butt pasties for 3 & 4 year olds?  

The mother's seem to be reliving their lived and dreams through their little girls! Thanks for your response

It's very weird. I have a 5 year old and I really just want her to be a FIVE year old. There's plenty of time for her to be a grown woman when she gets there in 15 years lol.

I agree with you - a beauty contest for a cute baby is one thing but to me, this is really sick. I went into shock and called my son to see it as he has two daughters. He said that allowing his daughter to do a commercial with a dog was o.k but this would never be o.k. with him. They put their little hands on their non existant hips and wiggle themselves and do a half turn and make . what I consider to be sexual gestures to the judges.

The mothers stand behind the judges and do the routine to prompt the children should they forget. It is grotesque to seethese mothers pouting and wiggling and everything else. I may be drawn across the coals on this one but in my book it is child abuse.

I agree! Especially with such sexual emphasis. But even without that, I think they are telling these girls such strange messages! It tells them that they are perpetually "on stage", only worthy of attention if they are performing. Their family life also revolves around them. How obnoxious will they become!

what also amazed me was the fact that several mothers cried in front of their little girls when they did not win? Mixed messages indeed. Telling them that they have no value unless they win a beauty contest?

It just seems that as women, we should be teaching our daughters much bigger lessons about themselves and the world around them. It is just so superficial and disgustingly sexual!

And.. it has no bearing on age! I think it is superficial and disgusting even when grown women have no value except for their outward beauty or 'sexiness'. How empty someone must feel if that's all there is to them!

exactly! It's a growingly superficial world!

shirley Temple was an angel and boy, couldn't she dance? She was never made to look like this. she was always just a talented little girl. Many thanks

She was an angel. She grew up to be a good politician too. She was one of the lucky child actors who didn't end up on drugs and having problems like most do.

You are right - there was never any scandal about her at all.

Not only was there no scandal, but she went on to have a productive life out of show business.

Many thanks for responding. They were actually putting hair pieces on the children to fluff up their hair and make it look thicker. 3 & 4 year olds!

children should be allowes to enjoy being children. they have to be grownups a long time.

Exactly. Dress them in age appropriate clothes and not as you so conisely expressed it 'as meat fodder for pedophiles'. Thanks for responding

This is why I have always kind of smiled and nodded and then not done anything whenever people suggest I should enter my daughter in anything like this. I don't gather is is very fun for the girls, you know? I'm not against letting her do cheerleading or modeling or whatever if SHE chooses to when she gets older but I would never ever want to exploit her while she's a little girl and isn't interested in it herself.

You are so right. They can choose when they are adults if they want to do modelling etc.

I don't have a clue about what a "behind pasty" is, much less allow my daughter to do this sort of exploitative contest. She has far more worth than that. Daughters are precious and should be protected like the pearls they are and not abused in this way. I heard way more than I could stand of JonBenet case after she was murdered than I really cared to know. Let me put this another way: I hate beauty pageants whether for adults or for children. There I said it. I feel better now.

Hi krissy,

I only know about it because I saw it in a shop in Paris France about 10 or mnore years ago. I asked my sister what it was! It is padding than makes a little girl's bottom higher and it sticks out more in her swimsuit. Can you believe it? This is so s*xual and disgusting and also in my opinion, it is exploitation of children. I'd go further and call it child abuse. Thanks for responding

Boy cynthiann I'm glad you explained what butt pasties are. I had something else in mind, but when I went to the web all I got was about chicken pasty butts.

Same here, deebomb. I had no clue what those things are in the first place. In any case, I still say beauty pageants are dumb in the way that they judge women by their appearance, not for their brains. Ewww! Ick!!. I am so glad my mother never had the excess money to put me in those godawful contests. Thanks mom. Heck, with the some of the stuff they wear and what I see in little girl departments for what passes for clothing, makes me want to vomit almost. I can't stand it all those clothes that make little girls into little streetwalkers. EWWW. Not all stores are like that , but good grief.

The problem is the parents that buy those type of clothing for their kids. As long as parents buy them he manufacturers will make them and the stores will sell them. the bottom line is money.

I hear what you say about them being treated as dollies. Kids need to be kids and not forced into these adult looking clothese and having their teenage hair styles etc. There mothers need to go onto therapy to see why they ar projecting their own fantasies on their children. I was really upset over this programme. It so hurt me. Kids were whining and mothers bribing them and then the mothers look so unhappy when their kid does not take the big tiara or prize. What is this telling them? All sorts of negative messages are being sent to their daughters

I haven't seen the show but I've seen other tidbits on the pagents over the years. They are beautiful but it's an awful lot of pressure for these lil girls. It does hurt to see the lil girls fuss and get upset because they don't want to do it. That's when you put the curling iron down and let them do their own thing... they are not living barbie dolls.

That's what someone of them were looking like - just like Barbies. and to think of padding out their little butts to asttract the eyes of the judges? Sick

My husband and I were blessed with a really beatiful daughter and when pressure was being put oin her to enter a beauty contest I told her why I disagreeed with them she was a tennager at the time and so we could discuss it. Her Daddy told her too why he was against it. However, she was a teen and these are just babies. Some of them were wearing those diaper pants, forgotten what they are called.Oh, pull-ups. so ridiculous. Many thanks for responding

I actually don't disagree with it if someone chooses THEMSELVES to be in a beauty pageant, but it's not something I would push anybody towards, and I'd also remind them that beauty is subjective and all perception, whether someone else thinks you are beautiful or not shouldn't be the yardstick you measure YOURSELF by, know what I mean? It is nice to get compliments but compliments should not make or break you or determine how you feel about yourself.

I live in J.A. and we did follow the Jon Benet Ramsay case. It was awful and heartbreaking. I did not see them getting a spray tan but I have only watched it once. I'm sorry, but in my book it is called child abuse.

Pageant moms are scary. When I had to take my daughter to make up a ballet class on a different day in a different time slot, I encountered some moms who were CLEARLY not sane. My daughter is 5 now and she's been doing ballet since she was almost 4. At the time this happened, she was in a class with other 3 and 4 year olds. These are practically toddlers, and since the studio does not accept kids younger than 3, they are hardly prima donna ballerinas.

Anyway, some of these moms were discussing their daughters' future CAREERS and such... um hello, I'm looking thru the window watching their daughters pull the skirts of their leotards up over their faces or sit down on the floor and refuse to participate lol.

I don't even think anything so presumptuous about MY daughter, even if she is dancing along with her teacher lol. She's having fun, and she likes ballet, and she's learning, and making friends. That's all that matters to me, AND her. When she doesn't like ballet any more, then she doesn't have to do it. I also connected and made friends with a few other moms who were so excited to meet a NORMAL mom that we hit it off grandly lol. I'm still not sure that the 'pageant mom' type truly 'gets' it or ever sees what is really important.

I think that it is allabout the mother's lost ambitions or their totally scr*wed perceptions of themselves. These mothers were no living dolls themselves! They are living through their children

My sisters and I wore make up (and it was exciting) when we danced on stage but this is so fdifferent. I believe the channel is TLC. It is the channel that shows JOhn & Kate plus 8. Called Toddlers and Tiaras. To put something in panties to make a little girl's butt stick out is sick

I wanted to tell you one thing - I don't know specifically about the PADDED bras - but some little girls do have to wear bras, as early as 9 or 10 years old. Fortunately this doesn't happen to every little girl, but I'm sure that's why there is a market for it. I will say that if you're 9 years old and NEED to be wearing a bra and you don't, it can be uncomfortable, embarrassing, and people will make fun of you.

I have a friend whose daughter refused to wear a bra OR deodorant when she was 10, and she encountered so much teasing at school because of it that she begged her mom to take her out of school. I tried to convince her that she just needed to wear the bra and deodorant - she is almost 16 now and she did take the advice.... but not at age 10 she didn't!

I completely agree that there are alot of little girls that need to wear bras at a young age. I am talking about the amount of padding that is in alot of these bras. These bras that I seen at walmart are very padded and I do not think that anyone should be buying bras such as these for little girls. Everyone developes differently but there is no need to try to enhance this at such young ages.

Young girls are developing earlier and should wear a bra if it is needed. But padded bras for a 10 year old? Why can't we let our children be children?