Living in an alternate world

As I age, I find myself living in an alternate world more and more.  Or, maybe it's They who are the ones divorced from reality.  I write this having watched 15 minutes or so of a tv show called Toddlers and Tiaras, which follows the lives of families involved in beauty pageants.

The unreality of the show to my mind is that the contestants are kids, really kids.  There was a 22-month old who had already been in 21 pageants.  Her mother and grandmother were both helping her learn her routine, which involved some sort of dancing.  I wondered who was helping the kid become toilet-trained.  Or, is there a need to do so, as the kids are dressed in clothes for grown-ups; some of this clothing is intended to be sexy.  Here are some of the children - 8 to 10 years old - dressed and ready to participate in a pageant.

The parents, almost only the mother, are obviously somewhat odd.  Some are trying to re-live their own pageant days, others are living their own lives through their daughters.  Few of the parents seem as though they can afford the costumes, entry fees and travel expenses they have to shell out.

I suspect that the pageants are a good source of revenue for those who run them.  There must be an entrance fee plus I'm sure there are a lot of 'valuable' services entrants can buy.  The organizers are not stupid.  There is not one winner of the pageant, there are many winners.  This way the parents can believe that next time their child will win.