Okay, so I saw a few episodes of Dance Moms on Lifetime (don’t ask). Oddly enough I was riveted by what I was watching. This show is the perfect illustration of what not to do as a parent. I have cut out several scenes to illustrate my points from the two episodes I saw. First off, all these kids are under the age of 10. They all go to Abby Lee Dance Studio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Abby does not look much like a dancer and doesn’t seem to dance herself (more on that later). She has a very strong personality that she uses to intimidate the kids and the mothers. I did not see her stressing the fun aspect of dance to the kids at all. Anyways, on with my criticisms….

These are all from Episode 5 “When Stars Collide”. The videos are my own cutting and serving. You can’t share them because it would cost me a lot more if everyone was playing the videos. They aren’t long, and some are cut and joined to get my point across. I plan on doing the same for the next episode which was just as ridiculous. Youtube wouldn’t allow me to upload them because of copyright issues. Okay, so I fixed the video (before all you could hear was audio) so you could see Abby in her finest. The effect just wasn’t there with only audio. However, in order to get the videos to play, I had to make them FLV so if you are on an iphone or ipad or a computer with no flash, I don’t think you will be able to view them.

The kids are dancing for the wrong reasons.

The kids don’t enjoy it. They feel good when they make their moms and Abby happy. Uh, can these kids be kids. They are going to look back and realize that they didn’t have much of a childhood because their moms were too busy living through them.
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The kids miss school to dance.

Athletes miss school quite often for sporting events. I understand that there isn’t enough time in one day to fit everything in. I do not think that these kids really need to miss school for dance. Why’s it matter? Well, in the grand scheme of things, it may not. Over time though, the kids will think school isn’t really that important and secondary to other things. They will believe that dance is the most important thing in the world or the only thing in the world that matters. Therapy will be lots of fun when she grows up and decides that dance isn’t for her (or she isn’t that good) and has no friends outside of dance.

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Abby Lee is a hypocrite

I played some sports growing up and always had problems with coaches who were making the team do things that they themselves couldn’t do. I think my big issue with it is that I try to treat others like I want to be treated. If I couldn’t do this or that, I wouldn’t demand it out of someone else was and is my logic. When I see Abby instructing the kids, I start to wonder what Abby would do if she were in the kids’ position….

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Can Abby even dance?

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The moms are jealous of one girl who always wins

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Related articles

• Dance Moms on Lifetime: Is This How We Should Be Treating Our Kids? (blogher.com)
• Reflections on Lifetime TV’s “Dance Moms” (rakstagemom.wordpress.com)