Pageant kids on Maury Povich show tomorrow

[card]

Oh goodie another round of pageant moms making the talk show circuit. Tomorrow, Tuesday the 26th, Maury will have child pageants as the topic. Can't wait to see this. It's ashame how they exploit the kids.

Believe it or not, pageants can be good for a girl, if done in moderation, done correctly, and wait until they are old enough. My daughter's best friend, who is 10, won our city's Little Miss pageant last year. She has gained such poise from the whole experience. She would stutter from nervousness when she had to read outloud in class, and the pageant (along with the public appearances) gave her alot of self esteem, she has grown in a very positive manner. Of course none of the talk shows would ever want to hear a story like that though. They want the 2 year old kids with gobs of fake stuff, and crazy moms. That's good TV!!!

[LynnieD]

RUT ROH RASTRO!


I'm watching Maury right now actually. Nothing better for the soul then 'I slept w/22 guys and need to find my babys daddy'. NOTHING.

[Grimmlok]

Someone needs to tivo maury tomorrow and put up some clips on youtube

[card]

Do you have Tivo Lynnie?

[LynnieD]

^Unfortunately no. I need to get with the program and get one of those new fangled things! I'll try to watch it though....which won't help anyone else of course.

[Mr. Authority]

As bad as paganet moms and their exploitation of kids, nothing's more humiliating than seeing a bunch of overweight kids in their diapers and their moms screaming "I feed my kids whateva they want, it ain't yo businz!!!"

Seriously where to they find these people

[card]

The majority of those people want their 15 minutes of fame for themselves or their kids. For the pageant moms, being on one of these shows is a boost for their kids (In their eyes) into the national circuit.

I know you all have looked on those voy boards (so have I). These crazy moms want to catapult their kid into the spotlight, get their name known, so they'll score higher on the national circuits, where the big cash prizes are.

[LynnieD]

They live vicariously throught their children...so sad.


Maury is due to come on here in about an hour....*yippie*

[Goose]

I only caught a bit of one of the stories this morning when it was on for me. Went backstage with the Mom, and talked about the money spent to get her daughter to look the way she did for pageants. Showed what the little girl looked like without being all gussied up. I may have had to leave the house before the controversal stuff came out, but it was pretty tame compared to some of the other programs I've seen the pageant moms on.

[card]

Oh Lynnie, the underground subculture of kiddie pageants is unbelievable. There is no way in hell you can justify a 2 or 3 year old in a full glitz southern pageant, the mom saying that the kid wants to do it is total BS. It IS sad.

My daughter has done a couple of pageants, but she's alot older and SHE approached ME. I also did a couple when I was young adult. My dirty little secret to my gossiprocks comrades.

Allow me to give another perspective. I did a couple of pageants, thought it would be fun. My daughter saw the pics and asked if she could do them and "wear a gown like Mommy". So I put her in a couple. She was 7, almost 8, at the first one. Oh boy were we in for an enlightenment. Unbelievable stuff. Most of the things that have been posted in other threads ARE TRUE. There are moms who bleach their pre-schoolers hair, add fake hair, fake tans, fake teeth, outfits that cost THOUSANDS of dollars, coaching that is $100 plus per hour. The moms stand behind the judges and coach their daughters on when to turn, etc. If the kids "messes up", the moms yell. The moms are mostly uneducated overweight nasty welfare moms. Everyone bashes everyone else. We did meet a couple moms though who were very nice and had their priorities straight. They were educated women, nurses, teachers, and were not your typical moms like you see on the voy boards. Their girls were very nice, well mannered, and friendly. When my daughter wanted to do a pageant, she thought more about spending time at the hotel with me, having a "sleepover", ordering room service, swimming in the hotel pool. She loved to play dress up and do "big girl" hair and makeup. However, the circuit full glirz pageants were not for us. Too much drama and fakeness. I let my daughter do the pageants so she could learn self esteem, public speaking, etc. She's wanted to be a news anchor for a long time. Diane Sawyer had done a couple pageants. They really can have a positive impact on a girl if the parents make sure the experience stays positive. There was no way I could make it a positive experience for my daughter and make her feel good about who she is, when you load them up with fake stuff and take the fun out of it. We did the pageant thing, we got what we wanted out of it. My child has impeccable manners, is a reader at church, and is comfortable in who she is. When she was in the lineup to go on stage, she heard all the moms saying "make sure you do this or that", and what I would always tell my daughter is to MAKE SURE YOU HAVE FUN ON STAGE. And she did. We're done with all of that now, except our local municipal pageant, which is totally natural and focuses on interviews.

So there you have it, a first hand account. I will tell you, it is an addiction for these people and the kids suffer. It can very easily get out of control for anyone, get caught up in all the competition. You always know who was hobby and who was serious. The serious ones were in the hallways practicing their routines. The hobby ones were in the hotel swimming pool. Someone oughtta write a book on the whole lifestyle.

[LynnieD]

Wow card---thanks for sharing that. And your little secret is safe w/us!
I'm sure all the moms (and dads) aren't horrible, misguided freakshows, but the ones that ARE, give the entire industry a very very bad wrap. Unfortunately they are the most outspoken. And as a non pageant mom (I have a 2 1/2 yr old daughter) I cannot understand for the life of me why in the hell they would do the things they do--for the 'glory'?? It just doesn't seem worth it, nor necessary. I can see an 8 yr old saying 'gee, that looks like fun'. Hell, I would have probably thought it looked like fun. But not a 2/3 yr old. No freaking way.....
Anyway, that was a great story. And totally frightening at the same time.

[Grimmlok]

Yeah, a 2 or 3 year old just seems evil.. when it's a baby, who cares.. it's not like the thing gives a rats ass about anything except when it's fed or wanting to sleep..

2 or 3 year olds are old enough to know when they don't want to do something but not enough to say "no" to mommy.

Sick bitches, all of them.

[A*O]

Thanks for daring to share card - if you've read this board you will know that most people are very anti-pageant so even though your experience was a good one for you, I think you'll find many of us are still very sceptical about the so-called 'benefits' of the sexualisation and exploitation of very young children in pageants. I guess what concerns me most is that Pageant Moms can't see that making a 5yr old look and behave like a 12yr old Lolita is every pedophile's dream and I am sure these perverts hang around the pageant circuit like bees around a honeypot. The PMs say "oh we screen people who come to watch" which kinda acknowledges that they know they are creating the problem by parading their kids as young adults in the first place.

As for Maury, he loves to bring freaks onto his show and get them to parade around for our 'entertainment'. The 200lb toddlers are there for us to 'laugh' at. He doesn't offer the parents any constructive advice - he just says how 'cute' Jabba the Hutt looks in a diaper. He also enjoys bringing on kids with horrible congenital deformities or illnesses and gets them to sing a song or whatever. He's an asshole - BUT I just LOVE the babydaddy shows. "J'amahl, when it comes to Tarquisha's 3mth old baby D'Jayne, you are NOT the father".

[ediebrooks]

My mom was asked to be a judge in a little small-town kiddie pageant once, and she said it was appalling how petty and critical the judges could be. She said one judge wrote in her notes that one contestant had a "bad back". How can a 2 or 3 year old have a bad back?

[card]

I don't blame any of you for being skeptical. The outfits do sexualize the kids. The swimwear for instance, used to be a fun competition with one piece conservative suits, beach balls and other props, just to show a spunky personality, really no different than a dance type costume. It's now turned into skimpy 2-piece bikinis for these little kids. I WILL NOT subject my daughter to that kind of stuff, that is why we stopped doing them. It IS a pedophiles dream, I agree. We got out before my daughter was made up like a Lolita. I never allowed it to go that far. We stayed away from those. It is up to the parent to use common sense and not go along with it. Not too much common sense to be found in the glitz pageant circuit. Geez, the stories I could tell you all........

I still stand by my claim that if you allow your daughter to do them when she is old enough to ask you if she can do them, and you do them in moderation, there can be benefits. I can't see any benefits for a 2 or 3 year old, it will warp them and their sense of reality. But when a girl is 8 or 9 and wants to do them, they really can learn from them. You have to research them and see which ones offer what you want, like interviews. The national ones have got completely out of hand, the digital pictures, the outfits, everything. And Edie is right, the judges can be so picky and critical, it's amazing what little it takes for a judge to low-ball you. Not to mention the politics of who your coach is, who does your photos, hair & makeup, who makes your clothes.