Dance Moms is another one of those horrific reality television shows that follows around a handful of women whose lives are too ridiculous to believe for a majority of the time you see them on screen. This particular series is about, you guessed it, Mom’s of tiny dancers, all who are under the tutelage of a well accredited dance instructor named Abby Lee. If you must watch just remember that the show is called Dance Moms so don’t expect amazing displays of acrobatic grace, well at least not in full anyway. The show is all about the bickering and bitching of Moms who live vicariously through their children. It’s horrible.

The complete season one package comes with 12 episodes and a bonus episode. Honestly, it wasn’t easy to watch. Thoughts like child abuse, child neglect, and flat out stupidity come to mind. At one point a couple of the mothers go to a bar at a competition and get so drunk one of them accidentally burns her child with a curling iron while prepping them for the show, seriously I‘m talked seared skin. Makes me wonder if that was even looked into or if Lifetime is securing its cash cow with an army of lawyers to make sure their stars are left alone. It’s just another show that displays human beings at their worst. Most of the kids on the show are either tortured by their parents who want them to be dancers more then the kids do, several of them admit it on camera, or kids who have lost all sense of identity and look plastically at the camera in their pounds of caked on make up for an opportunity to promote their sad little lives. It makes me sad for them and for society.

The dance instructor, Abby Lee, comes off as both a monster and as a decent teacher. She has the know how and wants things done her way without interruption from the parents. That’s understandable, but she takes things too far sometimes. One of the girls admits that she spends almost 8 hours a day at the dance class trying to become the best. That time does not include school, sleep, free time. When do these children have time to live? In one episode she dresses them up like trashy street walkers, and I quote that from one of the parents on the show, and has them dance provocatively on the stage. These are young kids. It was the equivalent of a Madonna video. Horrible. She gets results though which is really what it’s all about I guess.

In any case I spent my time cringing, feeling so sick I needed to turn away from the set, and becoming so frustrated at the fact that child abuse has become the new norm as long as it’s entertaining and makes a dollar. I’m sure that dance parents all over the country love the show, and probably hate it too. Me, as a parent, find the whole thing sickening. As always, final judgment is yours.