Custody at Risk After 'Toddlers & Tiaras' Star Wears Controversial Outfit

[azurnoir]

The woman who dressed her young daughter as Dolly Parton - complete with a padded bra and sculpting underwear - for a child beauty pageant that aired on TLC's "Toddlers & Tiaras" could lose custody of the girl after her estranged husband claimed she sexually exploited their daughter by allowing her to dress so provocatively.

Little Maddy Verst's appearance in the costume on an episode of the controversial TLC program sparked a firestorm of criticism against her mother, Lindsay.

Her father, Bill Verst, has asked a Kentucky court to grant him sole custody of his daughter, who is now 6.

During a court proceeding Saturday, a judge threw reporters out of the courtroom, closed the hearing and placed a gag order on mother Lindsay Jackson. The judge also imposed a ban on any pageant activity for Maddy or her mother for the duration of the trial.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/custody-risk-toddlers-tiaras-star-wears-fake-boobs-122003383--abc-news-tv.html

I've seen the show exactly once, and speaking as the Mom of 3 daughters I have to ask WTF is wrong with these people? How is dressing a little girl up like an adult putting her in heavy make-up and artificial looking hairstyles and having her make what look like flirtatious looks towards the judges considered pretty or okay?

[Skittles]

1. I hope he wins

those "contests" are child abuse and exploitation

[azurnoir]

2. me too n/t

[Care Acutely]

3. So Dan Abrams defends the practice of making 4 year-olds look "doable." Nice.

All of those poor kids should be taken away, imo. It's just SICK.

[Kalidurga]

4. My youngest daughter had me watch this show with her. It was awful.

A lot of the kids are brats, their moms worse. I hate the idea of kiddie pageants. However a couple of questions.

1. What if there was no custody battle? Should the state have remove children from parents who put their children in these pageants?

2. If the state doesn't do this as a matter of course, they aren't they complicit in child abuse or neglect or whatever is claimed here?

3. What if it was a Halloween costume?

4. What about dance moms and dads? Those costumes tend to be even more revealing.

5. What other activities are we willing to take custody from parents over? Jesus camp? Jesus camp is pretty abusive imo.

6. How about Hockey moms. Hockey is pretty brutal. Maybe football too, kids can get hurt rather bad in football too.

7. What about obese children, clearly the parents aren't feeding their children right or getting them to exercise.

8. How about children who do poorly in school? You can bet there are all kinds of problems at home.

[Quantess]

5. Gross.

These moms have some psychological issue that they need to work out on thier own, and not subject their daughters to it.

What would people say if these moms took it just one step further started dressing up their sons as showgirls, hookers, large breasted celebrities? Oh but THAT would be wrong!!!! Well in my opinion, it is just as bad to dress up little girls like that as it would be to dresss up little boys the same way for a public display. Why is it okay to dress up any child that way, and parade them around on stage?

[customerserviceguy]

6. I've been waiting for a case like this

I hope the father wins completely, and the whole kiddie-slut pageant industry just goes away.

[Care Acutely]

7. +1

The whole idea of sexy toddlers is

It's just abuse. Pure and simple.