Having a bad case of insomnia leaves you with very little television choices in the late night hours. There is Paid Programming, Paid Programming and more Paid Programming. And then, there’s reruns (or re-broadcasts) of “Toddlers and Tiaras” on TLC. During one of these recent episodes of insomnia my channel surfing landed me on TLC at 2:00 a.m. with these little “beauties” and their pushy mothers.

I probably should have changed the channel, because the longer I watched the more repulsed I became. I was fascinated with what was going on in the whole process of these little toddler pageants…and if you haven’t watched it yet then let me tell you it’s not “All Child’s Play“.

These  little girls are devoting their childhoods to  traveling from pageant to pageant, spending hours and hours having their hair done, their teeth fixed, their bodies spray tanned, etc. etc. only to be disappointed when they don’t win the “Best All Round” crown or the big money prizes.  Many of these little toddlers come on stage extremely scantilly clad and do provocative dances for the judges (some only 2 and 3 years old!!).

Then there’s the moms (and in some cases dads).  In my opinion these moms are all trying to find their own way to fame through their daughters, all the while telling themselves that this is the life their daughters have chosen.  BALONEY!!!  90% of these mothers could use total makeovers themselves!  Rather than investing their time and money into turning their daughters into little divas, they should put that investment and energy into themselves.  Maybe if these mothers felt better about themselves they wouldn’t need to try and live their dreams through their children.

Half of the families of these little toddler contestants showed up in broken down vans, yet they are spending thousands and thousands of dollars each month on costumes, spray tans, acting lessons, wigs, entry fees and travel.  They are making huge financial sacrifices just to pump up their own self-esteem and climb their way up the ladder of fame through their daughters.

And what does this show and these competitions say to the kids?  Does it tell them they’re not good enough unless they win?  Or you’re not pretty or cute enough just as you are?  The episode I watched had this little “Eden” (spelling?) smart mouthing and spouting off to her mother and everyone else around her.  She was literally the type of child you’d never want your kids to hang out with or play with.  She was sassy and cocky as could be, repeating over and over again how she was the best!

Obviously, putting pressure on your child to win the “most handsome” award is probably not the greatest thing in the world for the child. Is the show entertaining? Yes….but having a toddler compete for a tiara is not child’s play and these parents need to rethink what they are doing to their kids.  Entertaining or not, it’s not a show I want to support because I just can’t get behind what these parents are doing to these kids.

Early childhood years are the most formative years for our children, and it leaves me wondering what may happen to these little toddlers once the tiarras are no more.

My son’s been asking me if I’d seen the Plasma Cars yet.   Apparently they took their son (our grandson Colton) to the toy store a couple months ago and couldn’t pull him out of the store because he fell in love with these little kid’s vehicles.

I had no idea what my son was talking about, but then a few weeks ago we were on a bike ride and ran into several kids riding these little wiggle cars on the bike path.   They were hilarious and the kids looked like they were having a blast on them.  We explained them to our son and he declared “those are the plasma cars we were telling you about”.   “We’ll take 3 of them for Christmas if you don’t know what else to get us”.

What??…they only have one son so who were the other two for?  Well, turns out that it’s not just the kids who love these little vehicles.  They are apparently quite the hit with all of the “BIG KIDS” too.  Even though they’re really low to the ground and more kid sized…adults are also taking to the sidewalks and streets on these crazy things and that’s why my son wanted 3 of them.

Here’s what I mean:

Plasma Car Joe:

This Mom Is Like A Kid In the Candy Store With Her PlasmaCar:

Now let’s see what the kids can do with these little kid’s ride ons (oh…and Mom too):

I’m admittedly now officially  hooked on these things. I went to the toy store and took a little test run on one myself (took Colton with me so I wouldn’t look too foolish)..and they are a kick!   Soooo…I had to get some for our online children’s toy store.   I must have been living in the dinosaur ages these past few years, but I’m now with it and the kids will be getting their 3 new Plasma Cars for Christmas, so when Grandma and Grandpa go visit we can ride them too.