What I Think About Child Beauty Pageants

Last night before I went to bed, I flipped on the television and a show came on that had little kids all dressed up with a ridiculous amount of make-up on. Being too lazy to change the channel, I continued to watch it in horror.

What I was watching was a reality televison show that captured the behind the scenes of a beauty pageant for children, even babies. As I sat in awe at how the parents acted at this beauty pageant, I began to feel angry for what they are doing to their kids.

Believe me, I'm all about being competitive, doing your best, and trying your hardest to win, but these beauty pageant moms had gone too far. What they expected from their kids at this beauty pageant was nothing less than perfect. Nobody has the right to put that much strain and expectation upon their children.

First of all, who came up with the idea to have beauty pageants for kids? Beauty comes with age, how can you possibly be a judge for one of these things?

What these parents are teaching their children is to be fake. Cover up your face with make-up and hide who you truly are. None of them seem to know what inner beauty is, nor how to raise a child.

The moment that really ticked me off was when they were talking to a mother, and this isn't a direct quote but a quote from memory, she said, "I'd really like a trophy, so I can look back one day and say I won that.. Oh yeah, and I want the crown too." As if the mother would have won the trophy or crown instead of the child? Wow, that statement still shocks me.

Another frightening moment was when they were announcing the winners, there were parents holding babies that weren't even big enough to walk that had participated in the beauty pageant. How sick could you be to put your baby in a beauty pageant?

Beauty pageants are one reason that the world is so self-absorbed with their image. Raising kids to expect perfection, setting bad examples for them, and just overall being a terrible parent can destroy a kid's self esteem and self confidence. They have no knowledge of how to be themselves and how to accept themselves the way they were born that they are never happy with anything in their life.

Disgusting. That's the only word that comes to my mind when I look at a child standing on stage, their immature faces caked with an excess of make-up. Am I alone when I say that beauty pageants for children are wrong?