"Toddlers & Tiaras" or "Little Miss Perfect" Is This Okay Part 5

This appears to be one of the most volatile pageants I've watched in a long time. The three contestants that we will be discussing in this article will be participating in the Gold Coast Pageant held in Arizona. We will see the worst and the best in parent coaches.

From Lake Havasu, Arizona, eight year old Allyssa Privett does not like to lose pageants. In fact her mother Amanda pulled her out of pageants for awhile because her daughter became mad when she didn't win one time. In fact she kicked the judges in the chest. Her mother was Gold Coast Royalty in the Plus Size category and claims her daughter will be too. At the same event, her daughter was in the pre-teen division. Mom did better that day, and she reminds Allyssa of that quite often.

Allyssa has a new full length dress that cost about $1200.00. It's a little snug, so mom decides that Allyssa must go on a fruit/veggie diet. I don't understand why a $1200.00 dress can't be made to a comfortable fit. This isn't the first time mom has placed her daughter on a diet. Grandma, Artina Smith supports her granddaughter and attends her pageants, but she wasn't thrilled with them at first. She does not agree with the dieting at all. She believes she is a healthy little girl, and dieting is absurd.

Allyssa states that her mom yells a lot as they get close to pageant day. Mom threatens to take her daughter out of the pageant every time she feels like she's not cooperating. Allyssa is definitely under a lot of stress and states that sometimes she feels like she's competing against her mom. Allyssa is told that if she doesn't do better and quit whining during her horse riding lesson that mom will pull her out of the pageant.

During Allyssa's practice session, mom is stating, the fact that she is pregnant, may cause her to be more stressed out than usual. According to her daughter, it's pretty much the norm. Allyssa and her mom fight while she practices her modeling and mom again asks Allyssa, "why should I waste all the money we spend on this pageant, if you're not going to try?" Mom is domineering, threatening, and controlling in my opinion. Allyssa doesn't have a lot to say in how she participates in the pageant or in her routines. There is nothing about this process that is fun for Allyssa, with the exception of winning. If there is no win, I can see why Allyssa may resort to kicking the judges, because that's probably easier and less threatening than dealing with mom.

The first thing you hear come out of mom's mouth on the pageant day is, "Do you want to get smacked?" Pregnant or not pregnant, mom is out of control. If she wants to instill confidence in her daughter, she might start by treating her with respect and giving her some say in her routines.

From Kingman Arizona, At the age of 4, Samantha Ogborn can already claim quite a few wins. Her mom states that everyone just adores her smile. Her mom Allison Ogborn states her daughter is still too young to understand the winning or losing part of participating in pageants, She states she's just having fun. We don't see too many dads in these pageant shows, but Samantha's dad, Ricky Ray Ogborn is very supportive of his daughter. He doesn't have a competitive bone in his body, but he loves it when his daughter is happy.He plays with her. She dresses him up, puts makeup and crowns on him. He's a good sport and genuinely loves his daughter.

Samantha has a modeling coach and eagerly learns her routine. Her dad is there too, and he really makes it fun for his daughter. He'll dress up funny and dance right along side of her to make her laugh.Samantha has a very natural stage presence. She just smiles and enjoys her dance thoroughly which is what every judge wants to see. Her father makes her practice sessions even more fun. Sam gets her hair and nails done at a salon in preparation for the pageant. She loved it and wants to come back often. She said she feels like a princess now.

When they arrive at the pageant, mom gets upset when she realizes that one of the judges is a grandmother to a girl that Samantha has gone against several times. She feels that this judge will slam Samantha and hurt her chances of winning ever though the granddaughter is not competing that day.

From Bakersfield, California, Charlie Kendrick, is age 4 Mom, Jennifer practices with her daughter every day. She states that she is lucky if she can get 30 minutes of practice out of her. Her talent routine is an Elvis style dance routine. She takes a cape off about midpoint in the routine. Charlie has a strong personality and so does mom.That's a recipe for a lot of conflict and anger.

Charlie has a photo shoot with a professional photographer, but she doesn't want to have anything to do with it. Ashly David, the photographer tries to coax Charlie through some poses in an attempt to get a good picture, but Charlie is having nothing to do with it. Somehow they get through it, but it wasn't fun for mom, Charlie or the photographer.

Charlie cries as her mom pulls her into her gymnastics lesson. Her tumbling coach, Michael Chow has a strong enough personality to keep Charlie working hard once they get her to quit crying. He's tough but also patient with her and his expectations are more age appropriate than moms. Charlie has developed some degree of skill in gymnastics which they utilize in her talent dance routine.

When the parents are stressed out, the children clearly become more agitated.

Charlie is not very cooperative during the hair and makeup. Mom tries to physically hold her into the seat, so the hair and makeup artist can get done. The rules for Gold Coast are that they have they're own hair and makeup people and you are not allowed to bring in your own.

Samantha's mom is getting upset when she realizes that the makeup person is overwhelmed and behind. Thirty minutes before she is suppose to go on, Samantha is still in line waiting to get her hair and makeup done. While mom Allison is freaking out, dad just laughs to try to get her to relax. He reminds her, "This is just for fun, right honey?".

The pageant director actually had to hold up the pageant and wait for Sabrina to get ready. That was the right thing to do, since it was their makeup/hair artist that was behind. They also brought in a new set of judges for Samantha's age division also to ensure every girl had an equal chance. So Samantha's mom is calming down finally.

Beauty/Evening Wear

When Charlie takes the stage for Evening Gown, she is precious. Her teal blue and white dress is adorable, but her smile is more professional looking. Sometime that comes off as insincere. That being said, she does smile and her modeling is good also.

When Samantha takes the stage her beautiful pale blue and green dress highlights her blond hair. She has a more genuine, less professional smile.She also does well on her modeling.

Alyssa is worried about her dress not fitting. She states that if her dress doesn't fit, mom gets mad, and that's not a good thing. Her full length white dress with hot pink trim fits her very well and looks beautiful on her. She also has a great smile, and strong modeling skills. She has to remind herself to take it slow, so she doesn't go too fast and rush off the stage. That's human nature when we know we're being scrutinized.

Bathing Beauty Portion

Samantha has an adorable pink and white floral bathing suit with a little skirt. As Samantha is performing her routine, mom and dad realize that their daughter has stopped doing her routine and is now looking off stage and following someone who is coaching her from the side. They can't see from the audience who it is, but after Samantha performs, mom goes straight back stage to see who was coaching her daughter. It ended up being a pageant mom who volunteers to help get the kids on and off stage and just generally make sure things run smooth. Her intentions were probably good, but to start coaching a little girl she's never met before from off stage hurt the little girl on several fronts. First of all the little girl turns her attention to the person coaching her. Now she's not even looking at the judges, she's slight turned to the side. She's not performing the routine she practiced, because the person coaching her doesn't evern know her, let alone her routine. When Samantha's mom questioned the helpful assistant, she didn't like the answer. She promptly told her to stay away from her daughter.

Charlie has a hot pink glittery swimsuit with an adorable sailor style hat. She also had a pink and white innertube looking prop that was also cute. She forgot a couple small parts of her routine, but mom helped her from the audience and she got back on and finished well. Mom ran back stage as she came off stage and asked her daughter, "What was that?" You forgot? Did you forget your routine? She was not even taking into consideration her daughter's feelings. Mom also yelled at the emcee that her daughters name was Charlie, not Carly. A more discreet whisper later on would have showed more poise and class on her part.

Allyssa, had a dark blue polka dot suit with red trim. Mom put heels on her, because she's getting older and mom feels it looks better. Allyssa came out and did her favorite move which is a snorkel move where she hold her nose with her hand and kind of shimmys down. Mom jumped up from the audience and yelled at her during her performance to stop doing that move, because she felt that the move was to young for her age division. It appears that Alyssa did it on purpose, despite the fact that if was not what they rehearsed. Alyssa was claiming some of her power back, I think.

Talent

Mom believes that Charlie's talent is phenomenal. Charlie comes out with her Elvis shades and cape. She is again, in hot pink. She tries to do a balance move where she holds her leg up above her head.She can't do it, and she couldn't do it well when they rehearsed either, It wasn't very smart of mom to put in a new move, before her daughter could execute it well. She does do a couple strong cartwheels though.

Samantha sings Yankee Doodle for her talent. The only problem was that when the music got started, Sam forgot to sing at first. Then she sang it acapella. She did well, but if there were any American Idol judges in the audience, she probably didn't get any offers. Cute little girl with a cute little girl voice.

Awards

Samantha and Charlie are in the same age division. It's called the "Tiny Miss Division". First they announce the Specialty Awards.

Samantha won "Prettiest Smile", "Miss Personality", and "Most Charm".

Charlie won "Best Attire"

After the special awards, everyone is cleared off the stage and waits to hear who placed as Attendants and Queen of their age division.

Charlie got 2nd Attendant. After they announced that, mom screamed out from the audience, "2nd Attendant, Are you kidding me?" Charlie's mom stated that maybe she should have just let her daughter come out and shake her but, and perhaps she would have placed better.

Samantha was crowned as Queen of the Tiny Miss age division. She received a beautiful crown, a large trophy, and a banner.

In the 8 to 10 year old division:

Alyssa was awarded the special awards of "Most Beautiful Face", and "Sweetheart Queen".

Alyssa received 2nd Attendant as well. Alyssa states, "I got 2nd runner up and that means I'm a loser", as tears filled her eyes. Alyssa says she wants to quit pageants and mom states, "You're not going to quit pageants." Alyssa turns to the camera man and tells him to go away.

Charlie's mom decides that they're not going to go to pageants they would normally attend, because they don't want to go against Samantha for awhile.

My Observations:

The only parent who got it right in this episode was Samantha's father. Her mom does a pretty good job also, but her stress level puts a lot of pressure on her daughter whether she thinks so or not.

Charlie's mom claims her daughter had the most poise of all the girls in the pageant. If she does, it won't be because she learned it from mom. Mom is modeling the worst possible behavior with a total lack of poise or sportsmanship. Mom is also clueless to the fact that Charlie doesn't seem to want to participate in any of this. So why are they doing pageants? She will do immeasurable harm to her daughter if she doesn't figure out her true motives behind pageant participation.

At the very beginning of the show, Allyssa, states that she likes winning, but not that she likes pageants. She has a great stage presence, and probably could enjoy herself if she had any say over anything. Mom is too controlling, too stressed out, and too threatening. She takes the fun out of something that should be a lot of fun.