Mall Pageant Day

Okay, so I was at work today and right outside of our store there is a little sitting area with chairs, couches, plants, end-tables, etc. About 4:00, a whole mess of people showed up and started transforming this area into a real-life, little-girls-in-puffy-dresses, honest-to-goodness mall pageant. I don't know a whole lot about kid pageants, but I'm pretty sure that mall pageants have to be pretty low on the totem pole. 

Anyway, next thing you know, there are two year olds with makeup and babies who can't even walk yet shoved into mini-prom dresses. Moms and Dads were yelling at their kids to stand still and not to get dirty or ruin their outfit/hair/makeup. Of course, these conditions do not a happy child make. Everyone was waiting until the pageant hostess (?) was ready to start. As a woman was setting up trophies on a card table (classy, huh?), one mother of a contestant started pissing and moaning because she was upset that there were trophies for everyone --- she was actually upset that the pageant was going to reward every child for their participation. She said something along the lines of, "only the prettiest kids should get the trophies." Can someone explain to me how a 6 month old baby can be prettier than another 6 month old baby? In another shocking moment there was a young girl (maybe 11 years old) who was in her pretty, pretty princess dress sitting in a corner reading a book. The girl's mother came over, ripped the book out of her hand and told her to get up and practice her "walk". I'd like to know where she was planning on walking, because the "stage" for the pageant was a 5x5-foot section of mall-carpet in between two fake plants. 

I was glad my shift was over at 5:30, because watching for an hour and half was just about all I could take.