Should a Toddlers & Tiaras mom lose custody of her child?

A stage mother who put a 4-year-old in fake Dolly Parton boobs is charged with being an unfit parent

Madisyn Verst, 4, tries on fake boobs as part of her Dolly Parton costume, which was actually her mom's from her own child pageant days.
(Image credit: YouTube)

A judge has ordered Lindsay Jackson, a mom from TLC's reality show Toddlers & Tiaras, to stop entering her now 5-year-old daughter, Madiysyn "Mady" Verst, in beauty pageants while the child's parents fight for custody. Mady's dad, Bill Verst, backed up by a court-appointed psychologist, says Jackson is exploiting their little girl — in one 2011 episode of the show, Jackson padded the then-4-year-old's chest with fake boobs and an improbably bulbous rear end for a Dolly Parton routine. Jackson, for her part, is indignant that the court would consider taking her child away simply because she puts the little girl in pageants. "It's not illegal," Jackson says. "I shouldn't be at risk of losing my child simply because she participates in a hobby that some people don't like." Is the judge doing what's right for the child, or trampling Jackson's rights as a parent?

Jackson should lose custody: Mady's dad is "100 percent correct," says Dr. Keith Ablow at Fox News. Sexualizing your daughter in a totally inappropriate way, then pimping her out to a TV show, "risks serious psychological injury," from major depression to panic disorder. This is either "child abuse or child neglect or both." Any parent who would do this to her kid has forfeited her rights as a parent.

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