Your "Little Miss Sunshine"-Would you put your daughter in a beauty pageant?

There's no way I'd ever enter my daughter in a beauty contes. Especially one where the little girls wear make-up and all those skimpy outfits. I don't ever want to give her the message that her self-worth is based on how she looks and not the kind of person she is inside. If se wants to compete in them when she's older and makes her own decisions then that's completely up to her.

i have a 15, 13, and 11 year old daughter. well if they want to join a beauty pagent i am here to support them. but i wont force her to do it just because i want to.

My oldest daughter used to be into modelling and pageants when she was younger. We didn't push this, it was something she loved and wanted to do. Pageants were suggested from her instructor to gain poise. From our experience, it was fun for the most part. I kept telling my daughter that when this was no longer fun, then it was time to quit. We found that some of the mothers were worse than the girls. Like you say, this is do or die for some. When a parent tells her daughter she can't talk to another girl in the pageant, this is taking it too far in my opinion. We also saw a lot of rudeness. Usually a group of girls would enter same pageant that were friends of my daughter and we always talked and got along with each other. If one left bobby pins, they were loaned out. We helped with each other's daughters makeup or whatever needed doing. To sum it up, those that were snobs...are lonely people and in it for the wrong reasons. A girl is not better than another one because she is prettier. Beauty comes from within. My daughter quit doing pageants when she was 14 or 15. She decided that it wasn't worth her time anymore and I was all for it.

I would let my daughter, as long as she really wanted it and UNDERSTOOD that it's not all about looks, it's about the person. I think it could be a great, fun experience for girls. I was offered a few pageants when I was younger but didn't get to do them due to the costs involved, but I would definitely let my daughter, if it's something she really wanted.

I think it's okay if the child herself wants to do it, not some mother that's trying to make up for what she didn't get to do as a little girl. I'd also make sure the pageant didn't put makeup on little girls, that's just plain disturbing to me. Children have natural beauty, they don't need that junk. I also believe pageants should focus more on talent and all the stuff your father made as a criteria. Girls need to know that you can be beautiful, but just based on that you won't get too far in life. I know all the pretty cheerleaders in my highschool are now working minimum wage jobs, it all ends after high school.

I wouldn't mind putting my daughter in a beauty contest/etc if she wanted to go (though I know her father really won't aprove of those kind of things he dosn't even want her wearing anything too "grown up" looking untill she is grown up) I used to do traditional dance when i was young and it involved wearing very expencive costumes and lots of make up and I don't regret doing it and so as other posters have pointed out aslong as the girl wants to do it and it's not the mother getting more obsessed than the child it's ok