More headlines of parents taking extreme measures to make their children “perfect.” How much is too much?
A little while ago I wrote about a 7-year-old girl who got plastic surgery to “fix” her ears. Now it has come out that an 8-year-old has been injected with Botox to get an edge on the pageant circuit.
I thought the plastic surgery was bad enough, but at least that was done by a doctor. The pageant mom did the Botox to her daughter herself because she was afraid her daughter was going to get wrinkles!
It’s hard enough being a girl in this day and age without your parents telling you that you aren’t perfect and therefore we must fix you.
And honestly, I think what Botox mom did was criminal, as what would have happened if she had gotten the levels wrong. It could have really hurt that little girl for no good reason. And what was the mom’s explanation? She claimed everyone on the pageant circuit was doing it! And apparently the authorities agree as the child was taken away from her mom.
I know I’m biased when I think my little girl is very beautiful. I really hope I can teach her that beauty comes in all forms and that she doesn’t have to do extreme things to her body just to fit into the social norms of beauty.
What do you all think about this story?
I think it’s HORRIBLE that this mother even thought that her daughter required ANY fixing or tweaking. From some stories I read that the mother got the Botox from a “friend”, so for all she knew she could have been injecting bleach in her daughter’s face.
I am glad that Child Protective Services stepped in. It’s obvious the mother is projecting her insecurities and neuroses onto her daughter. Her child should not suffer because of her mother’s delusional thinking.
What happened to parents wanting their children to just be themselves and not what they want them to be?
I agree – it was really horrible of that mom. And it was for such a stupid reason. It just makes me angry!
I have my opinions about the very existence of a beauty pageant circuit these days. Once upon a time it was probably pretty simple — daughters were lined up on the stage in their Sunday best, their hair fixed up as best as Mom could.
Today’s beauty pageants for girls as young as walking age (i.e., 12-15 months!) subject these girls to beauticians, dress fittings and who-knows-how-many thousands of dollars out of the parents’ pockets in dresses, tiaras, sponsorships, manicures, etc.
http://l.yimg.com/l/tv/us/img/site/45/10/0000054510_20090123144056.jpg
Now that I’m living back in the south, I’m again meeting local mothers who have entered their daughters in these pageants. They tell stories of the $700 dresses and $150 beautician treatments for hair, nails, waxings and makeup. I didn’t pay even half of that to get pretty for my own wedding!
Luckily, folks cried foul on resorting to Botox!
I guess in this respect I’m glad I don’t have a daughter (I’d love to have a daughter in general, don’t get me wrong)…and I don’t have to decide to not do this, perhaps my daughter might have wanted to? We’ll never know…
I agree Patricia. Its sad because once upon a time pageants were a cute thing kids could participate in to earn scholarship money. Now its become a frightening thing where parents do anything to win. Have you ever watched Toddler & Tiara’s? That show is very wrong.
I agree that that mother who gave Botox to her child was very wrong to do so. Coming from a scientific family (father and sisters in hard sciences), I know what Botox is and wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. I do agree that it does have benificial uses for some conditions but to inject a child with it? Very wrong! As is Toddlers and Tiaras. I agree with Dolli on that one.
I was seven when my mother tried to talk a dentist into pulling ALL my teeth out because they weren’t white enough for her. And she had constant arguments with my father over sending me to Japan for a nose job till I was in my teens. Through young adulthood, she still tried to get me to go for other plastic surgeries. Ah mothers, what would we do without them?
I think that parents shouldn’t physically alter their children at all without a medical reason and a doctor. Not because doctors are Authority, but they can at least provide a sanity-check. One of our jobs is to get them to adulthood in the best of health.
However, I have been unable to come up with a succinct statement for this that also allows for traditional body mods, such as pierced ears, which I think most of us consider entirely benign.