Toddlers and Tiaras: Have they pushed it too far?

Everybody wants their kids to be center of attention, soaking up the spotlight. But have some reality television shows taken it too far?

Many of us are old enough to remember the sad tale of young pageant star JonBenet Ramsey, who was found dead in her Boulder home in 1996 and whose parents were prime suspects. The mystery of her untimely death will forever remain locked away in a vault of secrets, but could she have been saved?

As young Ramsey’s fame and popularity grew, so did her number of admirers. She became the face for young beauty and was admired by many in the pageant world. With her fame came much recognition, but as her parents looked back at her short life, they wondered if it was all worth it.

Now, 15 years since her murder, Ramsey’s father wonders if allowing his daughter to compete in beauty pageants was worth losing his only daughter. Was all the fame, publicity and money worth the heartache?

It’s too late to think about the what-ifs in the case of 6-year-old Ramsey, but it is not too late for the moms of the kids on the hit TV show “Toddler and Tiaras.”

“Toddlers and Tiaras” follows the lives of young children strutting their stuff on the runway in pageants around the world.

Not only are these shows wrong and inappropriate for viewers to watch, the ordeals that these young children are being put through should not be allowed.

On the show, moms are putting pounds and pounds of make-up on their children’s faces. First of all, if a child cannot physically put make-up on her face herself without looking like a clown, then there is no need for her parents to apply vast amounts to her fragile face.

Secondly, we witness that the majority of the time, none of the children want to do the things they are being forced to do.

These children are being forced to obtain a spray tan, get their eyebrows waxed, get fitted for fake teeth and constantly get their hair yanked and pulled on.

Besides the fact that these mothers are OK with allowing their children to go through this, it’s disturbing to know these pageants require children to fit such high standards. Once the children are done with their pageant make-over, they don’t even look like human beings; they look like little dolls.

Judges say that girls and boys must obtain a glowing tan, full set of teeth, dazzling outfits, perfect hair and manicured nails or their score will be docked.

It’s bad enough that older women pretty much starve themselves and prepare for years in advance to compete in pageants such as “Miss USA,” but they are grown women, not 4-year-olds.

In addition to the pressure these children feel from the judges, their mothers live their lives vicariously through their daughters.

After watching the show, it is apparent that these pageant moms are not doing it because their children enjoy the attention, they are forcing their children to be on live TV because they want to re-live their glory days.

“Toddlers and Tiaras” is a show that not only puts these children at a highly publicized danger, but they have to grow up much faster than their peers. These children are not enjoying the heights of childhood; instead, they are forced to become young women in a 4-year-old’s body.