Given that they're all wearing all the same clothes from the same two stores, you'd think I'd have an easier time recognizing This Country Of Mine, America.
A post about the Gap Casting Call on the popblog Bumpershine has become a complaint and controversy hotbed--800 and counting!--as fame-craving parents moms have complained about the contest. There have been problems with Disney Family.com's site, broken registration systems, no confirmation emails, uploaded photos don't show up in the online galleries, suspiciously high vote counts for some kids while others' tallies don't move for days...One extremely involved mother, Chevelle, may have put it best: "those kids don't have that many votes already this shit is rig up and it ain't right."
She then proceeded to organize a cross-voting alliance with several other commenters.
Which may be the key to the whole Everything I Need To Know About Parenting, I Learned From Reality TV exercise. Here's a Bumpershine interview with Shaina, the mother of a 2008 Gap Casting Call finalist:
Bumpershine: It looked like you formed some cross-promotional alliances with the parents of children in other categories, do you think that helped at all?Gap Casting Call: Borneo runs through October 22, and then you'll have another month after that to vote the little bastards off the island. [via bumpershine]
Shaina: Perhaps... Kellen won in our category.
Wow, what a mess; those people are way too serious about this thing. Also, for some reason I reach for the tab close button any time I stumble on to a web forum where people use the "DS" and "DD" abbreviations when referring to their kids. I always feel like I'm sitting in on some weird cult's conversation.
We were in the area anyway and thought we'd head over to the Gap's flagship to get the "professional" picture of our daughter. Ha! Back home, we entered the code to retrieve the photos, and every single one was blurry almost beyond recognition. Gee, thanks, Gap!
and to think that my wife and I were actually considering submitting a photo to see where it was gonna go!
Why are soooo many people trying to get their kids to be bloody celebs? Let the kids be kids - dang!
It's almost as bad as the "beauty" pageants for kids. Why not just have the parents admit that they suck a$$ and they are the ones who really want recognition.
Kids just want to be kids man - let them have a life!
wow...cool story bro
I never would have considered myself one of those parents who enter their children into a "contest" but here I am, and on top of that I'm a MAN? No, I don't need the recognition as Matthew suggests, I just think my daughter is so dang adorable that I wanted to share her with everyone else, I figured "why not?" people are always stopping us wherever we are to tell how beautiful she is, how pretty her hair is, she looks just like a cabbage patch kid, she looks just like a doll, little orphan Annie and so on, so why not give it a shot? Who knows, maybe something great for her will come of it, I mean my GOD! What parent doesn't want the very best for their child??? If I can do anything to insure my child's future is secure, I'M GUNNA DO IT!!!
And to clear up another "misconception" by Matthew, my daughter has the time of her life "being a kid", she plays all day long, every day, rain or shine so don't worry about her not being able to be a kid... Thanks for your concern though.
It seems obvious to me that most people who have something to say about people like me who enter their children in contests and casting calls have no children of their own, and that's just sad to me.
Stop trying to change us just because you can't understand us, accept that there are so many different types of people in this world that are just fine without your "opinion", live your life the best way you can, make sure your doing everything to the best of your ability and leave everyone else to do the same for themselves. I think if we can all live this way, the world will be such a better place...
Thanks for letting me speak, and for accepting that I too have an opinion and its just as valid as yours.