The Non-Pageant Mom

Before you get any ideas...I won't be spouting off my opinions in this post.  I'm actually sharing Kyndall's first little pageant from Independence Day..

Photo by Daddy...Mommy was her escort :)

I honestly just don't get pageants.  I mean, from the mom perspective.  I think it's the same way I don't get hockey, or others don't get The Office or basketball.  Make sense?  Public figures like this don't help...

(Photo: Twitter/Sydney Long)

However, as a little girl I did a few pageants, and had a blast.  It was so much fun to wear a pretty dress, have all eyes on me {something I now haaaate}, and go to celebrate my loss after.  I never won :P  I'm a super competitive person, so when I accepted looks were not my strongest attribute, I never did another pageant.

So. Fast forward a million years, and another million "Ohhh, she's so pretty! Does she do pageants?" comments later to the annual Marmaduke 4th of July Picnic, and Miss Liberty Bell pageants.

Adorably quaint, right?

This pageant is what the pro's call "Natural", and the dress was Sunday attire.  No flippers, or flappers, or whatever those false teeth things are.  No spray tans.  No jeweled dresses.  Kyndall really wanted to participate {for the first time ever}, so we signed up.  I put her in a cute little twirly dress, pulled her hair back, slapped in a borrowed bow, and never mentioned a crown, winning, trophies or judges.  I told her we were going to go on stage and let everyone see her pretty dress.

And she was pumped.  Super pumped to show off how it twirled...

She was so precious out there.  She smiled, waved, twirled, and said "HI, (insert name)!" to each familiar face she saw in the audience.  She beamed.  We went out on stage four separate times, and she wanted to stay out longer each time!  After the last time, we were waiting for The Results.  I'm not going to get into details, but I was so saddened by the reactions of some of the mothers in the back.  Hateful remarks about girls who didn't know not to wear make-up, demands on their babies to "shut-up and be still", just rotten behavior.  It saddened me because I felt like I understood their reactions.

We each felt 100% confident our daughter was far and away the most beautiful girl in the competition.  We wanted to win.  I had played down the competition aspect completely to Kyndall because of my own crazy competitive nature.  I have to handicap it or it consumes me.  I feel the grumpy moms were just consumed with that desire to win, to prove to...I don't really know, the audeince?...that their baby girl was beautiful.  The truth is, every girl in the pageant was beautiful.  Absolutely beautiful.  I began to regret the decision to let her do the pageant, fearing she would take a loss as a, "You aren't pretty enough."  Instead, she was upset by the few mean spirits in the room, climbed in my lap, and asked, "Mommy, when can we leave?"  

Then, they opened the door and called out the winners, "1st Alternate, Contestant number one, Kyndall".  She turned and looked at me with a furrowed brow, which obviously asked, "What were all those words they just said before my name??!"  I told her she got to go out on stage one more time...again, she beamed as she {for real} sprinted to the end of the catwalk.

Oh, me?  I'm juss Kyndall :)

When they gave her the tiny little trophy she had one question...

"Why did they give me a cup?"

She was just as excited about the gold sticker on the bottom as she was about 'winning'.  Annnnd no...I did not correct my [then] three year old when she began telling family she "won at her pageant".  I did, however, make sure to mention that we had fun.  Her competitive side will grow and show it's head soon.  I have no desire to rush it.