ran out of there when some of the pageant Mommies started walking to us with murder in their eyes.
We ate McDonalds, and played in the garden for the rest of the day. ^_^ That was the first and only time we ever went to a pageant.

That was a fun story!
Thank you, crazyninny.

sorry about my last long post there... it was 4 am in the morning and I got into a little bit of a ramble there.

I guess I was trying to say that ANYTHING can be used to exploit and use kids, even if the children never directly "worked" for the money. But I never said that we should accept things as they are. Just not judge everything by the evil that it could be used for.

Any kind of competition such as those beauty contests could be a fun and a rewarding experince for both kids and parents. Only if those crazy parents didn't exist....

Maybe we all need to figure a way to put in rules and stuff to stop kids from being exploited in all walks of life?

I tell you, if there was a organization out there that was working toward ending child exploitation of any kinds, I'd join up in a flash.

Especially if we could change the way Hollywood/Beauty contests/etc worked.

I'd love for those beauty pageants to change their rules so that they're a little bit more stricter on how the kids look.
If there was a rule that if a kid was ever found to have fake teeth/hair/tans/etc the entrant would be kicked out of the contest, I'd bet you that a lot of the exploited kids would suddenly look so much more normal. =D
And it makes sense too. After all, using fake parts such as fake teeth would be almost akin to using steroids in an sport, or hiding an extra card up your sleeves when you play cards against other people. If anything,a kid's beauty contest should be all about how the kids AUTHENTICALLY looks, and not based on how fake the kids look.

If they also had a rule that the kids ACTUALLY had to look their ages, then we wouldn't be seeing a lot of those creepy adult-looking children in those contests. Instead it'd be basically just normal kids being themselves and just simply competing against each other.

I'm sure that a lot of people who runs the beauty pageants feels the same way... otherwise Crazy Ninny wouldn't had won first place, right? They probably saw her and went: "Wow, finally a normal-looking cute kid who doesn't look like a creepy mini-adult! I'm giving her first place!"

Maybe there needs to be more people out there who's willing to work hard to change the rules about how Children are used/seen in the Hollywood business and in contests.

For instance, in Hollywood-- If they changed the way that parents had access to the money (aka making it so that parents could only take out the money out of the kids' accounts if they could prove that it wasn't for something trivial like a new sports car instead of toward the kids' food, clothing and education), then there would probably be less exploited kids in Hollywood.

If we all honestly feel that there's something wrong going on that are hurting the children in a way, why shouldn't we at least TRY to change the rules to protect those kids?

After all, The hollywood children who has had reasonable parents supporting them instead of explioting them ended up to have a very nice life where they could live comfortably even if they stopped working in hollywood as an adult.
That's what we need more of.

Aurora Moon
I'm sure that a lot of people who runs the beauty pageants feels the same way... otherwise Crazy Ninny wouldn't had won first place, right? They probably saw her and went: "Wow, finally a normal-looking cute kid who doesn't look like a creepy mini-adult! I'm giving her first place!"

Plus the fact that my mom was the only mom truly cheering me on, and taking pictures of me for memories. Not yelling at me to stand up straighter and to smile bigger.

And also, I was DEAD cute back in the day. Geewiz! I was one of those kids that didn't even have to smile or do anything to look cute, I was just cute! XD
Now, I'm sexy. >=3

In case anyone wants to know, I only got a really big ribbon, an artical in the paper, and the chance to goto another pageant. Which, we turned down. HARD.

Hawk

crazyninny
I WON FRIST PLACE BITCHES. YYYYYEEAAAAHHHH!!! TAKE THAT YA NASTY MOMMIES!!!

And then we ran out of there when some of the pageant Mommies started walking to us with murder in their eyes.
We ate McDonalds, and played in the garden for the rest of the day. ^_^ That was the first and only time we ever went to a pageant.

That was a fun story!
Thank you, crazyninny.

Your welcome Hawk. ^_^
I still laugh at the faces that the pageant girls and the mommies had on when I won. >=3 NATURAL CHILD CUTENESS ALWAYS BEATS FAKE BEAUTY.

Well, as long as the little girls are told they are special it's all good.

At least that's what bobhhh tells me...

http://www.drunkduck.com/community/view_topic.php?cid=241&tid=29731&p=2

Tantz Aerine
I have tried a lot ever since I considered the matter not to rent movies with kids in them

Me, too.

Although my real reason is because movies with kids in them tend to suck.
;)

DAJB

Tantz Aerine
I have tried a lot ever since I considered the matter not to rent movies with kids in them

Me, too.

Although my real reason is because movies with kids in them tend to suck.
;)

True, true. I hate all this sitcom shows on Disney and Nick channels with all the kids in them. They just suck so bad. @_@

I guess the real challenge is when you have a movie like 'Sixth Sense' ;)

Tantz Aerine
I guess the real challenge is when you have a movie like 'Sixth Sense' ;)

True. But stay firm.

When in doubt, put on your ruby slippers; click your heels together three times and repeat:
"There's no place like Home Alone ... There's no place like Home Alone ..."

lol! lol!

crazyninny
So, DDs, what are your thoughts and views on raising you child to be a model?

Its sad.

TnTComic

crazyninny
So, DDs, what are your thoughts and views on raising you child to be a model?

Its sad.

With a splash of disgusting, and a dash of 'WHAT THE HELL!?!?!'.