The first time I let them see Toddlers and Tiaras, it was an accident. A younger Ironflower caught a glimpse of a girl in a sparkly dress before I turned the television off. Immediately she wanted to know why a girl her age had such a "beautiful" dress. I tried to explain the horror of child beauty pageants. She begged to be in one.
Obviously my explanation needed work.
The next time it happened, I was just trying to avoid a completely annoying commercial airing during House Hunters. I'll be honest here, I can't stand to watch children's television any more. So when we have our weekly casual dinner in front of the TV (okay, it may be a twice weekly thing), I try to find something that we can all enjoy and that won't force me to explain topics I'd rather avoid at this juncture, like sex and Republicans.
As I flipped, we caught another girl in a sparkly dress. Who was having a total meltdown. My kids were horrified by the things she said. We wound up talking about the difference between looking pretty and acting pretty. Of course, we also watched to see if she won a crown or not. That's how it happened the first time.
We've watched other episodes since. It's not that I tape it, it's just that it happens to be on when we're having casual dinner night. And it really prompts interesting discussions - what clothes are appropriate, how the little girls are always cuter in the before pictures, what they should say if they want to give up one of their activities, what to do if you forget your part during a performance.
Besides, anything that makes my children say, "spray tans are ugly" has got to be insurance against them winding up on Jersey Shore 25, right?
3 comments:
Sounds good to me! Our girl caught a part of episode and said something about the beautiful girls. So we talked about how they have fake hair pieces, and fake tans, and fake teeth and so on
@thepsychobabble - Exactly! They need to know that NO ONE naturally looks like that.
the perfect way to watch...with mom (and/or dad) around. sounds more healthy than the kids (or parents) on the show
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