A Child's Dream or a Mother's Nightmare?

The other day I read the article Toddlers and Tiaras Too Much Too Soon? written by Charlotte Triggs with Kay West and Elain Aradillas, and from that I learned a lot of things that I never knew before. Before reading this article I had heard of Toddlers and Tiaras, but I didn't honestly ever watch it or invest in it whatsoever, eventually by the end of reading it I realized how sick and wrong it truly is.

From reading this I realized these weren't just young girls dressing up and getting dolled up, almost more of having a slowly ruined life. These girls, so the article states, at least three years old could not have possibly wanted to do this, for according to psychologists a three year old can't acquire the knowledge of what's going on, what needs to be down, and whether they want to go or not. Thus concluding that more often it's the parent who wants their child to do the pageants, not the other way around.

It may seem harmless to simply get dolled up for a pageant, but in the long run it could severly damage the child. If they had lived a lot of their childhood focusing on being physically "perfect" then in the longrun they are at a high risk for eating disorders, for they've been focusing on their physical image hence could eventually form them to be obsessed with their weight.

Now after they get their appearance "beautiful" the mothers get their daughters in their outfits, which many could conclude the fashion choice innapropriate for young children. Sure it may sound harmless to put on a dress and find mommy's perfect pair of heels at home for dress up, but when it comes to wearing them in a pageant, even far worse than what any young girl should dress up in, it crosses the line. One mother had her daughter get fake boobs just to make her look like Dolly Parton, one woman even dressed her daughter in a very exposing outfit a two piece outfit, and no not a swimsuit. No young girl should be wearing such innapropriate apparel, but according to the moms' it's simply harmless dress up.

Call it a harmless dress up show or a disguisting hobby, you're welcome to take any side you wish. Now if you feel it's just fun then ask yourself this: Would you make your child do that? Even if they didn't want to or somehow did? I sure wouldn't call it innocent dress up, rather a nightmare.