What is your opinion?  

you are a brave and a pragmatic mother. be proud of yourself many would critisise your actions. no i dont really. help your child discover his talents.. god bless both o you

first let me say that i envy you, i don't think i would have the patience to raise a mentally challenged child. And i think you are doing the right thing, you are pushing him to find something that he will be good at instead of him focusing on something that he is not good at. I think all parents should do that even if their child is not mentally challenged.

I agree that we have to be realistic with our children. My son, for example is an expert at racing video games. Because he is so good at the games, he thinks that he will be an excellent driver and can't wait to get his license in a few years. Yesterday, I had to tell him that, unless he can learn to control his anxiety, he won't ever be able to drive. That was so hard :( We do have some hope that medication might help him to be able to function as a "normal" person, but it's not something that we can try at this point.

My daughter is your average teenager. She's tone-deaf. I've been very upfront with her about this since she was smaller. She wanted to try out for a musical and I told her that she probably wouldn't make it because she is tone-deaf. I then pointed out some of her talents so that she didn't focus on the negative. She tried out for that musical and didn't make it. It was a good learning experience for her and since I had told her she was tone-deaf, she didn't waste her time railing about the unfairness of the judges, she knew why she didn't get chosen. Now, she focuses on art, where she has real talent.

I try to make both my kids understand that no one person is great at everything. We are all born with special talents and we should focus on those to be happy and successful in life.

I believe that they were much nicer with some of the mentally challenged participants than with other contestants. They are honest, and brutally so, and though it's not fair to make fun of that person--would it be fair to coddle them and to treat them differently than everyone else? My mind is torn on the issue. I would be gentle and kind, and maybe stretch the truth a little bit. But enough so that they would get the drift. I don't know. I don't have very much experience with this sort of situation. It's hard to please everyone.

I think you are very good in being realistic towards your child. But you can say to him that he is very good in something others are not good in. All of us have talents and so does he. A school should not raise false hope but seach for that special talent and stimulate that.

Take care. You seem a very loving and caring parent.

the young man with the small stature and large eyes, it was so obvious he had some sort of genetic condition, I was horrified at the way Simon made fun of him. The show has definitely gotten more meanspirited this year and we will not be watching the rest of the audition shows. Besides, the contests are pre-screened by production staff, so you know they only let a handful of the really bad ones through for the laugh value. Randy, Simon and Paula don't audition all those thousands of people themselves, it's all set up purely for the "enterainment" value of making fun of others.

I agree its sad. But my question is why do the families allow them to audition? I don't blame the judges, I blame lack of commen sence from the families. I mean its one thing to allow a hobby and allow them to take voice lessons but to go to an audition like that is wong for the parents to do.

I think you are doing the right thing by being honest and encouraging him to find things he is good at. As for American Idol, I have to agree with Brylee. Why would the parents or caretakers let these people try out? Especially knowing what the judges are like?!!

You are responding as a loving mother, so why were the mother's of some of the contestants not stopping their children from appearing on such a show. I did not see them being laughed at because they could be mentally challenged but because their "talent" was terrible.

i am not annoyed by the people that tell the people they are terrible, as it is unfair to give someone false dreams that they may one day be a singer when there is no way this can be possible.
the people in this situation that annoy me are the ones that tell mentally challenged people to go on the show knowing that they will just get laughed at and make a fool of themselves. why would you tell someone they should go on a public tv show when you know that they cant sing?