MNN - Mother Nature Network

Until they hurt kids.

I'm sure you've heard of Abby Lee Miller, the dance teacher in Pennsylvania who is paid by parents to abuse their children in the name of dance.This abuse is now a famous form of entertainment via a popular reality show on the Lifetime Network entitled Dance Moms.

Those who watch it, in my mind, are just as guilty of the abuse as Abby. In defense of the audience, however, the abuse is so jaw-dropping it's hard to look away. That's human nature for you.

It would be one thing if Abby Lee Miller actually cared about the kids, but she is too narcissistic to genuinely care. They are a means to an end. She can't see past her own oversized ego. She doesn't teach because she loves dance or the kids; she teaches because she thinks their fame will make her famous. There's no love in that.

I’ve had hard teachers. I’ve been one. I've directed my fair share of kids' musicals through the years. But I never left kids feeling like they weren’t loved and that I didn’t genuinely care. I never once called a child a name no matter how frustrated I was with them. I certainly didn't yell at their parents. I felt it was my job to teach children to respect their parents, not drive wedges between parents and their children the way Abby Lee Miller does.

Abby cares nothing about anyone but Abby. Just listening to her narrative you can clearly see how selfish she is. I can’t respect someone who has no empathy for children. I'm not sure she's capable of empathy.

She's clueless about child development. She expects little girls to respond with adult answers and adult logic and puts far too much responsibility for their parents’ behavior on their shoulders. When working with children, a teacher must be equipped with not only an idea of what to expect at certain stages of development, but also how children interpret their world. The example she and their mothers are setting is deplorable. Name-calling, shouting, and salacious gossip are a constant.

I wonder if, for the dance moms, it's worth exchanging their kids’ carefree childhoods for a little fame.

I don’t get it. I never will.

Makes me angry just thinking about it.