Troubled by Toddlers & Tiaras

Okay, so I have to admit that several months ago I got sucked into TLC's Toddlers & Tiaras. It was an accident, really. I was never a pageant girl and I didn't know anyone that was when I was growing up. I think I initially was fascinated by the families that were so sucked into the crazy lifestyle of pageantry (at least it appears that way on TLC).
For the most part, I laughed off the stereotypical pageant mom's. The over-dosing of the girls with pixie stix before a pageant irritated me, but other than that I had the attitude, "to each his own".



However, after watching the last episode I was heart broken. There are a brother and sister pair, Braxton and Alaska. The mother and step-father were absolutely awful. They did not treat their kids equally. Both the boy and girl were put in pageants. The mother and father continuously complimented Braxton and always neglected and even put down Alaska. I felt awful for the little girl.






She was not only beautiful, but she seemed to be a great kid. Regardless, no child should be treated the way that they treated Alaska. To really understand the scope of just how bad these parents were, you'd have to watch the whole video. While Braxton typically wins the pageants they both enter, this grand finale he did not and his sister won. Of course, the parents ended up adoring her because she won. It was awful. I couldn't get over that having a title was what made a mom love (or at least show love) to her own daughter. I know you're probably thinking, why did you keep watching if you thought it was so awful. The best I can explain is that it's like a scary movie, you want to look away at certain parts but you also don't want to miss anything.

http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/toddlers-tiaras-season-4-videos/