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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to think this school talent show was a bit unfair

20 replies

PaddingtonFromPeru · 17/04/2014 08:15

DNiece had a talent show at their school, held for charity. Basically people could buy votes to choose the winner.
DN won because both lots of grandparents bought 40 votes each. AIBU to think this was about unfair on the other kids who may not have had so much family present, or whose family could not afford that many votes?
I feel there should have been a limit on number of votes per person or something.

OP posts:

AllDirections · 17/04/2014 08:19

YANBU What a strange way to judge a competition

So it wasn't really a talent competition at all, just dressed up like one.

noblegiraffe · 17/04/2014 08:21

Sounds weird, that's not a talent show, that's a who's the richest contest.

Usually these things raise money for charity by charging an entrance fee.

diddl · 17/04/2014 08:23

Isn't that what happens on X factor-that people phone in so the same sort of idea?

I guess if everyone knows how the voting worked.

As long as your niece realises that she maybe isn't talented just has "well off" GPs.

Sirzy · 17/04/2014 08:23

thats ridiculous!

Sirzy · 17/04/2014 08:24

but thinking about it pretty much any "cute baby" type thing works on the same principle whoever is willing to waste the most money texting the number and/or has the most friends on facebook to like the picture will win.

These things are rarely any indication of talent/'cuteness' or whatever just a popularity thing

ooerrmissus · 17/04/2014 08:27

I think YABU. Are you saying DN only won because of the grandparents or is there a chance she actually won because she was the best?
My DSs school did a talent competition for charity a couple of years ago. There was a lot of discussion as to the best way of doing the voting. Two of the finalists had very rich parents and the PTA were worried that if they won everyone would think it was because their parents had 'bought' the vote. They didn't win in the end because they weren't the best performers. The parents may well have bought loads of votes but they couldn't out buy everyone else.

Nennypops · 17/04/2014 08:28

Does the school seriously think that the parents and relatives will altruistically buy votes based on which child they think is the most talented rather than votes for their own child? It's not even as if the winners can feel genuinely proud of themselves if they know that the fact that they won has nothing whatsoever to do with genuine talent.

Original poster

PaddingtonFromPeru · 17/04/2014 08:36

ooermissus DN is very talented and plays her instrument really well, so I'm sure she would have been a contender to win. It is just the buying votes thing that I find odd/unfair. But, as others say, I guess that is life.

OP posts:

Panzee · 17/04/2014 08:48

Completely unfair.

But a brilliant money making wheeze. What will they spend it on, school trips, books, a minibus? Genius really. :o

Panzee · 17/04/2014 08:49

Oh, reread and see it's for charity. All in a good cause etc.

uselessidiot · 17/04/2014 11:27

YANBU to say that the voting system was unfair but you can't be sure your DN wouldn't have won anyway.

ACatCalledColin · 17/04/2014 11:29

Not really a talent contest at all then. More a popularity contest.

OddBoots · 17/04/2014 11:40

Sounds like a great piece of modern art designed to highlight the inequality of life showing those with greater practical and financial support able to make greater advances than those with less.

Fairenuff · 17/04/2014 11:45

I've seen this done before and the way around it is for the 'audience' vote to count for something like 20% of the vote.

Then the panel of judges make up the other votes based on the actual talent. It still gives the child with the richest relatives an advantage but if they are truly not the best, in the judges' opinions, then they won't win.

WooWooOwl · 17/04/2014 12:06

That is a completely tasteless way to raise money. Children shouldn't be used in this way to make money for their schools, what on earth was the school and the charity thinking?

Just vile.

I don't blame the grandparents though, if a child they love is going to be in a competition like this then they may as well go along with it, but I just can't understand why anyone in their right mind would think this is an acceptable way to raise money and organise something like that.

LokiDokey · 17/04/2014 13:17

Put me in mind of Miss Teen Queen.

DD entered when she was about 14 and got through several rounds. Of course she was buoyed by this as at the time she wanted to go into modelling (she is stick thin, very tall and very attractive though christ knows where she gets it from).

Next thing we are invited down to London for a (free) photoshoot and progression into the semi finals. At that point I was dubious and got in touch with an old friend who's DD had made the finals.

She told me that it was all based on phone votes from thereon in, because they had a large family they were able to vote and progress her into the finals, where more votes were needed. Some of these girls had families spending hundreds on calls.

I sat DD down and we discussed it, fortunately she's pretty level headed and when she realised how it all operated she pulled out.

It's a bloody cruel way of doing things.

Nocomet · 17/04/2014 13:25

Totally crap, like prizes for raising most sponsor money.
Those go in the bin!

frasersmummy · 17/04/2014 13:30

our school parent council did it this way in the past and we found most times that large groups won because eg if there were 8 dancers then 8 sets of supporters paying for votes for them .. it was soo much harder for a single act to win so we changed it to a judging panel

LokiDokey · 17/04/2014 13:30

I'm long past the days of kids and sponsor money, but I recall DS Primary giving prizes for the most sponsors. I have none to fond memories of sitting at the table trying to divide £7 into 30 made up names so he'd get a certificate and not feel left out.
My Mum and I used to go through the bloody phone book picking random names

5Foot5 · 17/04/2014 13:35

Not new.

When I was a kid we had a holiday in Rhyll and went to a "Family Talent Show" at the theatre. The winner in each category was chosen on who got the loudest applause. My friend was the best singer in the children's section but another little girl was there with a bus trip so they all voted for her!

(My Dad was definitely the best singer in the adult section but a man who did farm yard impersonations won - presumably because he was the only contestant who did something different to singing. My poor Mum was most upset 'cos the prize was a set of electric rollers and she had set her heart on my Dad winning them for her!)

In a way I am also guilty of this since a few years ago our local paper did a "Pet Idol" competition and I bought 8 copies so that I could do a multi-vote and get our guinea pig in to the finals.

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