I’ve been writing so much lately, partly in preparation for the release of Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture (have I mentioned you can pre-order it now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or the University of California Press’ website?!), that I decided to do a writing round-up this week. These four different [...]
When I read Matt Richtel’s article, “The Competing Views on Competition,” last month in The New York Times I couldn’t stop thinking about what one of the chess moms I met told me while I was researching Playing to Win: “Raising kids is a big experiment and I won’t know till later if I did [...]
This article originally appeared on The Huffington Post Books. “My life has been one big audition.” This is the first line of Elizabeth Eulberg’s latest young adult novel, Take a Bow [Scholastic, April 1, 2012]. Take a Bow follows four young performers–two songwriters, one singer, and an actor–through their senior year at the fictional New [...]
Princess means that you’re a loser! A lot of feminists might agree with this sentiment– especially with the recent release of Disney’s newest princess targeted at the preschool set, Sofia the First. But it was a child beauty pageant mom who uttered this line during the continuing fourth season of TLC’s Toddlers & Tiaras, which [...]
CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ON THE HUFFINGTON POST BOOKS! It’s no wonder that young adult readers are fascinated by the world of competitive ballet. Even if they aren’t dancers themselves, teens are drawn in by the all-consuming dance world (made more intriguing by the general absence of parents) and the focus on romance as [...]
One weekend I went shopping at a mall in downtown Boston—and was transported into another culture. A hotel, connected to the mall, was hosting an Irish dancing competition (or “feis”). My friend turned to me and asked, “Wait, is this a child beauty pageant, or something else?” With the bobbing heads full of Shirley Temple-like [...]
During the summer of stage mothers, Lifetime’s Dance Moms emerged as a breakout hit for the network. From its debut in mid-July 2011 to its season finale this past week, the show steadily attracted more viewers (up 62% since its premiere). With about 1.6 million watching each episode, it’s not surprising that the network has [...]
This has certainly been the summer of stage mothers– at least on television. We have the Dance Moms on Lifetime, who continue to bring the crazy. If anything, it’s ramping up as the Abby Lee Dance Company prepares for its big “nationals” in Tahoe. Stay tuned for a smackdown with Crazy Cathy from Candy Apples… [...]
Wednesdays at 10 pm are really must-see-TV for me. Thanks to my DVR I can watch TLC’s tried and true Toddlers & Tiaras and Lifetime’s newcomer, Dance Moms. I’ve long said that in many ways competitive dance and child beauty pageants have a lot in common. Imagine if JonBenét had been a competitive dancer and [...]
Whenever children participate in activities, including unsupervised play or organized non-competitive activities, they acquire skills through socialization. This is also true of participation in organized activities which do not have an explicitly competitive element, as I have argued before. But many activities that were previously non-competitive have been transformed from environments that only emphasized learning [...]
