Let me back up. RP participated in her first "pageant" on Saturday and seemed to LOVE it. I wasn't too sure about leaving the decision to do this up to a three-year old, but what the heck - it was a natural pageant at a local mall, not too expensive, and outside of the entry fees our investment was the $6.00 hair clips I found to match her Easter dress. Why not?
We showed up at the mall 10 minutes before it opened because the registration rules stated that we had to register an hour before the even started, and it was scheduled to start at 11 a.m. - one hour after the mall opened. I was third in line for registration and somewhat surprised that it wasn't more chaotic. Clearly in this neck of the woods people aren't clamouring to parade their children around on stage at 11:00 on a Saturday morning. After registration I had an hour to kill with an active three-year old who was dressed up, hair done, and looking to do more than stand around and preserve this look until AFTER the judging had taken place.
I try to think of myself as a good mom, and I had reservations about doing this from the start. RP gets compliments on her looks all the time, and I have really been working hard to let her know that while it is great to be beautiful on the outside, it's what inside that truly matters. Looks don't last forever - personality, and how we treat others does. I think she gets it. I hope she gets it. Then I ask myself if I am a complete study in contradiction for entering her into something where she says not a word but dresses up, stands on stage, and is encouraged to smile and blow kisses to three people she has never met before, clearly being "judged" only by how she looks??? Hmmm....
She wanted to do it - to the point that she actually took time (all of about five minutes most days, but at her age, five minutes is a LIFETIME) to practice walking all alone, pretending to be on-stage. She told me she wanted to be a princess (not to be confused with those days she wants to be a superhero, or a rock star, or a doctor...) and win a crown and a trophy. Okee dokee - seals it for me. She doesn't need to know that EVERYONE who enters wins a crown, right?
She loved her pageant experience. Me? Well, the judge and jury are still out? I love dressing her up and having Mommy/daughter time with her, and Nana and Papa came out and showed their support (with Nana encouraging her from the crowd by cheering and blowing kisses at her, and Papa acting as chief photographer of the big event), and I have to say that watching her step onstage and have fun with it, instead of being scared or timid was great. She's NOT shy, which is something I have struggled with my entire life, and she loved being the center of attention in the big crowd, although I don't think the judges were as impressed with her onstage spins as Mommy was!
There were two parts I did not enjoy. First off, the fact that I found myself sizing up the "competition" (there was ONE other little girl in RP's age division. One. I didn't even see her until we had to line up to go onstage, so my "sizing up" was of the wrong little girls in the first place!) and even being somewhat catty about what some of these kids were wearing (FYI - in my defense, I found it wrong and Saturday, and still find it wrong today that a mother put her five-year old in light make-up, a short dress, and 3-inch zip-up gold lame' heels - and no, I'm not even exaggerating here!). Being catty about kids just felt wrong, and made for an "icky" feeling before the even even started! Secondly, after the event I found myself mad that RP didn't win the overall queen title for her age division. Now, she won FIVE medals (I can't even tell you what they were for), a trophy for Most Photogenic, and then first-runner up for her age group while the little girl that won only won one other medal, then queen for the division. Let me say for the record that the other little girl and her mother were very sweet, and I was happy to see her so excited to win. I just didn't get how this scoring system worked, and to me it just didn't seem to add up. That being said, perhaps "mad" was the wrong word to use here - I was confused by the whole thing and frustrated that I couldnt' figure it out, but RP didn't know or care about any of this - she got her trophy (and a bonus one to boot!) AND she got her princess crown that she had been talking about all week, which made it all worthwhile. If that weren't enough, RP, who normally goes by her initials and not her full name, insisted the entire day that she be referred to by her full name only, as it was a princess name and she was a princess for the day.
Will we do it again? Honestly - dunno. I have asked RP a few times since yesterday if she wants to do it again and sometimes the answer is "yes," and sometimes it's "no." What I do know is that if she wants to do it again we will, but in the same type of event - low key, no make-up, no tanning, no fake hair, etc. etc. etc. I'm fine with big poufy dresses and curly-que hair, but that's where we draw the line. As long as she is happy with it, wants to do it, and has fun with it, we can try just about anything. They always say that you never know about something until you've tried it, and this is something that we can say we tried... and the smile on her face at the end of it was worth it all!
No comments:
Post a Comment