Whats your thoughts on parents who enter their very young children into beauty pageants?

Oh God, don't get me started! I believe parents subjecting there children to these pageants is due to an insecurity they have or have had in the past. Maybe they weren't as popular as other people or were not the best looking, so they feel now that entering their children in these awful contests will indirectly feed their wantings and lackings.So much pressure is put on these children that if they fail, they believe they have let themselves down so much and also their parents.

On a pageant I was watching recently, I remember the mother was very dissapointed in her daughter when she didn't win, so much that she didn't talk to her so much and the daughter began to ball her eyes off crying. Was very sad and kind of pathetic. Plus putting your children in these competitive beauty pageants will probably aid in setting your children up to be pretentious, back stabbing, overly competitve, beauty obsessive little brats.

Overall it's a no no, and should be avoided. Beauty is not everything and neither is winning.

I believe they are walking a tightrope. Some claim the child is drawn to the activity but I feel if they are it is because it has been basically put in their face. I think it is more a case of an adult trying to achieve something they missed in childhood or achieving a sense of accomplishment through the child which only serves their purposes.

I think, in the end, it can potentially be far more damaging for the child than any good that will come from it. The process teaches us to only look at the cover and ignore what is in the book...possibly the most beautiful part. WB.

Personally I think the whole world of pageants is just silly... As for sticking kids in them, I think it has to be up to parents even though I don't think its very wise myself. Some might say ban it, but there could be unintended consequences of that too.

They are pushy, irresponsible, trying to re-live their own dreams by taking away their children's childhood.

I think the funniest I heard about this was when I was watching some of it, one of the parents said to the interviewer, "my kid has always wanted to do this"I thought that was very funny as the kid was like 3yrs old, like the kid says "Mom, I wanna jump into that red hot fire" and the Mom says "Ok, dear". Responsibility lies with the parents, because if no one (i.e. The parents) was buying into it, the organizers wouldn't sell the idea.

Parents can sometimes want to live their unfulfiled dreams through their kids and this pageant for kids is one of the ways they can do that.

I think that it is very irresponsible. A child died because of this. You can see this trend of children dressing in sexually-provacative clothing in society.

The media encourages this trend by showing children dressed-up as whores even on The Disney Channel! It's dangerous for the kids and I find it sickening. It really makes you wonder what sort of people are running Hollywood.

They're like forcing their kids to grow up. I mean being in a pageant also means you train and aim for perfection right? The toddlers are supposed to be free, playing with their friends, getting dirty and learning by themselves!

A pageant? Where is being a child in that?

This screams wrong in so many ways to me. I child should never be under the influence of make-up, clothes and false teeth. It can't possibly do anything good for their future other than maybe a few awards and trophy's.It seems to me that parents who put their young children in beauty pageants could only be harming their psychological development.

I could never imagine doing such a thing to my child. Also, if you watch those programs most of the parents in charge are living through their children and act like raging psychos if things don't go as plan or if their child forgets to smile.It's all just very wrong for me.

My thought is if you love your child enough than you shouldnt do it what is your child getting out of it. Besides be able to dress up all the time. I think you should leave it up to them when they are older not at a young age where its yes to everything.

I don't care for pageants personally but I also don't think I have a right to tell other parents how to raise their children.

As long as the child isn't forced into doing it I would be fine with it. That's just my opinion though.

I saw that show for the first time a few weeks ago and thought it was unbelievable! To say if it is wrong or not is debatable. I agree - parents seem to be living vicariously though their children - maybe lack of opportunity or appraisal from their parents.

I agree - the provocative nature, the cosmetics and the money these parents spend on the children is bad to expose young children to = WRONG! As far as psychosocial or psychological development goes ... I'm taking an Early Childhood Development and it's all based on the parents. Healthy parents (not loving vicariously) who treat these things as a "as long as you're having fun" opportunity aren't damaging their children.

A woman on that show said, 'we put a little lip gloss on, get a cheap but pretty dress and count on her natural beauty to win... the day she says she doesn't want to do these any more is the day we'll stop. ' Children are able to understand these pageants aren't real which is around age 5 or 6 - will probably result in having a fun but competitive nature and will have a good self-esteem (very influential at this age - believe it or not). Again depending on the PARENTS - this can be a good bonding opportunity for mothers and fathers to have with their children and is a good way to let the child sample free will in something THEY are interested in, and the parents can be supportive not matter what the children decide to do.

= POSITIVE!

As long as kids (or anybody else, for that matter) are FORCED into something that clearly doesn't interest them and it's fun for the kids, it's acceptable/perfectly OK. But if they are FORCED to do something that they don't want to do/have no interest in, then it becomes problematic. This "force and pain" technique is also used in CHINESE dating where (get this) PARENTS basically throw people in front of their kids whom they think are suitable dates.

That's when it becomes unacceptable. We shouldn't force anybody to do anything they don't want to do, especially when it comes to picking friends.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.