“Are you crying? No tears. You save those tears for your pillow, in your room, alone. You’re going to humiliate yourself in front of everyone in this dressing room. Do not cry. Suck it up kid,” said Abby Lee Miller, the dance instructor on the Lifetime show Dance Moms.
This is the type of conversation that goes on from the moms and Miller. Conversations similar to this are captured on the camera.
“I don’t like the way the moms push their kids too far because it seems like it’s more of the parents trying to live through their kids instead of the kids wanting to go after what they want,” said sophomore Kenya Lee, a viewer of Dance Moms.
Sophomore Mary Beth Berry thinks that the parents on the show benefit more than the kids; they paid for dance lessons, so they want something out of it.
According to some viewers, kids are being exploited on shows like Dance Moms, Toddlers and Tiaras and Teen Mom.
“In the future, they might have hostilities towards their parents and probably towards what they did; if you exploited them for dance they probably won’t want to be a dancer because they thought that was an abusive thing,” said Lee.
The show Dance Moms is not just about dancing; the camera often captures what happens behind the scenes. There is a room where all of the parents sit while their daughters are at practice. Their conversations certainly show that they are “dance moms.” The moms often criticize each other’s daughters and bash one another. Toddlers and Tiaras also focuses on the moms.
“It’s mothers vicariously living through their daughters because they didn’t have their own experience in a beauty pageant,” said freshman Alyanna Ridimann, who has seen Toddlers and Tiaras.
Junior Morgan McDonnell agrees that the mothers are living through their daughters.
“I think children should have the opportunity to form their own identities and not do something because their mothers wanted them to,” McDonnell said.
When the girls are older there is a chance they could resent their parents. Lee said she would be “embarrassed of the parents” if she were put in that situation.
“I would be mad at my mom for bringing that drama,” sophomore Savannah Castor added.
Freshman Rory O’Dell agrees.
“Dancing should be about the actual athlete or artist, not their parents causing drama,” said O’Dell.
Dance teacher Leah Smith, who has heard of the show but does not watch it, thinks that it is too much about competing and winning, not about dancing.
“I don’t like that it is based on this whole idea of competition and you have to be better than someone,” said Smith.
On the show Teen Mom, the cameramen capture a lot of the moms’ personal lives and what it is like to be a teenager with a child on their own,
Sophomore Brady Jones thinks that the producers make it seem like everyone who is a teen mom will fail, and it is “degrading” to the moms. He also thinks that they capture too much of their lives by having a camera on them all the time.
“I think they intrude on the moms a little more than they should,” said Jones.
– By Anna LaRocco Masi