Parenting: 2-Year-Olds Community

I think the moms are more competetive than the kids are. I dunno, I'm on the fence. On one hand it teaches discipline and teaches you to take care of yourself, and it's ok to "lose", but the pressure, hair, clothes and the makeup, a little ridiculous.

It's pure craziness to me. I don't understnad why these moms feel th need to spray tan their 2yr old and put false teeth on them, loads of makeup and dresses that cost more than 2 months of my rent. I think it's just silly and that it's not real beauty.

I don't understand what it's teaching them besides you need to spend a bunch of money and make yourself look completely different for people to like you

To me it looks like putting a little girl up as pedophile bait, the hair and the adult looking make-up especially. I refuse to watch it.

My take (and I mean no offense to anyone who does these kind of shows) is that they're just asking for trouble. I've seen the show 2-3 times and every episode seems to be filled with HUGE brat after HUGE brat! It's rare that a girl is on there that seems like a sweet, normal little girl. They are all little divas that can't get enough of looking at themselves in the mirror or bossing the adults in their lives around... to say nothing of turning an innocent baby into an "adult".

I honestly see nothing wrong with a beauty/talent competition, but it's kind of creepy to see these little girls wearing more make up than I've ever worn in my life, in super short or revealing clothing, making suggestive gestures towards the judges/audience and doing dance routines that look like they were choreographed by Brittany Spears.

But then that's just me... I'm a big fan of just letting little girls be little girls... not piercing them, or painting them or dressing them in adult clothing... have you seen the padded bras for little girl that DON'T even have boobs yet??!?!!!!! I'm a purest, I guess, when it comes to these things. I want my little girls to be girls until they are old enough to be dressing/acting like adults... you don't get to be a carefree child for long. And I know some of these little girls are pry the ones that WANT to do this... but from what I've seen... these mothers are nuts!!!! They start their kids in it and then create monsters. -- Okay... I'm done. :)

I can't watch shows like that... they get me all keyed up. I can't stand watching something where the main premise of the show is stress, panic, anger, arguing, etc. Where is the entertainment value in that? I don't watch "reality" TV for that reason... except So You Think You Can Dance. :)

I've only seen commercials for it, and it doesn't seem like something I'd enjoy watching.

I find it to be disturbing. Half of the time it seems that the girls don't even want to actually do it, its their mothers forcing them.
And it just seems to sexualize them. No two or three year old should be prancing around like a stripper.

I have a take on it and its not very nice. Im with one of the other PP. Im a "purest" as she said. Im anti ear piercing little babies so Im not a good judge of that show or that activity. Now let me make this clear, I DO NOT equate ear piercing with Toddlers and Tiaras. Im just alot more conservative.

I cannot watch those kinds of shows. I have seen the commercials for them and it makes me sick to my stomach.

I sort of watched from a "horrified/fascinated" position. Watching these moms and everything they put these little girls (two of them were three and one was six)through to practice, wear more makeup than I have ever worn in my life, huge fake hairpieces and complicated styles, and for two of the ones on yesterday, SPRAY TANNING really weirded me out.
The thing that I thought was the worst with one mom was her grilling her 3-year-old like a drill sergeant about the crown she hoped to win at the upcoming pageant. The conversation was something like this:

Mom: Who's crown is it that you're going to win?
Daughter: It's mommy's crown
Mom: That's right, but there are going to me other girls trying to take that crown from you.
Daughter: I won't let them! If another girl gets the crown I will take it from her!

Later in the show the same little girl was sword-fighing with her little brother and she said that she was going to keep everyone else away from her crown with her sword.

One of the dads was talking about all the money they have spent in costumes and all the other expenses pageant-related and said they had probably spent around 200k. I thought this was just crazy, but I thought it even more when they showed the pageant they had gotten these girls all dressed up for and nobody was there! The only people there were the families of the other girls and the judges and a room full of empty chairs.

I don't know. Maybe it's just me but I think that the whole pageant mentality of drilling your toddler (and some of these girls start before age 1 even) on the staged, fake little moves and dances and poses and parading them around on stage is so sad. The little ones especially were so tired from getting up and sitting for hours having their hair and makeup done and practicing routines that they could/would hardly perform. I know the moms always say that the girls really enjoy it but it certainly doesn't seem like it. It seems more like it is these moms projecting their own desires to be beauty queens on their toddlers.

Anyway, I will get off my soapbox for the day. I just watched it last night and thought it was interesting. Maybe I come at this from a different position and would feel differently if I lived somewhere that this was a common practice and didn't seem so strange and creepy.

It's just crazy. LO's should not be taught that they have to have spray tans, fake teeth, fake hair and revealing outfits to "win." The moms are crazy competitive & get downright mean, sometimes to their kids, when things don't go like they want them to. I have heard people on there say they could probably have a bigger house, another car, etc if they didn't spend money on pageants but they were not willing to give it up. I don't understand the allure & I agree with PP that I would be worried about pedophiles if I dressed my LO up like some of those little girls.

I think those kinds of shows are awful- I don't actually watch them, but I get the impression that it is a bunch of women trying to re-live their glory days or seek some attention for themselves through their kids- it's pathetic. parents shouldn't live vicariously through their kids.

There's no reason for a toddler to wear fake tans and make-up and to have their hair done up like some middle aged tart looking for her mid-day mint julep! (not to knock mint juleps- they are tasty!).

If you want your young child to learn about compettion, waith until she's old enoguh to even understand it and put her in sports- there is competition and the kid can learn somethng useful about physical activity and a good body body image instead of catty nonsense.

I'm also old-fashioned- (really just old). I hate most of the clothes they make for young girls these days- there is no reason to sexualize young girls like this. Why can little toddler boys wear shorts that fall below their knees but little toddler girls need booty shorts or low-cut pants????- why low-cut- she's wearing a diaper !!!

I am also against earrrings for babies- not that earrings are sexual, mostly to me its just one more thing to have to do everyday and keep up with- the baby could care less. DD will get her ears pierced when SHE shows an interest in wearing earrings and DH and I think she won't lose them easily.

I posted about this show in my FB once and my Aunt jumped down my throat. Her friends daughter who is a year older than me was born with a problem with her hip. She had lots of surgeries and she walked with a limp becasue of it. She did pageants because it gave her confidence. That's great that it helped her feel better about herself and it's a good reason to do it, but I don't remember her doing these "glitz" pageants. Well now she has a 3yr old and puts her in pageants and my Aunt was saying how it's not crazy people that put there kids in and it really teaches them something. I'm sorry, but I've seen pictures of her daughter getting ready for a pageant and it's ridiculous. I don't know exactly what it's teaching her, but it all seems really exhausting for a 3 yr old.

I had DD in gymnastics and I thought that helped with discipline and it was only 40 minutes and it exhausted her. I can't imagine whole weekends of hair, makeup, booty shaking and blowing kisses

I think it can be good for older girls, perhaps if they're in the same situation I stated above, but I don't think a 3yr old needs to look like she's a lady of the night.

I'm entertained by the show. The mother's shouldnt be surprised when their daughter's grow up to be whores. I guess they're all hoping they will grow up to be the next Miss America?? Sadly, the mother's are usually nothing but a bunch of fat ugly women living vicariously through their children. They need to get over themselves.