Benefits of Toddler Pageants

Although many people are totally against toddler pageants, they can be a lot of fun. When handled correctly, child pageants can be an exciting and rewarding experience for their young contestants, believe it or not. It all has to do with how the parents handle being involved with pageantry.

My oldest granddaughter began with toddler pageants a couple of months before she turned two. Her older cousin, who isn’t one of my grandchildren, was competing in a pageant in our area and she convinced us to enter my granddaughter, who I’ll call “Mary.” Mary has always looked up to her older cousin, so she was all excited about doing something with her. Of course, Mary was too young at the time to understand what a pageant was. I think this is actually a plus with toddler pageants because the kids don’t understand the concept of competition or of winning and losing. To them, child pageants are fun events in which they get to play with lots of other kids their age.

Mary loved doing that first pageant, which was just the beginning of her “pageant career.” She made lots of new friends, and she always looked forward to seeing them at the next pageant. She had always been a little shy before, but once she began pageantry, she became very outgoing and seldom met a stranger. She had no problem striking up a friendship with a total stranger, which we found to be a nice benefit from toddler pageants.