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| Riot.Jane |
In this blog post Mary Jo Rapini, LPC discusses whether it's the contestant or the parent that is actually benefiting from the pageant experience. She also suggests better ways to help children learn the lessons they need to be successful people than crawling the beauty pageant circuit.
Beauty Pageants For Toddlers; Who Are They For?
I'd love to see your comments about child beauty pageants and Mary Jo's suggestions.
~Riot.Jane
Children are so beautiful. It's a shame and so unfortunate when mothers communicate a need to MAKE themselves beautiful to their daughters. I feel such sadness for the loss that child experiences in the opportunity to develop a great sense of self worth. The ability to feel worthy and beautiful when you're told by the person who loves you the most in this world that you need to change who you are (make-up, botox, two hour hairdos) to make you beautiful is too great a challenge most of the time for most children. I pray that these girls have other adults in their lives who can express to them their inner and true beauty and value.
ReplyDeleteI don't actually know any mother personally who puts her child through this but I'm her intentions are not to hurt the child. I know she loves her child as much as I love mine but I know she has failed to provide the connection and freedom of expression and personal growth to her child that she can provide like no one else in the child's life. It is not only a tragic missed opportunity but a crime in the squashed development of her healthy identity and self worth while nurturing the misinformed, maladaptive belief that the child's beauty is derived from outside of herself when in fact her beauty IS her. I shed tears thinking about this subject. Thank you for your expert words and expressions on this topic.
Chris