Beauty pageants for kids, a lot of people seem to think they are plain evil but I’m here to testify that they can be a really fun family activity, If you don’t believe me, read Delta Burke’s autobiography “Delta Style.”
When my oldest two daughters were little, I put them in dancing lessons – for grace and energy and something to do in the community. They would dance in shows several weekends each year, wear several different special costumes and we’d do their hair and make up.
We moved away from that area by the time my youngest daughter Mindy was old enough for dancing school and our new community didn’t have one. So she participated in pageants and cheerleading and it was all pretty much the same thing - family fun on the weekends that involved costumes and performing, with hair and makeup being done.
It takes major bucks though. It usually starts by spotting an ad in the local paper for a little local pageant. It doesn’t cost that much, you buy a dress, they compete, there are plenty of trophys and ribbons and the occasional crown tossed around and *voila* you are hooked! If your child is a winner, you are expected to enter them in the national pageant and that’s where it gets expensive. There’s the travel expenses of course, the entry fee, buying a page in the program, staying at the host hotel for a certain number of nights, fees for all the little sub categories, several changes of outfits – some that aren’t even worn on stage. It costs as much as a family vacation.
You can’t do things in halves either - the clothes have to be pageant quality. And several outfits are needed, such as interview, talent, swimsuit, evening gown, western wear, etc.
Mindy loved doing them and after grad school she came home to stay with me for a few weeks. I was living in Las Vegas then. She found out about a beauty pageant being held in town and thought she’d like to do it for old time’s sake while she was still young enough to qualify. The pageant folks were excited because they needed more entries in the older girl category but insisted that she’d have to book a hotel room for 3 nights in order to enter. We could afford the entry fee and she had the clothes but that hotel room put it right out of our range.
Oh well, I’m glad we were able to pull it off while she was growing up. And let me tell you, if a kid doesn’t want to do it … whatever “it” is (dance, cheerleading, pageants, piano lessons, sports … whatever) no force on earth can get them to do it. Several factors in the universe have to come in to play for a child to succeed at an activity - willingness on child's part, parental support, expendable income, talent/brains/beauty, it can never be just something the parent's want.
When my oldest two daughters were little, I put them in dancing lessons – for grace and energy and something to do in the community. They would dance in shows several weekends each year, wear several different special costumes and we’d do their hair and make up.
We moved away from that area by the time my youngest daughter Mindy was old enough for dancing school and our new community didn’t have one. So she participated in pageants and cheerleading and it was all pretty much the same thing - family fun on the weekends that involved costumes and performing, with hair and makeup being done.
It takes major bucks though. It usually starts by spotting an ad in the local paper for a little local pageant. It doesn’t cost that much, you buy a dress, they compete, there are plenty of trophys and ribbons and the occasional crown tossed around and *voila* you are hooked! If your child is a winner, you are expected to enter them in the national pageant and that’s where it gets expensive. There’s the travel expenses of course, the entry fee, buying a page in the program, staying at the host hotel for a certain number of nights, fees for all the little sub categories, several changes of outfits – some that aren’t even worn on stage. It costs as much as a family vacation.
You can’t do things in halves either - the clothes have to be pageant quality. And several outfits are needed, such as interview, talent, swimsuit, evening gown, western wear, etc.
Mindy loved doing them and after grad school she came home to stay with me for a few weeks. I was living in Las Vegas then. She found out about a beauty pageant being held in town and thought she’d like to do it for old time’s sake while she was still young enough to qualify. The pageant folks were excited because they needed more entries in the older girl category but insisted that she’d have to book a hotel room for 3 nights in order to enter. We could afford the entry fee and she had the clothes but that hotel room put it right out of our range.
Oh well, I’m glad we were able to pull it off while she was growing up. And let me tell you, if a kid doesn’t want to do it … whatever “it” is (dance, cheerleading, pageants, piano lessons, sports … whatever) no force on earth can get them to do it. Several factors in the universe have to come in to play for a child to succeed at an activity - willingness on child's part, parental support, expendable income, talent/brains/beauty, it can never be just something the parent's want.
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