-
TV Social
Login
Recent Comments
- zbird: I feel like we need to discuss Mary’s perm! LOL!
- zbird: Potty, are you coming back? Soon? I’m dying here! xoxoxoxo
- lestermaddox: I was glad that Kellie won this season – she really deserved it. While Zendaya has obvious dance...
- Faye: If her clothing line is unsucessful she could join forces with the other Corey for that Goonies sequel we were...
- Tracy: But that dress! Could be Itchy’s scary new avatar!
- plockness monster: I have been racking my brain to figure out who she looks like in that pic and I figured it out....
- plockness monster: She wears a wig?!
- Kammie: Nads- I totally did the same thing with the toilet paper roll and dryer sheets. Plus we would spray...
- crazy rooster: Those poor kids. Geez the Ps are all fucked up
- crazy rooster: Charged with reckless endangerment. That covers a lot of ground.
Hot Shows
-
Fresh Tweets!
- RT @YAMAMASBOX: TYVM! #FF RT@chris_lala @RHOGossip @TVGasm @catommanney @iRealHousewives @RealityLick @GretchenRossi @itsNABIL @glasscloset… 7 hours ago
- RT @bbwraven: #FF @WhatCrappens not only the best Bravo podcast but the funniest! Thx u hosts @bsideblog @TVGasm @lifeontheMlist plus they… 7 hours ago
- RT @SioMonroe: #FF (our friendship might be in question if you don't) @WhatCrappens @lifeontheMlist @bsideblog @TVGasm @timmonslisa @flipit… 7 hours ago
- What is it funny or something? #arresteddevelopment #season4 #top10tv #memorialdaymarathon goo.gl/4uLOy @netflix 18 hours ago
- Forget Pamplona Spain, The Icing of the Balls in the ATL is where it's at #DontBeTardy Recap goo.gl/Vk9nT @Kimzolciak 18 hours ago
- "Go forth and keep Portland weird." #NBCGrimm Recap goo.gl/VmGMo @MrReggieLee @Just_Monroe 1 day ago
- Jenn's crotch is bullying me! #badgirlsclub Recap goo.gl/2O7re 1 day ago
- Can you give me your peanut butter and jelly sandwich recipe? #Married2Med Recap goo.gl/qEqe8 1 day ago
- RT @stoopidhsewives: @BravoTV #WWHL Beats @ChelseaLately in Ratings... @TVGasm "It's TV!" With Ronnie and Carrie … wp.me/p19GVk-gv6 v… 1 day ago
- All chained up an no place to go #Revolution Recap goo.gl/LtIzN @nbcrevolution @nbc 1 day ago
- Thought you might like our version of #Newlyweds ! tvgasm.com/home/behind-th… xo @blairlate 1 day ago
- New epi of IT's TV!! tvgasm.com/home/behind-th… @gracehelbig @lanyardtwerk @aguywithnolife @laurensivan @thewrap @zap2it @nikkifinke @logotv 1 day ago
- New epi of IT's TV!! tvgasm.com/home/behind-th… @fuggirls @pajiba @vulture @sepinwall @queermeup @thebravoblonde @previouslyTV @jeffreestar 1 day ago
- New epi of IT's TV!! tvgasm.com/home/behind-th… @deggans @sarahthyre @jonathanadler @theavclub @roblowe @thebravoholic @jarettsays @bravopr 1 day ago
- New epi of IT's TV!! tvgasm.com/home/behind-th… @SarahsSecrets4u @vodka4dummies @2guysplusbaby @tomatonation @michcoll @radar_online 1 day ago
- New epi of It's TV! tvgasm.com/home/behind-th… @annadavid @gracehelbig @lanyardtwerk @aguywithnolife @laurensivan @jeffreestar @ewanniebarrett 1 day ago
- Luis is showing his slimy side rank amateurism astute professionalism by doctoring photos of the townhouse before he puts them in his listi 1 day ago
- I need at least 150 characters to make fun of these shows #top10tv goo.gl/ZGf7H 1 day ago
Thursday, January 19, 2012
12:47 pm
94 Comments
Ah, Gasmii, I love it when the crazy rears its fabulously ugly head like it did in this week’s episode of Toddlers & Tiaras! The moms in this episode were crazy, delusional and sore-losers, just like we like ‘em.
First up is the unfortunately named Isis, 6, and her mother Erika. Erika loves pageants, glitz and winning. Isis hates all of the above. She’s a glasses-wearing asthmatic that is absolutely adorable and seems like she’d be more comfortable with books prior to getting the full scholarship to M.I.T. than she does parading around glasses-less (“I don’t know how she sees!” Erika jokes…dumbass mom) in frills. Mom is in it to win and it you can tell by the way she brags about how much money they spend, how far they go to get lessons, how much pain she puts her daughter’s nails through for acrylics, and the fact she shows up to a coach 2 days before the pageant asking for a completely new routine. Excellent planning.
Next is our bat-shit crazy Russian mom Marina who uses that excuse throughout the program to explain why she’s hated, her daughter is hated and basically why they are going to lose the pageant. Daughter Mia, 4, actually says she wants her parents to love her and they do when she competes and wins. A “mail-order-ish” bride, Marina brings her competitive edge and inability to distinguish between the 2012 Olympics and a regional pageant to our fair country and berates her daughter throughout the pageant day. She actually throws a huge fit when our good friend Annette Hill politely gets Mia off the stage. Somehow, “Thank you, Mia,” translates into, “I HATE YOU MIA AND BURN IN HELL RUSSIANS” when Marina hears it. She spends most of her day curled up in a wad on a sofa outside the pageant room, sulking. Oddly, she is not sucking on a vodka bottle.
Finally, we meet adorable Saliz, 7, and her mother Sarah, who says Saliz will be a superstar when she grows up. “She could have an album, a TV show or even her own fashion line,” she says. So basically Sarah is raising a fame whore with no discernable talent, a.k.a. a Kardashian. Saliz does enjoy pageants and she and her mother have a great relationship, except that the mother promises her large winnings because she pulled out of her division, only to **SPOILER ALERT** have the $10,000 make-it-rain-Annette cash prize go – once again – to someone with BOOBS. Do these moms ever learn, tits top tots!
TV Social
-
94 Comments
Ok, was it just me, or did anyone els think that Isys’ las-minute dance coach either was or IS a man??? I think (her) name was “Teffany” The voice and figure really looked male…
Also, the winner, Meaghan was featured a couple of seasons ago and Annette held up the whole pageant for her to arrive a couple hours late, so Isys’ mom may have had a point there.
Oh man, spot on DearCrabby, and wonderfully said. I can’t wait for the full recap!
Watching how sad little Mia was at the very, very end made ME sad. I may have to stop watching this stupid show and go back to only reading the recaps. Your brothers love you, Little Mia. Go be a tomboy with them!
WOOHOO! This is the one that Fourfour’s Rich was a judge for! He did a big write up on the whole experience back in November and I’ve been waiting for it to air since then.
http://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2011/11/i-judged-a-child-beauty-pageant.html#more
Wow – Mail Order take the crown for the most blatant emotional abuse yet on this show, and that’s saying something.
That poor, poor, POOR kid, Mia (and her brothers?). All she wants is Mail Order’s approval, which she will never get. It was heartbreaking when she was standing in the hall in the corner.
Can we start an “Adopt Mia” campaign?
Save Mia Campaign sign-ups:
1. BellicoseBaby
2. Clair
3.
THEY HATE HER !
My heart broke for little Mia, I thought she was amazing and talanted! I think her mother’s actions were emotionally abusive and neglectful. I could not figure out why this little girls father would stand by and put up with that. Eventually this poor little girl is going to be so emotional damaged. I thought it was awful that this little girl feels she has to be in pageants and do perfect to get her mothers love! And they way they withheld her beloved stuffed animal from her until she is at pageants made me sick!!!! SHE IS FOUR!!! I could not sleep last night after watching that episode.
This is a first, I thought all the girls were adorable. I wanted to don a hazmat suit and hug Isys. I want to rescue the ever so ADORABLE Mia(#3), she has the best big brothers:). I spoke to the television begging Saliz not to cry…then I started crying. Mia was awesome when she ran to show her Mom she won. One thing I did note when Marina spoke she didn’t need sub-titles, unlike the other parents who’s first language is English. Mia also spoke very well for a 4 year old and appeared to have a an extensive vocabulary.
Put me and my daughter on the list Clair! This was not only a crazy train adventure, they were definitely on their way to delusion town. I’ll take Mia and her $500 — (that’s nothing says crazyass mom) and we’ll take her to Sea World without a hesitation.
By the way, there is NO way the winner of the whole shebang was 11 years old! We had to rewind just to make sure that’s what it said. Maybe 17 but definitely not 11!
Looking forward to your full expert analysis Dear Crabby!
@Theresa the way her face lit up when she saw him, how could you deny her something she loves so much?
@brzysmom12, I said ‘Oh look another teenager won’ I almost fell off the bed when they said that tall girl was only 11!
Being from lake Jackson and seeing these people around our town is so sad. This beautiful little girl has to compete for her parents love. I to was in pageants and my mother never made me feel like this. I’m 26 now and things in the pageant world has changed so much. Natural beauty has nothing to do with it anymore. The Russian has some nerve to go on national television and treat her daughter with such neglect. It made me sick to my stomach to watch this. I have a three year old daughter and I can’t imagine ever treating her in that manor. All I can say to miss Marina is “bless your heart” and to poor little Mia may god watch over you! Someone needs to.
Isys mom Erika is actually a stripper or adult entertainer….whatever you wanna call it! When she says “I will do whatever it takes to win” Well I believe her haha!
Count me in for the Adopt Mia club! I’ll give that little cutie all the Little Debbie cakes she can eat, and she can have her little bear any time she wants. Her reactions to her mother’s behaviors were so sad, and it was disturbing that she started mimicking her -”I’m not going to win, so just forget about it” – when her dad and brothers were trying to comfort her and tell her she did well. Of course, we’re probably just all a bunch of Russian-haters blowing all of this out of proportion….
How much do you think Mia’s dad wishes he went for the extended warranty when he ordered his wife? I would blame her behavior on quality defect and ship her the hell back to Russia!
Add me to the list for Mia. That poor sweet child. I don’t even like kids and I would take her in a heartbeat. I have always heard that you have to be careful adopting a child from Russia because you have no information about past neglect/emotional abuse or medical history in the orphanages. Apparently the same holds true for the mail order brides… that twitchy thing leads me to believe Marina could be seriously unbalanced. Free Mia!!!
I reposted some of this from an earlier board: It contains spoiler alerts.
This episode was a doozie! Marina–Oh Lordy have mercy, she took being an asshole to a whole new level. I liked the Dad, but how he married someone like that–how anyone would marry someone like that…
I have never seen a child berated on camera to such an extent before, especially for something she had no control over (and was actually rewarded by the judges for handling herself so well). Seeing poor Mia huddled in the corner, under the table, and with her Teddy, was heartbreaking.
Marina’s insistence that Mia was on stage shorter than everyone else, when in fact she had been on the stage longer, her taking the supposed snub by Annette Hill as an attack against Russians in general and her specifically (and how it ruined her life), and the way she sulked at Mia winning second place rather than first, demonstrated how off her rocker she really is. The screaming, “They hate her! She already lose! No matter what, she a loser now. Forever. Forever and ever!”–in front of her children, was utterly revolting. That whole family looked like they have spent many years being tortured and ripped apart emotionally by this harridan.
@ DearCrabby: Regarding– Marina “spends most of her day curled up in a wad on a sofa outside the pageant room, sulking. Oddly, she is not sucking on a vodka bottle.”
I think she spent most of the day in a torrential rage, screaming. She was only curled up in a wad outside the pageant room sulking during the awards ceremony (boycotting it?). Her constant facial tics, and transformation from screaming to sullen Marina has me thinking your vodka bottle comment wasn’t far off the mark–except she may have done it off camera (allegedly) since we didn’t actually see it.
The way both Isys and Mia’s moms were such bad losers, showed such terrible sportsmanship, and were selfish in their goals to an extreme that hurt their children, shocked me. It was disgusting to behold.
I did like the way that Sarah tried to comfort Saliz, and tried to teach her daughter how to lose gracefully.
As for the winner–Meghan–how old was she?! I’d send her straight to a hormone specialist. When I first saw her I thought, “Why is that woman in her mid-twenties standing on stage with all those kids? Is she a presenter or something?” Did you see the MUSCLES on that ‘kid’?!? She was tall for an adult, let alone a child.
@ S-Natch: Absolutely agree!
@ Isabelle: LOL!
You know Meaghan Jones from the first episode of Toddlers & Tiaras. She went up against her mom and ambiguously gay pageant dad’s ex wife for the $5000 cash prize at Universal Royalty. I believe she’s 11 or 12 now.
Mia’s mom has more issues than just pageants. Someone get her some mood stabilizers STAT.
Isys reminded me of Mr. Magoo on stage. Poor dear was blind as a bat.
The girl that won was muscular because she is a competitive cheerleader
I felt so bad for Mia. Hopefully as long as she has her father and brothers she’ll turn out alright. They were the only loving and supporting ones.
And poor Isys should have been home in bed. She was obviously sick and miserable.
I had to sign in for the first time just to say how much my heart broke for that poor, poor child, Mia. This epi wasn’t even good snarky fun like it usually is with the trainwreck mothers. It just made me sad. Good on the woman who did her hair (I can’t remember her name but I know we’ve seen her quite a bit…she totes reminds me of P!nk) who called out Marianna on her atrocious behavior…although I’m sure she just hates Russians :l . I hope that father recognizes what a revolting human being his wife is and kicks her out of those poor kids’ lives. She is a blight.
*I mean recognizes it after seeing this episode run.
Free Mia!
My heart is still broken over seeing her treated like she was.
Being childless I am always amazed that mothers can instantaneously discern between cries of true pain and attention-seeking wailing. I hear a “thump!” and a scream and I immediately think there’s blood everywhere and my s-i-l will be seemingly deaf. Whereas with an undetectible change in timbre and she’s up like a shot and is always rewarded with real damage.
I say this because: 1- I am not an adequate judge but 2 – can some mothers here weigh in on whether Isys was truly a sickly waif or has she learned that coughing garners sympathy and waivers for activities she hates? Some of her coughing struck me as forced and attention seeking but maybe I’m a heartless dry-wombed harpy?
Also Isys reminded me of Urkel! And it was the first time I’ve seen a pageant mom be more glamorous than the daughter!
Poor poor Mia. And I’m sure her mother endured very similar or worse childhood feedback to be such a wreck, so poor her too. The twitchy faces ranged from something… to looks of textbook “disgust” with the nose wrinkling up and eyes squinting. I just suspect the disgust was aimed inwardly and when she was in those moments she didn’t blame or even register Mia but was mentally berating her 7 year old self. The dad was a nice counterpoint but not enough. The whole family had the downtrodden air of a clan of Okies hunkered down in an open plain, helpless before gathering clouds and a ominous funnel shaped whistling… or, you know… pageants!!!
I normally love the train wreck T&T delivers and sadly, have built up a mild immunity to emotionally damaging parents. But this episode brought out whatever dusty, repressed maternal instincts I have and I wanted to jump through the TV and beat the shit out of Mia’s mother. Emotionally abusive only scratches the surface. She was downright nasty to that sweet loving child. I’m glad the hair & make up lady from the Halloween pageant gave it to her straight but it didn’t seem to have any affect. I hope she gets ostracized like the Sterling’s mother or at the very least some bad press. Bitch! I still wanna kill her!
I happened to come across this article that has the story of how he met/bought Mia’s crazy mom and the father says he was the one to start Mia in pageants. Interesting read.
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/parenting-tips/toddler-pageants-8
Opps, Im so sorry everyone, it’s late and I’m tired. I posted the wrong link, Here is the correct link that starts at the first page of the story. http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/parenting-tips/toddler-pageants
As a certified russian mind reader, I overheard Marina’s thoughts say that she would rip the coupon queen crown right off of June’s coupon queen wannabe head. Ooh snap. Them there is fighting words June. Gitcher bat and drink some go go juice cause it’s time to go to work on that russian beeyoch. Oh, and please add my name to the campaign to save Mia. Just let me know where I can send my 50 cents a day.
I don’t know if anyone saw the T&T facebbok site in Wednesday night, but EVERYONE was bashing Marina BAD! Then Marina started posting. More bashing of Marina! Thursday afternoon I checked the thread and it was completely removed! Damn! That was some good reading!!! Hopefully she will rear her ugly head here! She made Jamie Sterling look like Mother Theresa! The sad thing is that if she continues to treat poor Mia like this, Mia will grow up to be mean too. I absolutely loved that little girl! Her brothers were such sweet young men! I wonderd if those boys were his from a previous marriage or hers too. When she was screaming “They hate her” and Mia ran from the room I was irate and saddened beyond belief.” Then telling her “You didn’t win! Then at the end when Chloe’s mom, Jamie approached her that she would have grabbed her and beat the shit out of her!!!!!
OK, I read the whole article and here is a summary. Marina married Mia’s dad in 2004 and had Mia in 2006. Marina was miserable in the US and dad got them into pageants thinking it would give Miserable Marina something to do. So the boys are step-brothers (it doesn’t say if the boys are Marinas or the dads)
AND one of the former pageant girls is named….Thumper Gosney. I hope she has a brother named Bambi (yes, Bambi was a boy) a sister Faline and a cousin named Flower.
Loved the write up by the Judge.
My daughter tried out for a play last week and didn’t get a part (didn’t expect to either) and after watching Marina I faked sobbed “You didn’t get the part? THREE YEARS, THREE YEARS I’ve been working towards this and they HATED you, HATED you.” My daughter was laughing so hard she was gasping.
I love that Isys (eye-cyst?) has a mom in the adult entertainment industry. Poor thing, she looks like a sweetie and her mom is trying to make her into a sex kitten.
Another site said Marina has a history of outbursts and rotten behavior at pageants and that Mia usually wins at UR pageants.
Where is the poster who has the inside dope on these pageants? Inquiring minds need to know what she knows (and I still want the dirt on the other family.)
I have to add another interesting story from the T&T thread that was removed! This mother said that she was at that pageant and her daughter, who had been to Austrailia, brought back a little stuffed koala bear for Mia and gave to to her at that pageant and then asked Marina if they could get a picture with Mia. Marina said “No time!” The mom said that a little while later they walked by the area where Marina and Mia were sitting and the koala bear was laying on the floor. She said her daughters heart was broken!
This storyline is making me so sad!
My wish is that Marina would see all this and really take a look at herself. But its not my birthday or anything, so that prolly won’t happen. Supersaddepressedhorns!
Oh yes! I’ve definitely been following the Facebook drama. It’s quite entertaining! The friends who try to defend what that family did amaze me! I could ALMOST believe that it was all a set-up in editing if this were the first or second season, but it isn’t. They know what this show is all about and if they don’t, shame on them for not researching it. Anywho….I missed Marina’s rants and garbage because they took the entire post down, video and all!
Is there a way to copy (future, since it is too late now) Facebook threads to share? It would have been interesting to read.
BTW, I won’t watch that epi after reading the recap and remarks. But I would like to let you know that there is hope. My mother really should not have had me because she hated me and let me know it, until I took care of her as she died and changed her mind (too late). But I had a wonderful, caring dad and I turned out to be a pretty good mom of two terrific sons. It could have a happy ending and I hope it will.
Surely we’ve discussed the fact that the dirty dancing Shirley Temple is also the crotch shot Dallas Cowboys cheerleader from a few shows back?
I agree that this episode was painful to watch…….yes, it was a mess. But heartbreaking and not the fun freak-fest is usually is every we
Poor Mia…so sweet and a blessing any NORMAL parent would appreciate and cherish. Who takes away a child’s favorite teddy bear? What kind of heartless mother screams and turns away from a smiling face only wanting her love? This was an awful episode…..
Ugh!! Typos! Meant to say “not the fun freak-fest it usually is every week”.
The Russian mom, Marina, acts exactly like two Russian moms, of about the same age, that I have known personally. They push their kids to perform nonstop, sixteen hours a day. The kids are told that they are worthless when any mistakes are made, and when they excel, they are told that it’s still not good enough because other kids are doing better, so they must work even harder. Being the absolute best is almost good enough.
I think the behavior just about has to come from the way children were raised in the Soviet Union, where approval from the state was essential in order to have any hope of a comfortable life, and the state demanded that anyone getting more than his or her meager share of limited resources had to outperform all counterparts in non-communist countries. That’s a lot of pressure.
Mr. Spargo needs to have his wife evaluated, diagnosed, and then committed until she can get on the right meds and get the help she needs. Plenty of us were raised in horrible environments and don’t use it as an excuse to raise our own kids badly. I’m not buying this. She knows she’s in the US now, and she can’t seem to move on. She needs a good psychiatrist and he needs a good divorce attorney.
BTW, the boys are one from each spouse. The bigger one that was comforting Mia at the end is Marina’s. I don’t, however, think that because the boy seems nice that we can think she isn’t going to screw up Mia. Girls and boys respond very differently to this craziness based upon their own and the crazy parent’s gender. The son may see himself more as the protector/caregiver of his mom & sis, but Mia would be more likely to model herself after mom’s behavior and buy into her mom’s criticism.
I agree with you Ash that RussMom needs to be evaluated and treated. I disagree that the little girl would buy into her mother’s criticism (I hate using the cozy term “mom” with someone like that) and model herself on her mother’s behavior. Lots of us with mothers like that are dedicated to becoming as much the opposite as possible, even though we buy into the criticism when young.
Didn’t CrayMom say the reason that they took Mia’s bear away was because she would suck her thumb? I am Totally not defending this dumb bitch, but, I can understand why they would take the bear away, and only give it to her during a pageant. I don’t think any 4 year old would want to be seen sucking their thumb…wait…nevermind there is that whole NiNi situation…
I loved Mia, she can come and stay at my house!!
I also felt sorry for Isys. Poor little girl was sick. She herself even said that she was sick and wanted to go home and go to bed! Her mom was a bitch also, for making fun of her daughter saying she doesn’t know how she can see on stage when she is not wearing her glasses! That little girl probably hates pageants. Seriously who takes their daughter to learn a new routine 2 days before?! Someone who knows their kid isn’t going to win. Hello she was sick, the judges could see that she was sick, or that there was something wrong..
As for the 11 year old…umm no, she did not look 11!! No Effing Way!!
@showshoe – “even though we buy into the criticism when we’re young” – Exactly! And some of us recover and some don’t. For everyone like you or I who are okay, there’s a stripper, drug addict, or bulimic who isn’t! She shouldn’t even have to deal with it while she’s young, and she will, to some extent. We don’t know how it will affect her, but it will. The fact that she has no one telling her it’s not okay (like her idiot dad) will make it worse!
I wonder how stunned Annette Hill was to watch this episode and see crazy Marina’s accusations. I agree with everyone who has said that Marina needs to be evaluated and treated. That woman is mean, paranoid and has a persecution complex a mile wide. She obviously also has anger control issues and it is frightening to realize that she was acting like this when she knew cameras were rolling. Poor little Mia. I hope her Dad’s family and friends saw this and attempt to convince him that his children need to be protected from this unstable woman.
Here is the blog by the guest judge on this one. I’ve read Rich’s site for years, and as soon as I saw a comment that this as his episode, I checked his site. Should be an interesting read.
http://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2012/01/toddlers-and-tiaras-the-aftermath.html
Ash, she should definately not have to deal with it. Ever. I was unaware that she had nobody to turn to. And you are so right about the future of those kids. DearCrabby kids about futures on the pole because of idiot parents, and unfortunately she is all too correct. Remember the husband who wrote to defend his abusive wife? (Probably more than one did that.) Those wusses should be protecting their kids instead.
Yes, we all know that editing is a big part of the show, but scenes cannot be invented. So please, Mr. Russian Husband, don’t write defending your wife. As other Gasmii have said, get help for your wife so that she can be a decent mother, and support your kids.
I just have to say is it me or has this season been an extra hot mess of terrible terrible parents.
All the sudden Mommy Dearest looks like June Clever.
Add me to the Rescue Mia list.
I wonder if Shemonda and Uncle DJ from last week have room for 1 more.
Also the Russian mom totally reminds of a Russian Synchronized Swim coach I had back in the day. She too should have taken a pass at having kids.
Fan-Ann ~ I was wondering the same thing! I bet Annette’s mouth hit the floor!
MrsMiaWallace: mom said she had a fever, and her eyes looked watery and her sinuses looked swollen. Not a happy camper. Though it doesn’t look as if she loves doing pageants when she is well either.
I thought that all three moms definitely defined the phrase, “living vicariously through another”.
I want to say that there was one nice thing that the Russian Mom did that I really liked–I thought it was a fabulous idea to practice Mia’s routines at a nursing home. She cheers up the older residents and gets a chance to practice in front of a positive audience. I’d like to think that when Mia said, “my mom is acting weird (or was it ‘strange’, or ‘different’? Whatever.)” indicates that Marina’s actions was an anomaly to her usual behavior. Unfortunately, that is probably not the case.
@ KellyR: I liked the judge and what he wrote, thanks. He captures a picture of Mia that will rip your heart out. She is standing by the hotel room door, about to make a run for it, clutching Teddy with all her might, a look of desperate agony on her face, while Mom is screaming in the background, “They hate her!”
@ ash1: Regarding your comment: “The fact that she has no one telling her [Marina] it’s not okay (like her idiot dad) will make it worse!” I kind of felt that the dad was sort of trying to calm mom down, he seemed to be trying to get a handle on it as best he could. He kept telling her to let Mia finish, to hold her head up high and let her do the best she can. He was begging the mom to calm down and think of Mia. Unlike her, he seemed cognizant of both the children present and the cameras. In the end, he won; if Marina had had her way, they would have left and Mia wouldn’t have at least had a chance to have her moment on stage. And Marina’s later interview (with her teeth clenched into a ferocious smile) saying that it is really all about Mia and how she feels, not about herself, seemed to come from the Dad’s attempt to get her to refocus and calm down.
Such bitterness, such rage–me wonders just what Mammushka Dearest needs the $10,000 for so badly (just trying to understand the ‘she ruined my life!’ comment)?
@Alison Zimmerman
Yes I heard that part too about sucking the thumb. And as a mom who’s kid had a “binky” you have to get them out of that habit (luckily she stopped at 2 1/2). Marina is in NO WAY mother of the year but I cannot fault her for that.
I was wondering about her being rushed off stage (I didn’t think she was) but my jaw dropped when Marina said that Annette cheated Mia out of her full beauty walk time which was 2-3 MINUTES. I was stunned when I heard that. I thought oh wow now I know why Annette shooed her along. I even read the judge’s blog where he said he noticed that Mia took waaay longer than anyone else.
Anyway Marina is certifiable and Isys’ mom is delusional. $10K winner? The poor girl was barely conscious. She needed cold meds and a nap. I felt for her. As a mom sometimes you have to realize that even though there is a ton of money at stake, the chance of your sick, asthmatic child being on her A game isn’t gonna happen and you should cut your losses. But nooooo, it’s rigged. Ok, whatever.
How ironic that the poor little girl with glasses was named EYE-sis?
@Shana – Yes, dad did all the things you say he did, and the word for it is ENABLING! You don’t enable someone to repeat this pattern on your kids – you give them an ultimatum – and his needs to be a psych eval or filing for custody. All his behavior does is reiterate to the child that the behavior is not that bad, and that they are not as important as keepiung peace in the family…FAIL!
Oh Dear Lord, where to begin. I guess I’ll save my full thoughts til the full cap is up, but having just watched this, my head is spinning! 1st of all, as a long time sufferer of nearsightedness, I can almost guarantee that the squinting that the cracked Russian teapot was doing was due to her not being able to see the stage too well, just like I suspect was the culprit of June’s crazy, squinting looks she was doing in the prev epi. It’s a classic sign of not being able to see.
Did they actually show Saliz getting called for her title & I just missed it? She had a crown & sash, but I don’t remember seeing her go back on stage.
And, yes, Megan was featured before & although she was late, I don’t recall Annette holding the entire pageant for her like someone said upthread. So I’m not buying into the rigging thing, because Megan was awesome in her episode & I can only imagine how good she is now. I’m sure it was a well deserved win.
I loved the male judge’s commentary lol..he was a bit snarky & didn’t place nice to the camera when it came to giving his opinion. I hope we see him more!
Isis’s mom was on the pageant boards cursing up a storm when someone mentioned how Isis should not have been there because she was sick, and how they could not believe that she actually thought she should have gotten a bigger title when she didn’t smile, she forgot half her routine, and she just overall looked miserable. Most of the threads got deleted once her mom joined in because every other word was the F Bomb. I posted a link here hoping she would come on here and entertain everyone, lol.
@bewitched Yeah. This 1 was just a whole other kind of sad.
Child services needs to start sending plain clothes rescue squads to these things.
@fancyface Me too @full thoughts. I’m going to need to gather mine like Ben on The Bachelor keeps having to do.
This episode made me so sad I had to have a Love and Hip Hop marathon.
Haha…..who the heck is Charlie “Chapman”??
Watching this again and Mia is SO SWEET!! When she got her little Mischa back it just melted my heart!!
“‘I’m not here to make friends; I’m here to judge a pageant.’”
HAHAHA
The Little Debbie’s are on Me!
@dallasboo The bear thing was where I just about turned it off.
That seriously made me want to throw up. Even thinking about it now still does.
I always always watch shows and then read the recaps because it’s funnier to me like that.
But I think from now on, for this show, I’ll start looking at the minicap 1st and then decide if I’ll watch it.
I don’t think Mia’s dad was enabling his wife. I was really impressed at how he responded to her crazy blind rage with the calmness of an expert at getting suicidal people down off the ledge the safe way. I really hope her extreme meltdown is not typical of her – that her underlying issues were magnified ten fold by all the stress of the pageant and filming. She really should go see a counselor and psychiatrist. She just can’t be very happy carrying all that rage and paranoia around all the time.
I should add that I missed the first 15 minutes of this episode. Was she acting crazy and twitchy before the pageant?
This episode was a basketful of crazy! That poor big brother having to talk his sister down was so sad and kept begging her not to cry. That mom terrorized her whole family and it was sad.
I am beginning to enjoy that hairdresser popping up and dropping some real on those mom’s heads, didn’t she do the same thing to another mom in an earlier episode?
Meaghan is 11 years old, and she is a competitive cheerleader. My daughter’s gym competes against hers in the DFW area and I have met her mom at competitions.
While trying to find the pageant boards where Isys’s mom had been whining, I found another interesting article about Isys being on T&T and wanted to share something from it. The following quote is from this article:
http://www.caller.com/news/2011/oct/27/calallen-girl-mom-filmed-for-toddlers-tiaras/
“Universal Royalty Beauty Pageants Owner Annette Hill recommend both girls to TLC producers looking for a fresh face. Film crew members wouldn’t comment when asked about an air date for Isys’ episode.”
So, Annette is telling TLC who to follow? It goes on to also quote her as saying: “She said if any parents act pushy or verbally abusive toward their children, they are disqualified.”
I’m still new to T&T but learning pretty fast how all this pageant stuff works. I want to say for the record, I don’t have children, am not involved in pageants in any way and seriously, don’t admit to my friends I even watch it. I’ve just been running across all kinds of interesting tidbits of info here and there and thought this was worth sharing in case others didn’t know Annette had anything to do with who TLC follows. I like Annette, don’t get me wrong, she’s my favorite Die-Rector of pageants. Off to find more stuff.
Free MIA!
This is the last link post from me. I found an updated article from Rich, great read and the videos on the page are hi-lar-ious!
Toddlers and Tiaras: The aftermath
fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2012/01/toddlers-and-tiaras-the-aftermath.html
Free MIA!
Constantly peacemaking for a mentally ill or addicted person IS an enabling behavior, and this guy needs Betty Ford bad! Every time he de-escalates for her, the children are getting the wrong message. If it was an isolated incident, fine. But we know she does this all the time, and the kids suffer every time. It is no different than an alcoholic’s wife “calming daddy down” EVERY time he acts out in front of the kids and never actually DOING anything about it. Many enablers feed off their own ability to be the “only one who can calm him/her down” and it is a part of their identity they need. It is highly dysfunctional and he needs help as much as she does if he can’t break the pattern and put his kids first. The cycle of mom acting out, dad calming her down, and kids comforting each other is terribly sad and inappropriate.
I think the fellow that wrote that article was into it as much as the folks that he wrote about. He went there for a purpose. He got an article from the spectacle. Look, I am not saying that he has no right to write an article about his experience, I just don’t think he should take such a high road while writing about how he watched little girls on a stage and judged them.
The old tired Reality show line “I am not here to make friends was classic.”..It rates up there with the “I’ll pay you back when I get my income tax” on the judge shows.
T&T broke hearts this week. It is hard to sleep knowing that a baby (and she is still a baby) has already been exposed to the idea that someone would hate her and this revelation came from her mother. I want to punch her in her uterus.
I have no doubt that there will be folks that will report this. I also have no doubt that it wont make a bit of difference. I say throw them all in jail..but thats just me..
I work for Child Protective Services, though not in this state, and unfortunately children are rarely, if ever, removed for emotional abuse. It’s very sad and just one of many things that is so effed up about the system. Marina even beats out crazy Melissa from a few episodes ago who was teaching her daughter to have split personalities (Carly/Darla) on the crazy meter. She is ruining these children and I really hope they have some kind of aunt or grandma or someone else in their lives who will watch the episode and see the mother acting like that and the dad allowing it and step in. They need someone who actually cares about him.
Add me to the Free Mia petition!
@Robinez I’m on the Free Mia list, the hearts broken this week list, and the just thinking about the bear part STILL makes me want to throw up list. Oh and the got no maternal instinct like Jenelle on Teen Mom 2 list.
Throwing them in jail wouldn’t help. They need to get thrown into mental health treatment. Nobody would act like that if it was something they had any control over.
Even getting treatment Marina might not ever be somebody that should be around kids though.
The lady with the little girl that was having asthma attacks maybe 1 day. After getting mental help and a mess of parenting classes.
But @cass is right. As much as I wish she wasn’t. Emotional abuse is considered acceptable. Which is 1 of the reasons there’s so many fucked up and generally batshit crazy people walking around.
I guess the hopefulest thing we can wish is that somebody’ll suggest to Mia’s dad that he at least take his wife to get counseling. Which would be better than nothing.
And that the pageant people will start paying more attention and just not letting sick kids do it. And give the parents their $ back. Or a rain check. (OK that part’s so not realistic but I said hopeful not likely.)
If anybody reading this knows Shemonda or Uncle DJ in real life please tell them that if I thought I appreciated them last week, I really REALLY appreciate them now.
There’s a right way and a wrong way to do most everything (except most things in Windows.)
And I’m glad I got to see them set such a good example of how to do it the right way.
Marina was crazy. I agree with Dear Crabby to me it sounded like she was a mail order bride. But seriously NUTS, NUTS, NUTS. I will help save Mia too. Isys was cute but obviously because she was sick she didn’t perform at her best. I thought Saliz did better and I don’t know why Saliz didn’t beat her since it sounded to me that the judges liked Saliz more than Isys.
@Shana-Mammushka Dearest, LOL!
I’m disappointed to find out that the guy in the tux isn’t a usual pageant judge. I was going to marry that guy so that I had a shot of getting free admission to the pageants he judges and he doesn’t look at “creeper” as the other men they’ve shown judging. Guess I’ll have to track down the creeper that gave Boobs Magoo the $10,000 last year.
I haven’t read through all these comments, although I will shortly.
However, I felt the need to tell you about the birthday present I got when I turned 10. She was a beautiful 8 week old chocolate point Siamese kitten…and her registered name was Isis. (Her brother was named Ra.)
While Isis may have been quite appropriate for my regal, yet furry friend, the child saddled with this moniker will not thank her parents later in life.
At least her mother spelled it right. It could have been Eyesees, or Iyses, or any number of other ridiculous spellings.
Does anyone else find it creepy that a pageant which is supposed to be for LITTLE GIRLS – little girls who are ALREADY tarted up to look like they’re 40 – rewards what are supposedly little girls with late teen figures? Ew.
Just. Ew.
@cattyfan Her mother didn’t spell it right. It was spelled Isys not Isis.
I also noticed that when Mia exited the stage before she knew that she pulled for a higher title she looked upset and when she was running by her dad to her chair he reached out for her but she never got up off his chair to comfort her. The brother did though. That was heart breaking! The dad is a coward!
While Mamushka certainly had no filter on her emotions and definitely needs some kind of help with that I don’t see how she differed that much from most of the other pageant moms we see on this show. They are ALL neglectful of who their children really are and they ALL have their moments where they make it clear that winning these vulgar freakshows is all they care about. What about the mother from last season who wouldn’t let her daughter stay in gymnastics because it was ruining her “pageant body”? Even Marina saying “They hate her!” was just a more volatile form of complaining that most of these mothers do when their kids don’t win. Marina was definitely the most embarrassing mother I’ve seen on the show, but the most “abusive”? That’s giving the pageant world too much credit.
@maryedith – I just started watching this show so I don’t have much basis for comparison, but it seemed to me everyone is upset at the way poor Mia reacted to her mother’s outbursts and how fricken sad she looked throughout the entire episode and how she said she wanted to win the pageant so her mom would love her.
Save Mia.
It made me sad too. But at least Mia didn’t think she was doing it to make Jesus happy, which a lot of these mothers simperingly imply. Like I said, I’m not saying Marina doesn’t belong in the loony-bin but I’m also not going to say that those kids of hers were worse off than some others I’ve seen. And in a weird way I sympathized with her confusion. “I took pageant seriously,” I can hear her say, “was I not supposed to? Is only Americans supposed to?”
sagittariuskim…that just makes me sad.
I posted on another board as there was someone who kept defending Marina as a wonderful mother and as it’s days later I doubt she’ll be able to see it.
Carolyn…are you very close with this family to be able to say how good of a mother she usually is? or are you an acquaintance? You need to take the blinders off. When you say “she is a good mother” maybe you are right and normally she is? but in this case she was a terrible example to her children! You say the only thing she did wrong was say that she shouldn’t have said “they hate her” in front of Mia. There is so much more that she said and did. Saying to Mia “you lose” and not showing ANY type of support throughout the rest of the pageant. You are right of course they show the “best of the worst” but Marina gave them TONS of footage. Mia was wonderful yes and her mother should have shown her that! I hope by watching this she wakes up. I believe you may be right when you say that she is a good mother n…ormally as I saw how loving her other children were to her and Mia but she should have put on a braver face. Yes the producers and crew are going to show a meltdown for ratings but they did NOT force her to act like that. She carried on and on. Although that may have been the “only” time (you said) she’s acted like that) it’s now forever on tape and in Mia’s mind. That mother has a LOT of damage control to do. If you are a true friend you need to face the facts that the mother made more than one mistake. I hope you are right and that is not normally her. She must have known what she was signing up for with this show. I will say that Mia is a wonderful beautiful child who broke my heart as she was waving the flowers and money in her mom’s face trying to cheer her up.
Also I won’t get deep into the thumb sucking debate. I will however say that with a mother like that there’s a HUGE reason why Mia could possibly be sucking her thumb to self-soothe…and hopefully she will not be self-medicating as an teen/adult after the childhood she’s having. Though I do hope that her “friend” was right and this is the ONLY (doubtful) time she acted like that. A side note on the father being called an enabler in this case may be right but I for one don’t know that we have enough background to know this. He may have been so freaked by her behavior that he was just trying to be the only calm adult until the situation was resolved. Though I would have liked to see Marina removed and perhaps just the supportive part of the family left to help Mia with the rest of the pageant…with Mommy sulking elsewhere where Mia couldn’t see. Sooo sad. I’m trying to imagine Mia cozy right now with her bear surrounded by people who love her. I hope Marina does get some help. I really wish I had signed on earlier to see the thread that has been erased. I don’t know if that would change many of my opinions/observations?? Good luck Mia.
Oh good Lord — I sucked my thumb until I was 16. With no psychological or dental repercussions whatsoever. That seems like the least of this child’s problems.
Oh. My. Word.
I haven’t watched the whole episode yet, but I am to the point where big brother is trying to calm down Mia and telling her that just because her name wasn’t called doesn’t mean that she lost, but that she could win big…I just want to cry! I want to scoop up both of those kids and bring them home with me and hug on them and feed them ice cream and let them stay up late and watch iCarly. Poor kids!
Isn’t comforting the children the MOM’S job???
Oh, wait.
Nevermind…
Forget the edit function. Can we just have a paragraph break function? Geesh.
I am truly curious. Why do T&T threads always have posts with no paragraph breaks? It never fails. T&T is the Mecca of Paragraph hell.
AWWWWW!!!!! [POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERTS]
Finished the episode…I just love Mia! I just want to scoop her up! She’s so stinkin’ cute!
And with the amount of love I have for Mia, I have that same amount of total disdain and loathing for her mother-figure.
I totally want to smack these silly mothers who “PROMISE” these poor little girls that they are going to win this big money. That little Saliz just proves my point…when they don’t win, and they are “promised” by their mother-figures that they WILL win, they become the diva brats that they have been trained to become. (BTW, I would not be sticking safety pins in a $1200 dress…for that money, shouldn’t it fit right already??? My wedding dress didn’t even cost that much!)
It’s like I have told my kids, when they have participated in their various sports…if you put in the practice and time and effort that this requires, you have a better chance to win, but any person can win anything on any given day. It’s just the way things happen sometimes, you can’t always factor in every single variable.
Isys obviously does not want to be in pageants, but her mother does. What a sore loser her mother was. Did she think her daughter wouldn’t hear her griping? What is she teaching her daughter, other than how to pout when things don’t go her way?
Mia’s incubator needed a good slap upside the head, and I was hoping the hairdresser lady would administer it. Good heavens, you have a beautiful daughter who obviously loves you and older brothers who are there to support her, and you’re complaining??? Count your blessings, shut up, and go home. People don’t hate you because you’re Russian, they hate you because you’re an emotionally abusive jerk.
Daphne,
This truly wasn’t a slam on you. I just wonder if some of the Mom’s or their posse, in some cases, are posting together. They have a tendancy to SCREAM and forget to use the enter key.
I am afraid that your post kinda resembled this and I reacted to it.
Appologies.
Robin
One more, and then I’ll shut up and try to remember my password for this site (so I can akshully sign on)…
I think this is the saddest T&T episode I’ve ever seen.
I lied. One more.
At the beginning of the episode, you see Marina say, “I am Mamma Mia!”
After watching the whole episode and seeing how it all played out, I have to wonder…was that a psychological slip, where she identifies with her daughter Mia to such an extent that when the judges seemingly dismiss or seemingly “hate” Mia, Marina feels like they hate her, by extension? She said that she had been very competitive in sports as a child. She could feel hated by people in this country because she is a foreigner and probably a mail-order bride. She obviously has a broken internal filter when it comes to keeping her emotions on an even keel or at least putting on a nice smile in the face of adversity. Could she be so emotionally dysfunctional that she feels any perceived slight of her children is a personal attack against her?
When she was screaming, “THEY HATE HER!”, could she in some way be screaming, “THEY HATE ME!”?
Does that make sense at all?
I’m not in any way trying to defend her emotional abuse of this poor little girl. It was sickening. She still needs slapped. I’m just curious about the human mind, I guess.
@maryedith – I reread that part of my post and I was meaning that it really was the least of Mia’s problems and personally (as I also sucked my thumb) have no problem with it. Especially in a case where she obviously needs some type of self soothing. If half the people I knew shoved their thumb in their mouth instead of a cigarette, drugs or booze…I’m all for it.
As for my paragraphs (or lack thereof) I really didn’t care at the moment as my laptop kept spelling things wrong, opening new windows and generally being a pain in my a** so I just typed away. Trying to at least get my spelling correct.
I believe screaming would be in all caps.
It’s actually the first time an episode has prompted me to even bother writing anything anywhere. So sad.
@ ash1: It seems that you have had a lot of experience with enablers in your life, and I respect your opinion and agree that an enabler is a very dangerous person to all.
Concerning Mia’s dad, however, I really don’t get the enabler vibe. If he had just been about calming Mamushka Dearest down, the family would have left when she demanded to go–or at least not have continued to compete. And he kept saying to her that it doesn’t matter how she feels, that it is all about Mia, and Mia should be the focus, not the winning, etc.
Those of you who suggested mental health for Mamushka are right, but I will also say that I think the situation is a little more complicated than a simple wacko mom. I think the dad has a genuine fear that Marina will just grab Mia and go back to Russia. And he does love that little girl.
Below is a link that MorganMoon posted above(28 of 91 Comments | Posted on January 20, 2012 12:06 am)
“Here is the link that starts at the first page of the story. http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/parenting-tips/toddler-pageants
However, it is a very long article, so I cut and pasted the parts about Mia. The article was about Eden Wood, describing some competition she and Mia had together. Each new paragraph indicates that I skipped parts of the article because I only posted what applies to Mamushka Dearest, Dad, and Mia.
“You can do it, Mia!” shouts one mother, Marina Spargo, as her 4-year‑old daughter heads for the stage to do her beauty walk. The blue-eyed Mia is wearing a giant blond fall, false eyelashes, and a powdery-blue off-the‑shoulder sequined dress that is so puffy, she has to hold her arms out to the sides. It looks as if she might fall over. Yet she calmly hits her marks on the stage and executes all her turns, her smile never cracking. “She’s very facial,” one mother murmurs admiringly — “facial” being a high-glitz term to describe a girl’s beauty. “And look at how she does her pretty feet [a reference to the way a girl stands]. She’s the total package.”
When Mia finishes, the 38-year-old Marina, who’s wearing orange drawstring sweatpants and a black T-shirt, grabs the arm of her husband, Ray, a strapping man who works in the maintenance department of a demolition company near Lake Jackson, TX, a town south of Houston. In 2004, looking for a wife, Ray used the Internet to contact Marina, a pretty blond Russian who lived a thousand miles north of Moscow. He flew to meet her, proposed to her in Moscow’s Red Square at the end of his two-week visit, and, seven months later, brought her to Texas, where they married. In December 2006, Marina gave birth to Mia, “but she felt so isolated and alone, barely knowing any English, that I thought she might move back to Russia,” recalls the 53-year-old Ray. “I saw a newspaper ad for a children’s beauty pageant at a local mall, and I signed us up, thinking, Maybe this will give Marina something to do.”
Marina, who had never before been to a beauty pageant — she was a cross-country skier in Russia — put Mia in a new dress, stood onstage, and held her before the judges, who started smiling. “I said to my husband, ‘Let’s do this again,’ ” recalls Marina in a thick Russian accent. “We did it again, and we almost won. I was very excited. I thought, So this is America!”
Now Mia is one of the up-and-comers on the high-glitz circuit. She practices every day on a little plywood stage her father built for her in the backyard and often sits with her mother in front of a computer, studying videos of Eden and other high-glitz stars. At the Universal Royalty pageant, there’s buzz around the ballroom that Mia has a shot at beating Eden. And she is genuinely charming when she later comes back for her talent act, pretending to be a Russian doll who escapes from her dollhouse to dance to Russian music.
Later…
The girls who got the highest scores from the judges, including Eden and Mia, are called to the stage. Almost shaking with nervousness, Marina puts her hands to her mouth.
[Annette] Hill reads the judges’ final tally and announces that Mia scored highest in her age group, 0 to 5, and is a runner-up. Tears spring from Marina’s eyes as Mia gets a sash, a crown, a trophy, and a teddy bear.
After Marina, Ray, and Mia pack up for the ride back to Lake Jackson, Mia climbs into the backseat, next to her trophy. Someone asks her what she’s going to do when she gets home.
“Go outside and practice on my stage for my next pageant,” she says.
“That’s my girl,” says Marina with a laugh. “That’s my beautiful girl.”
Read more: Toddlers in Tiaras – Girls Pageants – Good Housekeeping
**********
I have no idea what this proves, other than DearCrabby got a lot right (the mail-order bride, the way Mamushka treats the pageants like they are the 2012 Olympics and she is Coach Béla Károlyi). I do know that it would not benefit Mia to be taken to Russia away from her father.
@ kthxbai AND cass: Regarding: “Emotional abuse is considered acceptable.”
I wouldn’t exactly use the word “acceptable”. I think that there are just too many children, not enough ‘healthy’ places to put them, and not enough child services employees to make sure the children are being well cared for in the first place. Due to this, the welfare system approaches abandoned, homeless, and physically abused children as those most in danger and most in need of the limited resources. Plus, many of the foster homes that children get placed in are just as bad (emotionally and verbally abusive), if not worse. It is just an awful, awful, awful situation.
The only viable recourse is Mamushkah Dearest and the entire family getting professional help and counseling as soon as possible.
@Shana This is so not the place to talk about this so I’ll try not to much.
Just to say you’re right about the resources etc. Which is why I called it considered acceptable.
There’s this saying about show me where your gold is and I’ll show you what you love most.
That’s not exact but you get the idea.
(I also agree that they at least need to get counseling yesterday)
Ship this crazy woman back to Russia, have them give her a hysterectomy on the Russians tax dollars and lock her in a sound proof room of a mental hospital where nobody has to see and especially not HEAR her again. She doesn’t deserve to have custody of a DOG let alone a beautiful precious child like Mia. This kid is a BABY and she has to sit there and listen to her psycho mother scream that people hate her. Pathetic excuse for a human being.