Oh crap! I can only guess at the flack we'll get...
 

We just found out at work that the stupid "mother" that dressed her daughter up to look like Julia Roberts' hooker character in "Pretty Woman" for the TV show "Toddlers and Tiaras" is planning on auctioning the outfit off and donating to us. We have NO connection to this show or this "mother' but i KNOW we will be getting crap for it.
We are already working on damage control. yay.

is the cost of the negative publicity greater or less than the positive publicity and cash from the proceeds of the donation?

Can you take the higher ground by declining?

I find that entire "beauty" pageant thing for 3-year-olds to be disgusting. Those poor children look exactly like they just stepped out of a child-porn magazine - the "before" part.

I sympathize with your dismay, Sheldon. I also vote decline the damn thing.

Those pageant toddlers are always heartbreaking to see, but that one in particular I found really upsetting. There was just something about the absolute innocence of her face underneath that hooker oufit that caught me.

How the hell can a parent be comfortable with that?

I just don't get it at all.

Waiting to see what we will do. We have a written response so far, explaining we are not connected to this mother or the show or pageants.

I feel the same way. You work for such a WONDERFUL organization and to see it tainted in any way because of this just, well, sucks.
I'm sure she twisted bitch means well in some way, (tax deduction on outfit) but ... :headshake

Actually I've always wondered about the so-called sexualisation of tots.
I mean surely a paedophile is attracted to a child. Child. As in young, innocent, unposed, not made up to look like someone working on a make-up counter, not dressed as a 25 year old on the pull.

A child with scabby knees who looks you in the eye unafraid and laughs and will take their clothes off un-self-consciously for a bar of chocolate becuse it's not dirty, it's what they do in front of teachers and family and friends.

Just for the record (I know, but I feel I have to write it) I don't find any child sexually attractive, whether they are looking/ behaving as a child or otherwise. I've seen plenty of winkies since I started at the school, so I am confident in that.

i guess i need to watch more TV or something. i had no idea about this show. let alone the crap on it. now i'm a pretty open minded person however dressing up your kid like a whore is just plain SICK! wtf would possess a parent to do such a thing? especially on television! i mean really?

hey shel, how about this? take the donation then turn around and publicly donate it to the womens shelter or whatever shelter/organization? just a thought.

Or donate it to some prominent anti-child-trafficking group.

A 501c(3) can't turn round and donate to another charity, especially one with a different purpose.

Ya know, in Pretty Woman, she wasn't served because of what she looked like/what she did. Even though her intentions were good and her money was good.

This woman's intentions and money may also be good......

Maybe she no longer wants to be the mom who dressed her baby like a hooker and wants to make good by turning that outfit into something good?

David St. Hubbins: It's such a fine line between stupid, and uh...
Nigel Tufnel: Clever.
David St. Hubbins: Yeah, and clever.

Well, that does sound like a good law after all.

(a) Politely decline. "Thank you ma'am, unable to accept, could cause controversy and harm the organisation in the long term."

(b) Honestly decline. "Refuse to legitimise inappropriate child exploitation".

(c) Milk it for all it is worth. Automatically accept. Leak to media. Squeal of reaction. Firmly return outfit, make multiple media statements about the value of childhood. MAW gets lots of publicity.

I'd go for (a), but I'm a bit of a wimp.

She's planning on donating the money raised, not the costume, right? Do you investigate the backgrounds of all donors and where the money they are donating is from? If not, then refusing her donation would likely cause more negative publicity than accepting it because she's an attention ho and will scream blue murder.

But you can accept it without participating in a big press conference deal. She can mail the check like the rest of us.

My guess is she is doing this to turn around the bad publicity. So I doubt she would LET any of our chapters accept the donation WITHOUT publicity.

I still don't know what the decision is.