Beauty pageants for kids have become a huge industry in the US (fortunately they´re nothing like as popular in other countries). However, I think that beauty pageants for kids are a worrying development and that they really shouldn´t be allowed. That might sound drastic, but there are a number of reasons to be concerned about them.Here are some sound reasons for your little girl not to participate in beauty pageants for kids …
1. Image Obsessed
By their very nature, beauty pageants for kids are built around judging young girls by their looks. And let´s not forget that some of the kids in these pageants are very young indeed – maybe only toddlers. What is this teaching them? That external looks and being pretty are what counts, not what´s inside. Hardly the message that any sane parent would want their daughter to grow up with.
2. Let Them Be Kids
Most of us like to play around with our appearance. It´s fun to change your look with makeup and clothes, and can really make you feel good. But that´s a decision we can make as adults. There´s nothing wrong with little girls (or boys) playing dress-up, but they should be allowed to be kids, and not turned into miniature adults.
3. Expensive
Participating in beauty pageants for kids is a very expensive hobby, and of course as parents you will be picking up the bill. Many parents spend tens of thousands on costumes and travel all over the US. The money would be far better invested in a savings account for your child to go to college, or buy a house.
4. Competitive
Girls can be bitchy and competitive enough as it is, and entering them in beauty pageants only encourages the development of this trait. These pageants are not about entering for fun, but are about winning. It´s good for children to learn that they can´t always be first, but this isn´t the way for them to learn that.
5. Enjoyable?
Parents who enter their kids in beauty pageants claim that their daughters love appearing in the shows, but is this really true? It can´t be much fun for small girls to be subjected to endless rehearsals and makeup sessions, not to mention travelling thousands of miles.
6. Pressure
A lot of ´pageant moms´ place far too much pressure on their daughters to perform well and impress the judges. This just isn´t fair on young children. They´ll have enough stress in later life, so why subject them to pressure at such a young age? They should be enjoying themselves playing with friends, and not behaving like mini catwalk models.
7. Living through Them
It often seems that beauty pageants for kids are not really for the kids at all, but for the moms. Well, it´s nothing new for parents to live out their frustrated ambitions by trying to make their children famous. However, a good parent would encourage their child to discover and achieve their own ambitions – and all in good time, not when they´re still in preschool.
8. Let Them Decide
Children should be able to decide for themselves if they really want to enter pageants. Chances are that no little girl would decide on her own to enter. If a parent really feels that they want their daughter to participate, then at the very least they should listen to her if she doesn´t want to continue.
If you need any more persuading that beauty pageants for kids are a bad idea, then watch ´Toddlers and Tiaras!´ Who could forget the little girl –just three years old - dressed up as Julia Roberts´ prostitute character from Pretty Woman? What do you think of beauty pageants for kids – are they harmless fun or sending negative messages?
Top Image Source: weheartit.com