Pageants for kids are one of the weirdest thing for me. Growing up in the philippines, mr and ms intramurals and mr and ms United Nations are so common that it has been the norm. But part of me have always hated those event. It's like exposing your children to superficial things, when you need you teach them the value of like sportsmanship or world peace. Call me old school, but I refuse to let my children join and even see that kind of superficial and worldly activities.
Today is United Nations day. Something like it's the anniversary of un. So, a lot of schools have United Nations themed events. And most of these schools have pageantry or fashion show. It freaks me out seeing how shallow these activities are and partly a waste of time and money ( you need to buy costumes). I suddenly top bought of our culture and what we value the most. It is undeniable that Filipino culture have always valued family. But sadly, it has always been the picturesque perfect family that one values the most. We focus so much on going to church together and being seen going to church together rather than communicating and bonding with out children. We treat children as errands more than opportunities. We really need to recalibrate as parents. We cannot just live this way because we will be raising next generation of Filipinos who have no value for relationship and genuine communication. Materialism is all around us. When we equate love to material things, our kids will indeed become materialistic. But when we spend time with them engaging our children to genuine communication and quality time, I believe you are not just raising children who knows how to deal with others, but you are setting them for life.