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I despise reality TV.

Especially those awful programs like “Toddlers and Tiaras” and “Say Yes to the Dress” that perpetually run on channels such as TLC. I find them to be mind-numbing and so low-brow that it seems to kill brain cells just flipping past the title on the Verizon channel guide.

Just when I thought reality TV couldn’t get any worse, I stumbled upon Dance Moms.

This show magnifies all of vile, despicable, cringe-worthy facets of society today that make me embarrassed to be a member of the human race. The owner of the Pittsburgh-based dance studio, Abby Lee Miller, is an overweight, stern, immovable terror that reigns over the 7-to-13-year-old girls on the competition dance team. She yells and reprimands those girls more than she praises them. And to “motivate” the girls, she does a weekly pyramid; the four girls who did the worst the previous week are on the bottom of the pyramid, the two who were so-so are in the middle, and the one girl who did the best gets the top spot, in addition to gaining the envy of the other girls and their mothers.

Because that’s the most affective way to motivate pre-teens without having them hate your existence.

As the title suggests, this show focuses its attention on the mothers, whose prideful views of their daughters is unrealistic and whose statements irk me every time their perfectly glossed lips part to form a single word. The cameras remain with the moms as their daughters take their dance class (as Abby requires the moms to stay in the studio for the entire practice – no exceptions). The conversations these women have appall me. I absolutely despise when people attempt to out-do the other by using their assets, or in this case, children, as means of besting the others. Instead of genuinely praising one another’s children, these supposed friends talk about how the other children are ok, but no where as amazing as their own offspring. This kind of belittlement is detrimental to the girls – they’re constantly comparing themselves to the others and are burn-outs by the time they’re 15.

This is possibly the worst reality TV show I have ever seen in my 17 years of living.

And I love every minute of it.