Alana Thompson is the 6-year-old known as “Honey Boo Boo Child” on TLC’s “Toddlers and Tiaras.” Her huge personality and hilarious antics made her a favorite on the reality show, but she and her mother have also been the subject of several controversies this year. Alana has been seen using “pageant crack” and dancing on a bar. Yesterday, mother June Shannon defended her daughter on HLN. You’ve Gotta Watch this pageant family.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
You mothers just don't realize what you are doing ? You need to let your child be a child. When they get older you are going to see the monster's you created. And like another famous monster of old, the villagers will be coming with their torches and pitchforks. And all this because you want to live vicariously through your daughters.
You hit the nail right on the head. Why do people do that to their kids, just like pushing them mercilessly to be the best at everything. To me, that is a form of child abuse.
with all due respect Bobcat...they are ALREADY monsters. We are too late to save them
Those kids would be better off in a foster home.
All that poor kid has to do is to look to her left (at her Mom) to see herself in the future. How depressing!
When I was three, I begged my mom to let me do gymnastics. I always had the option to stop if I wanted to, but I never wanted to. Even though the workouts were tough and meets took up most of my Saturdays, I still wanted to do it. The point I am trying to make is that these little girls probably enjoy what they are doing. If they didn't, they probably wouldn't be doing it. I don't see it as child abuse or wrong in any way as long as the kiddo is having fun.
and if the kid enjoyed posing nude for sickos, that would be okay with you?
@mmmiller85, do you seriously think most children would enjoy posing nude for people? I don't. These girls aren't posing nude, they are just participating in a beauty pageant. Besides, I'm pretty sure having children pose nude is illegal. Beauty pageants are not.
I think gymnastics are quite different from what those kids are doing. All that make up, the hair, the moves – they are way too young for that. Giving them soda – no wonder this country has all the ADD's.
Did your Mom ever make you do gymnastics on a bar in front of a bunch of drunk adults???
@Melanie, you might be surprised at how similar gymnastics and beauty pageants really are. I had to sit for an hour to have my hair braided and hairsprayed in a style that wouldn't fall out, and it hurt. Then we dressed up in tiny leotards and did routines with often suggestive moves. Gymnastics is all about showing off the body's power and its range of movement. Beauty pageants are about showing off period.
@Bryan, no, I danced on poles. I was always better at that anyway.
They have had girls on there crying and begging not to do it anymore and the moms keep pushing. Not all the girls. And even more girls yet beg not to be spray tanned, or have the fake teeth in. Some girls cry from putting the fake hair in. One episode I caught had just that. Another girl in that episode was bawling and hated having her eyebrows waxed (she was 6 or 7). But the moms keep pushing.
They have had girls on there crying and begging not to do it anymore and the moms keep pushing. And even more girls yet beg not to be spray tanned, or have the fake teeth in. Some girls cry from putting the fake hair in. One episode I caught had just that. Another girl in that episode was bawling and hated having her eyebrows waxed (she was 6 or 7). But the moms keep pushing.
@Seola, I understand where you are coming from. However, just because a little girl didn't want to get spray tanned doesn't mean she wants to quit doing pageants. I cried while pulling quarter sized chunks of skin off my hands, that doesn't mean I wanted to stop doing gymnastics. Little girls cry, it is what they do. If a little girl really doesn't want to do it anymore, they won't do it.
You had a choice and that is great. If you listen to these parents, these kids do not. These mothers are living vicariously through her children, or at the very least attempting to profit from the kids talent. Either way it is child abuse. Shame on the parents and shame on the network for producing this. I thought Jersey Shore was the lowest network would stoop.
@JBpa, I've seen the show several times and have even been a volunteer at a couple of local pageants, and a lot of the parents are actually anti-glitz. They don't spray tan, they don't do the flappers, and they do light make-up. The parents who go for the full glitz would let their kid stop any time they wanted. I am sure there are a few parents who really do push their children, but they are few and far between. You find parents like that in anything. Not just in the pageant world.
Are you a parent? because if you are you know your child will do whatever you want them to do because they love , respect and want to please you. that does not mean that they want to do it. how many childern have sumitted to an abuser because they thought it would please them and make them happy even though it hurt them and they knew it was not the right thing to do? Most of the moms on this show (not all but most) are living their dreams thru their child! if you dig deep you'll find it is the moms dream not the childs.
Amazing, you need a licence to drive a car, get married, own a firearm, fly a plane, drive a motorcycle, but the most important thing in the world, children, requires no screening, unfortunatley any idiot can procreate and any underachieving parent can to try to live the life they wish they had through their 6 yr old daughters. Ridiculous.
I was thinking the same thing. This family is just like so many of the welfare families we see with overweight children. They have no concept of normal child-rearing practices. It is obvious that the parents feed her junk food and tons of soda. Some may think her "baby fat" is acceptable for now, but it will become an issue when she is 12 years old and weighs 200 lbs. Won't be anything cute about her then. She'll just look like a carbon copy of her fat mother!
And then the being fat will be blamed on a Thyroid problem.
Listen, this mother isn't interested in anything we have to say! She obviously has her own self esteem issues, and that reflects perfectly in her daughter. Poor kid. She looks horrible in that makeup. I honestly feel sorry for her. But hey mom...if you really love your kid, put her on a healthy diet, yourself included!! Trying to cover yours and her issues with all that makeup and attention grabber crap isn't going to make anything better.
What kid hasn't inhaled pixy sticks?
Agreed.
Bottom line is that 6-yr olds have no room in a bar.....period! The mother should be arrested for child endangerment and solicitation.
agreed...I know the Bar where she was at as my daughter goes the the university in that town and it is just that a BAR...yes they have concerts there for the college students...but it is still a BAR and if this mother thinks otherwise she is just fooling herself....
Daddy likey
I, for one, hate toddlers and tiaras. The moms get there child and say "hey kids you can just like that model on TV!" and they completely believe because they are kids. But, like the other comments say, they keep pushing and pushing and pushing.
At least her mother is giving the child her attention and I would assume some form of love. I would much rather see this child succeed at something, than be completely ignored by her mother as some little ones are. Every family can't be the Brady's, and I can think of worse fates for a little girl than being a Jr. beauty contestant!
@ Portland tony
There are a lot more and better constructive ways to show attention to your children. These mothers push their babies through all this just so they can brag to their friends of their accomplisments. And I'm talking about the mothers who feel THEY acheived something through their babies. Most likely because they were unable to do it in their sorry lives.
@Zoe I'm sure you are doing very well on the pole! Trust me, I'm not a conservative or a ultra uptight prude, I just think that girls that young shouldn't be paraded around pretending to be adults, let them be kids. Pageants are one thing, but taking her to a bar and getting her to dance on it for a bunch of adults is just wrong, and I really don't see how anyone can justify it. What's next, she's the headliner at Coyote Ugly? (and not when she's 18 but when she's 7??)
@Bryan, the pole comment was sarcasm. I wasn't defending this mother or her actions in particular, I was defending pagaents in general. Most people see things like this and automatically assume that pageants are a bad thing. They aren't. These kids do get to be kids. I was trying to say that a lot of these children actually do enjoy what they are doing.
Yay. Let's excite the pedos and make money. Yay.
Sorry but toddlers and tiara's is just plain creepy to me. *chills*
There is something inherently wrong with putting the words 'toddlers' and 'tiaras' in the same sentence, let alone being the basis of a television show.