Pimping out your eight-year-old

I am cringing in horror as I listen to a CBC feature about plastic surgery and babies. The worst is an eight-year-old who's mother is giving her regular botox injections. I know I rave and bang on, but it just gets more and more hideous and abhorant. Of course, this baby competes in beauty pageants and interviewed, the mother says, "Well, I'm certainly not the only one getting this done. You have to compete and have that advantage. They can't have wrinkles when they smile for the judges." How many times have I called this sick.

Then there was the interview with a 14-year-old who had had a nose and chin job, as well as liposuction. Whaaaaaaaaa?!?!?!??!!

Another expert on the show is talking about the increasing sexualization of children, about how three-year-old toddlers are saying they need to go on diets, about how six-year-olds run around crying in playgrounds because they can't get a boyfriend because other girls are thinner. Man, you could not make this up!

Apparently 39,000 US teens and pre-teens are getting purely cosmetic surgery. Probably translates into about 5,000 here. That's a lot of parents who need to be pretty much jailed. And what about the surgeons who perform this mutilation? Other than money, what are they thinking? One surgeon is saying he only does it to help improve self esteem and reduce bullying...plus the $20,000 I pocket in my noble effort. Yeah, right. How can a three-year-old know what "self esteem" is? How can an eight-year-old know what wrinkles are?

Get your girls into sports and keep them there.