Unnecessary Kid Expenses: Mom Gives Botox to 8 Year Old Child

Botox injections for an 8 year-old?  Shocking, but yes.

I'm sure you've heard over the week, mostly outrage, involving an 8 year-old who receives frequent Botox injections from her own mother.

In an article posted on KTLA website, the mother said, "In the past 12 months she has had different parts of her face and lips injected four times. I make her frown before injecting, which helps identify a potential wrinkle. This means we can get it before it even develops."

A couple months ago, I watched an episode of 'What Would You Do?'  with John Quinones on ABC. A scenario was created to see how bystanders would react when a young teen was forced by her own mother to get Botox injections because it would make her look "perfect."  It was shocking, but I knew it was for TV and I would have never, in a million years, thought someone would be capable of doing such a thing.

So when this story surfaced, my jaw dropped.  In the interviews, the mother made getting Botox for an 8 year-old, sound normal.  In the same KTLA article the mother said, "If I want Britney to be successful, I have to be realistic. She has to start as early as possible. I give her between 1-2ml of a saline and Botox solution per session."

Is this really coming from a parent?  Psychologically, this little girl is scarred for life and I hope her mother is saving up for a live-in Psychiatrist.

Obviously this is not a laughing matter because it involves the innocence of a child, but this mother has gone overboard (I'm sure she would beg to differ) and now she has negatively exposed her child on a national level.

As a mother, I definitely feel responsible for building each of my child's self esteem and confidence. Reminding them that they are special and unique in their own ways, is a priority for me. Whatever happened to, "beauty comes from within."  Plus, truth be told, Botox on a child sounds ridiculously wasteful (wrinkles on a child, really?). If I had that kind of money, I'd rather put into a savings account that would go towards my kids' future endeavors.

By allowing and giving Botox injections, this mother has completely squashed her daughter's innocence and probably given her a lifelong complex that she needs to achieve perfection because she is not perfect the way she is (at least that's the message I got from this story).

It's really hard not to point fingers, but over the years, parents involved in the pageant circuit have done extreme things to their children for the sake of winning THE CROWN, as showcased on TLC's 'Toddlers and Tiaras.'  Everything from fake tans, fake eyelashes, flippers (essentially fake teeth like dentures), strict diets and bikinis for toddlers (read Allegra's post about push-up bikinis for children). 

There's even an episode on Nip/Tuck titled, "Baby Plastic Surgery" where a little girl gets fillers injected into her lips (probably, not at her own will) so that she could have a "fuller bee-stung" look, in order to model.  So where do we draw the line?

It's obvious that these parents have no boundaries, so when does the public step in to prohibit such extreme makeovers done to innocent little children?  There are minimum age requirements for obtaining a drivers license, purchasing cigarettes and alcohol.  So shouldn't there be laws that ban children from being exposed to certain beauty fixes or at least set a minimum age requirement?

What are your thoughts on this story?  Would you ever subject your child to such extremes?