If you’re like me and occasionally indulge in the type of television you would be embarrassed to admit you watch in public, you may have tuned in to this week’s episode of Toddlers and Tiaras. Honestly, I can’t believe that parents are still willing to appear on this show. It’s pretty clear after five seasons that its goal is not to cast a flattering light on the pageant industry.
This week’s episode was no different with two moms admitting they make their daughters follow strict diets before pageants. “You don’t get as good of a score if your dress doesn’t fit good,” says the mother of 8-year-old Ever Rose. She admits she makes her daughter count calories and says that Ever has already lost 10 pounds. The night before the pageant we see Ever Rose’s mom fretting over the amount of dessert her daughter is eating. “We don’t get to have the whole pie. We have a piece of the pie…It’s hard being a kid and carrying extra weight around,” she says. Ironically, later on in the episode when getting dressed for the pageant, Ever’s dress is too big at which point her mom tells her she needs to stop losing weight or she’ll have to get a new dress.
I get this mom’s desire to ensure her daughter is eating healthy. She is certainly not the only parent who monitors the amount of sweets her child eats, but teaching your child to count calories at the age of eight and associating her weight with success in a pageant based on her beauty is not the best way to go about it.
Another mom in the episode says she “will do whatever it takes to get her [daughter] to where she needs to be.” She admits to making her 4-year-old eat salads before pageants and brags that the tot has already lost 4 pounds. Just let that sink in. Four pounds on a 4-year-old little girl!
I’m going to go ahead and be the jerk that points out that neither one of these mothers are exactly svelte themselves and while I don’t agree with shaming women for their weight it seems a little unfair to ask your children to follow a diet plan you haven’t been modeling yourself. Regardless of whether these children do or do not need to lose weight, teaching them to diet to please a panel of judges is deplorable and sets them up for a lifetime of self-esteem issues.
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That one girl (who at one point was just talking about how she was unhappy and hungry) is going to be so confused with her mom telling her she had to diet for the pageant and then got frustrated with her losing too much weight for the pageant...
