Toddlers and Tiaras season premiere.....

[princesshannahsmom]

...is truly disturbing. An I tend to agree with folks that say that these parents are living vicariously through their children, which is the most disturbing fact of all.

I will say, that when I was younger, my grandmother had me in pageants nearly once a month. Of course, there was none of this "glitz" c*ap back then. But, I will tell you, I remember HATING EVERY SINGLE SECOND of it. I believe I was 10 or 11 when I told her I was DONE and DID NOT want to do them anymore. We stopped. She thought I was enjoying it and admitted, since she had all boys, that it was fun dressing me up and watching me "be pretty" on stage. I took ballet for pete's sake, I guess that wasn't enough. She apologized profusely for many years after that. I don't hold grudges, and I didn't even then, I forgot about it all a few months later!!

I will also add comment to the PP who said that these are the girls that will end up on 16 and pregnant. TRUE. DH has a cousin who put her daughter in these pageants from infant all the way up. They were ALWAYS in a pageant of some sort. Cousin's dd is now almost 18 with TWO children. HOW SAD.

 

[aprilgail2]

This show is just flat out disturbing, and pageants like these ought to be banned.

Normal kid activities are soccer, basketball, swimming, dance, gymnastics, karate, music lessons, and of course there are a lot more I'm missing.

Dressing a child in fancy dresses, giving them fake tans, fake nails, make up to the nines, and just plain pampering them for the sole purpose of putting them on stage to compete in a dress, then followed by a short little talent segment, and bathing suit for the sole purpose of winning money in a pageant is not at all normal kids stuff at all.

I agree- I find these pageants to be disgusting. They are all about who can make their child look like the biggest streetwalker! This all seems like child abuse to me!

 

[Teresa Pitman]

Honestly, I feel very sorry for that little Mackenzie. She acts "bratty" because she is extremely stressed. Even when she says "I don't want to go to the pageant" and "I don't want to do this" she is ignored. At FOUR YEARS OLD she feels that the only way she's acceptable is to be made-up, dressed-up and performing and winning. Her mother has given her that message loud and clear. And that's hugely stressful for a child. No wonder she needs her pacifier!!! That's her stress relief. If they would take her out of that environment and let her be herself and have a normal life, I have no doubt that she'd be able to drop the pacifier and stop acting up.

Teresa

 

[WDSearcher]

The thing that disturbs me about the pageants is that the people who organize them are doing it based on brain-washing these moms into thinking that having pageant wins on their kids' "resumes" will help them. Or that the pageants are teaching children poise and social skills. Neither seems to be true.

These pageants are held in just barely decorated ballrooms, with virtually no stage decor or technical anything. The only audiences are the parents. The emcees are kind of smarmy, IMO, and the judges are probably friends of the organizer ... all of whom likely have some sort of desire to really be on stage but never made it themselves. And so they spend their lives getting paid to criticize other peoples' kids.

I have absolutely no problem with the formalized pageants that run through Miss America or Miss USA. At the very least, they do provide scholarship dollars and show off more than who has the prettiest dress. These little local "Miss Prettier Than You" pageants are nothing but ways for sleazy pageant operators to seperate gullible parents from their money in exchange for a rhinestone tiara and a ginormous ugly trophy.

I think they should all have a category for "best behaved" and that THAT child should get the $1000!

 

[PUZZLDY5]

My SIL is what happens to these children when they grow up. She did all the pagent things when she was a child and guess what she is a B***H! She has entitlement issues and acts about as bad as the Mckenzie girl and my SIL is an adult. Nobody ever told her NO as a child and everyone always told her how beautiful she was and blah blah blah. Now as an adult she is manipulitive, self absorbed you name it. Get this she is a manager at a department store now.

 

[Nik's Mom]

Is it bad that at the end when they were crowning Grand Supreme or whatever the highest one is, I was saying to myself "I hope Danielle doesn't win!"? .

Not if it isn't wrong that I laughed when she started crying on stage. Sorry, but I would be so ashamed if my kids acted that way. Why do some parents allow their children to act like such spoiled brats? I think Danielle's mom acted like a little snot herself. and MacKenzie's mom walked on egg shells around her own kid.

I saw one episode last season and I remember little MacKenzie. You would think that once the parents watched their episode last season, they would have tried to correct their daughter's behavior. It looks like they didn't learn their lesson. She seemed even brattier, if that is possible.

 

[twinmomplus2new]

One of the girls on the New 16 and pregnant has said very clearly she is a pagent girl.( Megan maybe) They even went as far to call and see if she qualified after she had the baby. And they said no because... somewhere I guess it says you can not be a mother.

As for Mackenzie when she says "Don't ever do that again" She sounds so hopeless to me not bratty. to me it sounded like extreme frustration, like she doesn't even have control of her own body. I think its awful, awful, awful. And to me it screams abusive. if your child has to cry and plead to you to Not ever do that again. And you giggle there is seriously something wrong with you.

 

[Acklander]

Get this she is a manager at a department store now.

What's wrong with being a manager at a department store???

 

[Tinkh]

Honestly, I feel very sorry for that little Mackenzie. She acts "bratty" because she is extremely stressed. Even when she says "I don't want to go to the pageant" and "I don't want to do this" she is ignored. At FOUR YEARS OLD she feels that the only way she's acceptable is to be made-up, dressed-up and performing and winning. Her mother has given her that message loud and clear. And that's hugely stressful for a child. No wonder she needs her pacifier!!! That's her stress relief. If they would take her out of that environment and let her be herself and have a normal life, I have no doubt that she'd be able to drop the pacifier and stop acting up.

Teresa

Me too!!! She made me want to cry. I just wanted to sit down with her and just talk and play. She is amazingly articulate for her age, but no one listens to her so she just gets louder and louder. I think she has an amazing personality that has been let to turn into this little monster. She broke my heart. Not once did you see her mother even acknowledge her feelings or even give her a hug and say "it's ok, lets do what you want for a bit."

 

[PUZZLDY5]

What's wrong with being a manager at a department store???

Nothing at all! I was just making the point that SHE thinks it is beneath HER. Her PARENTS (my IL's) and HER thought she would be some rich and famous beauty queen/ movie star and it didn't happen.

 

[rie'smom]

First, I would not and have never had my daughter in a pageant.

It's silly to assume that just because these girls are in pageants that they will get pregnant. Sure it happens but honor students and flat ugly 16 year old girls get pregnant too.

Sorry, I will watch the show. It's the only reality show I watch. They are all exploitive. Yes, these are kids. Yo do have to remember that the T and T people encourage these kids to act a certain way.

The thing that makes me laugh is they compete for the big $1000 after spending several thousand more than that to compete.

 

[scottishduffy]

I can't believe Mackenzie's mom had her on for a second show!! That girl got the reputation as the biggest brat the show had ever seen last season and now Mom though she should bring her back again? The way the Mom looked off at the end of interviews, or looked down, seemed to imply her saying "yeah... I can't stand the kid either".

Mom just ignores everything the kid does. Mackenzie seems very clever and extremely articulate for her age. If you could just cultivate that instead of allowing her to be heinous brat then you might have a kid you could be proud of.

Danielle is going to have issues. She is too wrapped up in being perfect and defining herself that way. I wanted to smack her when she said "It is so hard to see the other girls cry when I win".

The Twins, i have the least problem with them. The parents can afford it so if that is the craziness you want then why not. I just hope she doesn't turn out like the twin mom from last season, with the Sterling twins. The mom had oen twin that she loved and got new clothes for while the other one was talked down to and pretty much hated.

 

[HonnyDipp]

Is it bad that at the end when they were crowning Grand Supreme or whatever the highest one is, I was saying to myself "I hope Danielle doesn't win!"? .

I am so glad I'm not the only one! That little girl freaked me out, very scary! She told a child "I'm done with you, leave me alone" then saying that another child was stealing her spotlight and would probably get on TV

The wealthy woman should have taken the $250,000 they spent on the pageants to get her really bad plastic surgery fixed.

LOL!!! Her wedding pictures made me cringe! WOOF!!!

Mackenzie's mom seemed too calm. She sometimes had that glazed look in her eye made me wonder if she had been drinking.

My kids DS13 and DD15 wanted more money each week, so I upped their chores telling them they had to earn the raise. I felt guilty, then I watched this show and I realized that I did the right thing!

 

[aaarcher86]

One of the girls on the New 16 and pregnant has said very clearly she is a pagent girl.( Megan maybe) They even went as far to call and see if she qualified after she had the baby. And they said no because... somewhere I guess it says you can not be a mother.

As for Mackenzie when she says "Don't ever do that again" She sounds so hopeless to me not bratty. to me it sounded like extreme frustration, like she doesn't even have control of her own body. I think its awful, awful, awful. And to me it screams abusive. if your child has to cry and plead to you to Not ever do that again. And you giggle there is seriously something wrong with you.

I don't disagree, but I think the comment 'don't ever do it again' was because the mother hid the pacifier - nothing to do with her body. After she found the pacifier she yelled that I believe.

 

[lillygator]

my girls and I saw this yesterday.....yikes.....seems really cheap when you see the mc for the pagents in a plain ole t-shirt...really tacky.

 

[HonnyDipp]

I get annoyed when the parents call this an investment. Spending $1500 on just a dress only to possibly come out with a $1000 prize and a bedazzled crown doesn't seem like an investment to me.

 

[ChrizJen]

I've only seen this show a few times, but last night while I was watching something else, the previews for the season premier came on, and I seriously felt an anxiety attack coming on just watching McKenzie and her behavior!! I think she's become a MUCH bigger monster than mom ever intended, and now she's just given up. I think the glazed over look is just plain resignation. She realizes that the beast is WAAAY bigger than anything she can control, so she just does her best to muddle through the tantrums and outbursts. One of these days she's no longer going to be able to ignore it and let it go, though. It's only going to get worse.
But the most distrubing thing of all was seeing McKenzie in her full (hooker) makeup with a binkie hanging out of her mouth. That combination was enough to turn my stomach. That contradiction should tell you that this woman is just not right in the head!! As much as we would like to look down upon these poor babies, it's really not their fault that they're the way they are. It's the parents' fault. They should be charged with cruelty and neglect. They're seriously scarring these children for life...

And in one of the clips, did I see correctly that McKenzie's mom is pregnant?? She's going to bring another child into this horror story?!?!! ACK!!

 

[Nik's Mom]

One of the girls on the New 16 and pregnant has said very clearly she is a pagent girl.( Megan maybe) They even went as far to call and see if she qualified after she had the baby. And they said no because... somewhere I guess it says you can not be a mother.

As for Mackenzie when she says "Don't ever do that again" She sounds so hopeless to me not bratty. to me it sounded like extreme frustration, like she doesn't even have control of her own body. I think its awful, awful, awful. And to me it screams abusive. if your child has to cry and plead to you to Not ever do that again. And you giggle there is seriously something wrong with you.

I think you have a good point about Mackenzie being really frustrated and angry. It really doesn't seem like pageants make her happy at all. I missed the part where she said don't every do that again. When did she say that? I saw her say that last season when she didn't want shoes put on or something.

I thought Mackenzie's mom looked pregnant too, but I never heard her mention another baby coming.

 

[twinmomplus2new]

I hope that she was just mad about lsoing the binkie. Honestly I wasn't paying very close attention to what her upset was as I was to busy cringing.
even so. She is keep that binkie because its something she can control.
off topic theres no excuse we travled alot when my dd was under 3. She was mostly with Adults and acted sometimes as if she were an adult. One time we were in san francisco and she was mad that we were walikng the waterfront, too cold, too boring, too many boats.... When we have up and hailed a cab we practically threw her in. and she made some comment about it took the guy so long to get there.
It hit me then wow shes a monster!!!!But it was OUR fault no 3 year old wants to be traveling and going from pillar to post. We went home 2 days later enrolled her in preschool and she from then on was a normal 2.9 year old. My point is parents know when its gone to far..

 

[Magpie]

I think it's like anything else - there's some sane people out there and there's some crazies. And the crazies always get all the attention, because that makes for good TV.

Pageants are very, very common in the southern US. All my aunts put my cousins in them. But they sure didn't pay hundreds (or thousands!) of dollars on dresses and hair and fake stuff. And they didn't make up the girls to look like dolls, either. I think on these shows they call them "natural pageants", right? Where the girls just wear party dresses and look and act like normal little girls?

One of my aunts told me she thinks it's inappropriate to keep doing the pageant thing after about age ten or twelve. Because by about ten, a girl should be learning real skills - real singing, real dancing, real gymnastics, etc... If she's involved in something real, she's not going to have time for pageants any more.

As for me, the pageant thing just doesn't happen in my neck of the woods, but I think my daughter would have enjoyed competing. When my girl was small, she used to try to climb on every stage she saw. She loved being the center of attention, and she loved performing. She once won a special prize at an adult talent show, because she begged to be allowed to get up on stage and play her recorder and the organizers thought she was so cute that they let her do it. She was only five. And thanks to her, they had a kids division the next year.

The only thing that would have stopped me from putting her in a pageant (if there had been any in my area), was the fact that my daughter was born with a large birthmark on her face. Some of the pageants my aunts were in are supportive of kids with physical differences, and focus more on personality and looks and talent. And that'd be okay! But I'd be doing some serious research, before I'd risk my baby's self-esteem by putting her into some of the shark tanks they show on Toddlers and Tiaras.

Some of what they show is pretty ugly.