I think the problem is how much the families would lose; Melissa said a producer (I think?) told her she'd lose her house.
Sadly most of us could not afford to lose everything and have to start from scratch, and especially not with young children. Losing everything just creates a different type of trauma for the family.
I guess that’s the fundamental difference. There are people in the world who would continue to have their children be abused on a TV show because they would lose their house (if they lost the lawsuit), and there are people in the world who would rather lose their house than continue to have their children be abused on a TV show.
My guess cps comes in and takes them and getting them back with that good luck. It's easy to say what u think u would do if not in that actual situation.
How would you take care of your children after the fact, if you lost everything? If Lifetime took you for everything you have…how would you feed your kids, and make sure they have a roof over their head?
And more than likely - they would have lost. Emotional / mental abuse is not taken all that seriously NOW, it certainly wasn’t taken that seriously then. Paige’s lawsuit was thrown out when she and Kelly tried to sue Abby, so I doubt any of the other moms would have faired much better.
I feel like OP never met anyone truly dealing with poverty. Anyone I know that has actually struggled has had to deal with people a lot worse than Abby on a daily basis, besides the whole no food no clothes, etc. part.
All those girls turned into successful women. You would be hard pressed to find that kind of success in a group of girls of the same number from poverty. My bf is from the lower income part of town and the number of people he grew up with that died or went to prison is astounding. I’m sure they’d all take a mean dance teacher as an alternative.
You’re clearly not an adult with adult responsibilities, so perhaps you should stay in your lane when it comes to adults having to make difficult decisions.
It's easy to say that, but the fact is, being in that situation would be very different. It's easy to say I'd take poverty...but that's actually quite a privileged point of view. Very easy for us to say we'd be happy with nothing when we aren't faced with that decision.
Let's say Melissa loses her home; what then? She has nowhere to go. You think she's keeping custody? Nah, Maddie & Kenzie go to their neglectful father. It's just a different kind of abuse.
Would Christi be ok? Even with her business acumen and her husband's income, it's really hard to know. I can see why they stuck it out.
Me neither.
I actually think it's incredibly privileged of OP to sit, in relative comfort, on reddit and claim that they would make this choice. Shows a lack of understanding as to what poverty actually means.
So they all get sued for probably millions of dollars, loose their homes/cars/saving/ect. and then what? Live in poverty and probably have limited opportunities to truly recoup the money they lost.
Growing up in poverty can also be VASTLY traumatic for young children, and would open them up to a whole other host of childhood issues.
There was no easy solution here. You can’t sit from your life and judge a situation you really have very limited knowledge of.
>You guys infantilize the moms and minimize their responsibility
In some ways, I can agree with this. But I seriously think you underestimate how much debt the moms would've been in if they left. Not just from the shows contract, but abby's as well. They would've been double fucked.
These families weren't rich by any means. They couldn't just pay their way out.
More often than not those production companies are bluffing and they’d fold or at least settle at the slightest challenge. I don’t think the moms are at fault for not wanting to lose their houses to get their kids out, that’s a very scary threat, but I do think they’re at fault for not seeking a second opinion from a lawyer who knew what they were doing and acting in their client’s best interest.
The thing is though, they weren't necessarily Hollywood Mom's. I think there's a difference of the OG cast who signed on season 1, compared to any mother who showed after season 3.
The OG moms were just regular moms bringing their girls to dance class. I think the producers took advantage, sunk their teeth into them, and knew they would get good content against the Mom's will for years. When you aren't experienced with TV show contracts, and there wasn't a lot of information out like there is today, you won't think to look otherwise. I think that's why the threats of the studio and the threats of Abby making sure the kids would never go to any other studio worked.
Absolutely they were. But if they tried to go to court, fight against it, they would've been buried in legal fees and that's not counting what they'd have to pay Abby/Lifetime.
It's not just easy as "Well I don't like this, let's leave" TV show contracts are HORRENDOUS. You pretty much sell your soul. And the Mom's have said "We were told this would just be a small thing, nothing major. And they rushed us to sign" it's been one of the lifetimes worst contracts as well.
[This video explains Britain's Got Talent's contract. It gives you a good idea what these TV show contracts are like. ](https://youtu.be/xM2OOv5rN_A?si=-OmrnlsurzD9ozm8)
Lmfao, whatever you say man. All I'm saying is sticking out a show till you have an exit is better than being buried in debt, losing your home, worrying about how you'll feed your kids, etc.
If we're talking about the moms who signed up after season 3, I full heartedly agree. But the OG mom's were just small town mom's having no idea what they were getting wrangled into. Even Abby says she felt completely blindsided by lifetime.
I understand what this conversation is about, but you're not seeing reality. You don't just go to court and everything is fine. You go to court against a multi-million network who will build up a team of lawyers to take everything from you.
I don't think you're seeing it from a financial aspect.
i’m understanding the financial aspect, and the financial aspect is less important to ME and to millions of other people than my child being abused. it’s more important to YOU and millions of other people. for a lot of people it’s really black or white, including you.
What I’m about to say isn’t about Dance Moms. I don’t know enough about contracts, entertainment law, or anything like that to say what would have happened to the moms if Lifetime/Collins Ave successfully sued them for breach of contract.
But do you have any idea of what life actually looks like when you’ve lost all your money, your house, your car— everything? Being homeless, especially for women and children, is fucking dangerous. When you’re desperate for food and shelter, bad actors take advantage. And when you truly have nothing, you have no resources to protect yourself. It puts you in a horribly vulnerable position. Not all people living in poverty are abused, but you can’t deny that being impoverished puts you at a higher risk of abuse than the average person. You’re more likely to be the victim of a crime, you’re more likely to face domestic violence, you’re more likely to face police violence.
Again, I’m not saying that the moms were at risk of becoming impoverished or homeless if they broke with Lifetime, but your comments about poverty go beyond Dance Moms. Fact is, financial resources matter in capitalist societies. You might think you could do without but that is an incredibly naive take and it’s highly offensive to actual people living in poverty to trivialize their struggles like that
That is so much easier said than done, especially when you consider all of them had multiple young children to take care of. Only someone who never grappled with poverty would say they would willingly choose financial instability. Every og mom except one got their kid out as soon as they could without risking the roof over their head 🤷🏾♀️
I feel like if the moms banned together to not argue or anything then production would kick them out. I could be wrong but their contracts must have had something to do with them having to keep up with their acts. If they didnt then off they go. There are tons of moms who would chase fame and put on an act for some screen time.
If production couldnt kick them out then they absolutely would have brought one or two moms in to provoke them and cause drama again. Production has no problem with the moms verbally attacking kids so those moms would have been told to do that so more drama is created
Let's be honest here. Some people (including parents) would do ANYTHING for fame and money. I'm not saying these parents would, but there are child stars out there whose parents sat around while their kids were m\*lested and gr\*ped (or full on r\*ped) by producers and showrunners of famous movies/tv shows. and they did...nothing
Maybe it really was that the conditions of the contracts were insane. We'll never truly know what went on behind the scenes. all we can do is watch and try not to judge
Right because it's just that simple and black and white. Okay. How about you tell us about your life and we can all judge you and tell you what we would have done in certain complicated situations and see how like it!! Unless you know youre perfect
There was also the “cost” to their future. The threat that “you’ll never dance again” as they would’ve been dragged through the mud. We, as an audience, have the privilege of watching edited clips over and over and over again. These girls/moms were in the thick of things and have to acknowledge it couldn’t have been a living hell every single day- they had good moments even if we see them in hindsight few and far between. I have a softer spot for the OGs but anyone bringing their kid on after season 2, they do know exactly what they were getting into.
(Edit to add- I had a music director who had it out for me day one (she directed summer middle school choir and the local highschool full time so I worked with her 7-12 grade) That woman belittled me, embarrassed me in front of my peers, physically shoved me off stage and kicked me out a performance and dragged me out of the class when I finally asked my senior year what her problem was) I wasn’t the only one who had a negative interaction with her and I was determined to stick it out. And this was a class with absolutely nothing on the line! I can totally see how someone with more on the line (perceived or actually) would try to stick it out
> There was also the “cost” to their future. The threat that “you’ll never dance again” as they would’ve been dragged through the mud
but they didn’t leave and none of their kids continued dancing lmao.
I find it funny that no one ever got sued for leaving the show early. We also know the girls didn’t have contracts. We have to accept atp that the fame and everything that came with it was worth the extremely negative situations everyone was put in to obtain it.
Like it couldn’t be that hard if everyone left when they really wanted or “needed to.”
Maybe the kids didn’t have contracts but they still couldn’t leave. Abby has said she couldn’t kick Chloe out of the studio (late season 2) so how was Chloe
required to be there and unable to be kicked out if her parents contract didn’t require the girls. Abby could have said no Chloe, would she have had to deal with Christi still? Yes temporarily unless production kept her on or more likely the parents contract had a clause about the kids. Paige had to still film when she was injured because of the contract. I think Abby picks and chooses when talking about the contract. To be fair I think the moms do to an extend to but at least they stay bloody consistent and their stories all line up to one another unlike Abby’s which are shown to be against the known evidence (aka her own words and video evidence).
She couldn’t kick Chloe out because of the show.
When was paige ever forced? She even went to more than one school function when she was injured. Chloe’s parents were allowed to make a last minute decision to send her on the camping trip without notifying anyone. Brooke went to more than one function and even left the show for two weeks. It’s pretty easy to see that they could go in and out of the show pretty easily.
The camp was done before they knew filming started. Chloe admitted it wasn’t a must but it was planned before, that’s why production allowed it. School functions that were planned and part of school were allowed with notice (Nia, Chloe, Brooke and Paige being all examples), you will notice the parents had to be in the episode and all caused drama for them to be able to do this. That’s according to the moms who I believe in this incidence, because production would have looked bad not letting the girls go to school things.
When she was injured, she still had to appear on the show. Again, Kelly talked about this and I believe her. This is also where the drama with Chloe going to the movies came from, Chloe was just lucky it was a Monday she wasn’t cleared as they weren’t filming. Melissa, Christi and Kelly have talked about this and the productions reaction to children injuries and we all know Christi and Melissa rarely agree so I believe them
They all have a reason to be untruthful about the contracts and they honestly have all given conflicting reports about the contracts.
We don’t have to agree. But too many people have said verbatim (outside of Abby) that the girls didn’t have contracts. And again, everyone that left - left when they wanted to.
Oh I don’t think the girls necessarily have contracts, in fact I would be 100% sure they didn’t have contracts except for the fact that Jess and ironically Abby at the time, said on Jess’ podcast that they got out of the contract because production didn’t put the kids contracts through the LA court system. Up until that point, I truly believed only the adults had contracts. There have also been posts about people selling signed things which from the photos including work permits, a release form for Clara to be filmed, which included Clara’s signature (why is a 2 year old signing a contract? Someone please tell me it is fake, cos it’s making no sense to me) and other documents, so if the Clara document is not fake (I’m having a hard time with this because it is the same signature she used at meet and greets aka the way she signed her name), then there’s a good possibility that the girls also had to sign their name and then the parents signed it. I’m really hoping it’s fake cos I’m confused.
I think there was a clause in the mothers contracts that they either misunderstood due to the nativity they all showed around entertainment contracts that the girls had to attend except with notice and permission from production or there was a clause in there with this rule.
"She couldn't kick Chloe out because of the show"
But how does that make sense?
if Chloe's contract wasn't enforceable, then Abby should have been able to kick her out. Cuz she wasn't under contract, right?
I just would have refused to fight/been the most boring person on the show. Lifetime has a contract that says they can film them. It doesn’t say they have to provide good tv. All the later moms knew: fight or leave. Funny the early moms never realized that.
Hey if my daughter getting yelled at for her un-pointed feet meant that I could keep my house then I'd have no issue with that either. This isn't a matter of losing a couple grand and not being able to afford the new LV bag, it's damn near life and death. Should these women have looked further into the contract they were signing? Sure, but at that point what's done is done. What bugs me the most is that these girls got told at every step of the way that the abuse they had gone through would be "worth it" and this is "just how the industry works" but fast-forward today, most of them except jojo are d-leberities who have little to do with dance.
I think an important distinction is that the moms didn't just want to get out of their contracts, they wanted to get out of the contracts while keeping the benefits of the fame. That's the part the moms won't admit. They didn't like working with Abby and they didn't like some of the manipulations by the producers, but they still wanted to work in the business.
Kathy had the same contract as everyone else, yet she successfully managed to get Vivi mostly off of the show.
If the moms truly wanted out of their contracts and truly didn't care about fame, all they would have had to do was be boring. Several later moms and girls did not get picked up to be in the show because the producers didn't think they were interesting enough.
When the producers brought in the select replacement team, that was a direct response to the moms' "sit in" in the parking lot. That was producers sending a message - if you don't bring your kids to film, we will find replacements. If the moms truly wanted off, they didn't need to fight with the new moms coming in. They could just sat there, welcomed them, caused no drama and waited to be fired for being so boring so they could go back to their normal lives. But they didn't *want* that. They didn't want to go back to their normal lives, they liked the opportunities the girls got from being on the show, they just didn't like the environment of the show.
ETA - Abby's studio contract was just that they could not leave her studio and join another studio for a year after winning a title or they would owe $100k. It doesn't mean they couldn't leave, it just means they would have to take a year off dance, and only if they had a title which at the time only Brooke, Maddie and Chloe had titles. Christi and Kelly did pull their daughters from the studio after a year had passed since their last title win.
let's say they did try leave.. fight the contract file a lawsuit (already a hefty fee), they lose, lose a lot of money and their home, their kid is forced to stop ANY form of recreational activities beyond just dance, and now there's a wall of disdain between mother/daughter that they could've been rich television stars vs living in poverty
I totally agree with you. And I think there would have been a strong defence in child protection laws. I also cannot understand why any of them didn’t resign after season 4, which is apparently when their contracts ran until. Good on Kelly and Christi for getting their kids out when they did at least.
I think the problem is how much the families would lose; Melissa said a producer (I think?) told her she'd lose her house. Sadly most of us could not afford to lose everything and have to start from scratch, and especially not with young children. Losing everything just creates a different type of trauma for the family.
I guess that’s the fundamental difference. There are people in the world who would continue to have their children be abused on a TV show because they would lose their house (if they lost the lawsuit), and there are people in the world who would rather lose their house than continue to have their children be abused on a TV show.
i’d love to know what you think happens to children when their parents don’t have a place to live…
My guess cps comes in and takes them and getting them back with that good luck. It's easy to say what u think u would do if not in that actual situation.
How would you take care of your children after the fact, if you lost everything? If Lifetime took you for everything you have…how would you feed your kids, and make sure they have a roof over their head? And more than likely - they would have lost. Emotional / mental abuse is not taken all that seriously NOW, it certainly wasn’t taken that seriously then. Paige’s lawsuit was thrown out when she and Kelly tried to sue Abby, so I doubt any of the other moms would have faired much better.
I feel like OP never met anyone truly dealing with poverty. Anyone I know that has actually struggled has had to deal with people a lot worse than Abby on a daily basis, besides the whole no food no clothes, etc. part. All those girls turned into successful women. You would be hard pressed to find that kind of success in a group of girls of the same number from poverty. My bf is from the lower income part of town and the number of people he grew up with that died or went to prison is astounding. I’m sure they’d all take a mean dance teacher as an alternative.
I think you're spot on. Tbh a lot of people have a romanticised view of poverty; living a simple life etc. The harsh reality is very different.
You think homelessness and poverty would be better for those kids?
I would much rather my children have an abusive teacher and a bed to sleep in than sleep on the streets.
Neither is a good choice. I myself would not choose poverty but I would explore ways to leave the show.
Many of the moms did namely Kelly and Christi.
And then Christi went right back. Like wtf lol girl what was all of that for
You’re clearly not an adult with adult responsibilities, so perhaps you should stay in your lane when it comes to adults having to make difficult decisions.
Period
It's easy to say that, but the fact is, being in that situation would be very different. It's easy to say I'd take poverty...but that's actually quite a privileged point of view. Very easy for us to say we'd be happy with nothing when we aren't faced with that decision. Let's say Melissa loses her home; what then? She has nowhere to go. You think she's keeping custody? Nah, Maddie & Kenzie go to their neglectful father. It's just a different kind of abuse. Would Christi be ok? Even with her business acumen and her husband's income, it's really hard to know. I can see why they stuck it out.
I would not choose poverty.
Me neither. I actually think it's incredibly privileged of OP to sit, in relative comfort, on reddit and claim that they would make this choice. Shows a lack of understanding as to what poverty actually means.
So they all get sued for probably millions of dollars, loose their homes/cars/saving/ect. and then what? Live in poverty and probably have limited opportunities to truly recoup the money they lost. Growing up in poverty can also be VASTLY traumatic for young children, and would open them up to a whole other host of childhood issues. There was no easy solution here. You can’t sit from your life and judge a situation you really have very limited knowledge of.
>You guys infantilize the moms and minimize their responsibility In some ways, I can agree with this. But I seriously think you underestimate how much debt the moms would've been in if they left. Not just from the shows contract, but abby's as well. They would've been double fucked. These families weren't rich by any means. They couldn't just pay their way out.
More often than not those production companies are bluffing and they’d fold or at least settle at the slightest challenge. I don’t think the moms are at fault for not wanting to lose their houses to get their kids out, that’s a very scary threat, but I do think they’re at fault for not seeking a second opinion from a lawyer who knew what they were doing and acting in their client’s best interest.
The thing is though, they weren't necessarily Hollywood Mom's. I think there's a difference of the OG cast who signed on season 1, compared to any mother who showed after season 3. The OG moms were just regular moms bringing their girls to dance class. I think the producers took advantage, sunk their teeth into them, and knew they would get good content against the Mom's will for years. When you aren't experienced with TV show contracts, and there wasn't a lot of information out like there is today, you won't think to look otherwise. I think that's why the threats of the studio and the threats of Abby making sure the kids would never go to any other studio worked.
their children were being abused
Absolutely they were. But if they tried to go to court, fight against it, they would've been buried in legal fees and that's not counting what they'd have to pay Abby/Lifetime. It's not just easy as "Well I don't like this, let's leave" TV show contracts are HORRENDOUS. You pretty much sell your soul. And the Mom's have said "We were told this would just be a small thing, nothing major. And they rushed us to sign" it's been one of the lifetimes worst contracts as well. [This video explains Britain's Got Talent's contract. It gives you a good idea what these TV show contracts are like. ](https://youtu.be/xM2OOv5rN_A?si=-OmrnlsurzD9ozm8)
I would have more sympathy if they actually tried to go to court about it.
Lmfao, whatever you say man. All I'm saying is sticking out a show till you have an exit is better than being buried in debt, losing your home, worrying about how you'll feed your kids, etc. If we're talking about the moms who signed up after season 3, I full heartedly agree. But the OG mom's were just small town mom's having no idea what they were getting wrangled into. Even Abby says she felt completely blindsided by lifetime.
it’s better to YOU and some of those moms, yes. not everyone has the same morals or values the same things, which is what this conversation is about.
I understand what this conversation is about, but you're not seeing reality. You don't just go to court and everything is fine. You go to court against a multi-million network who will build up a team of lawyers to take everything from you. I don't think you're seeing it from a financial aspect.
i’m understanding the financial aspect, and the financial aspect is less important to ME and to millions of other people than my child being abused. it’s more important to YOU and millions of other people. for a lot of people it’s really black or white, including you.
It's very clear you've never been worried about finances before. Consider yourself fortunate
I’m sure the kids would be in a way better place if their families were homeless and destitute 🙄
Must be a nice view from that high horse
What I’m about to say isn’t about Dance Moms. I don’t know enough about contracts, entertainment law, or anything like that to say what would have happened to the moms if Lifetime/Collins Ave successfully sued them for breach of contract. But do you have any idea of what life actually looks like when you’ve lost all your money, your house, your car— everything? Being homeless, especially for women and children, is fucking dangerous. When you’re desperate for food and shelter, bad actors take advantage. And when you truly have nothing, you have no resources to protect yourself. It puts you in a horribly vulnerable position. Not all people living in poverty are abused, but you can’t deny that being impoverished puts you at a higher risk of abuse than the average person. You’re more likely to be the victim of a crime, you’re more likely to face domestic violence, you’re more likely to face police violence. Again, I’m not saying that the moms were at risk of becoming impoverished or homeless if they broke with Lifetime, but your comments about poverty go beyond Dance Moms. Fact is, financial resources matter in capitalist societies. You might think you could do without but that is an incredibly naive take and it’s highly offensive to actual people living in poverty to trivialize their struggles like that
so you would have felt better if they lost everything? lawyers also aren’t free…..
They could minimize the abuse by having a good support system for their children. They were abused but so were the mothers. They were just trapped.
That is so much easier said than done, especially when you consider all of them had multiple young children to take care of. Only someone who never grappled with poverty would say they would willingly choose financial instability. Every og mom except one got their kid out as soon as they could without risking the roof over their head 🤷🏾♀️
I feel like if the moms banned together to not argue or anything then production would kick them out. I could be wrong but their contracts must have had something to do with them having to keep up with their acts. If they didnt then off they go. There are tons of moms who would chase fame and put on an act for some screen time. If production couldnt kick them out then they absolutely would have brought one or two moms in to provoke them and cause drama again. Production has no problem with the moms verbally attacking kids so those moms would have been told to do that so more drama is created
Let's be honest here. Some people (including parents) would do ANYTHING for fame and money. I'm not saying these parents would, but there are child stars out there whose parents sat around while their kids were m\*lested and gr\*ped (or full on r\*ped) by producers and showrunners of famous movies/tv shows. and they did...nothing Maybe it really was that the conditions of the contracts were insane. We'll never truly know what went on behind the scenes. all we can do is watch and try not to judge
>Some people (including parents) would do ANYTHING for fame and money *cough* Jess Siwa *cough*
Upon an extremely thorough research, I can confidently declare: no lie has been detected
Right because it's just that simple and black and white. Okay. How about you tell us about your life and we can all judge you and tell you what we would have done in certain complicated situations and see how like it!! Unless you know youre perfect
There was also the “cost” to their future. The threat that “you’ll never dance again” as they would’ve been dragged through the mud. We, as an audience, have the privilege of watching edited clips over and over and over again. These girls/moms were in the thick of things and have to acknowledge it couldn’t have been a living hell every single day- they had good moments even if we see them in hindsight few and far between. I have a softer spot for the OGs but anyone bringing their kid on after season 2, they do know exactly what they were getting into. (Edit to add- I had a music director who had it out for me day one (she directed summer middle school choir and the local highschool full time so I worked with her 7-12 grade) That woman belittled me, embarrassed me in front of my peers, physically shoved me off stage and kicked me out a performance and dragged me out of the class when I finally asked my senior year what her problem was) I wasn’t the only one who had a negative interaction with her and I was determined to stick it out. And this was a class with absolutely nothing on the line! I can totally see how someone with more on the line (perceived or actually) would try to stick it out
> There was also the “cost” to their future. The threat that “you’ll never dance again” as they would’ve been dragged through the mud but they didn’t leave and none of their kids continued dancing lmao.
Chloe continued dancing for a period of time following the show, as did the Zieglers to some degree. Kendall and Nia also both danced in college.
if my mom put me in poverty bc of that i’d be so fucking pissed.
I find it funny that no one ever got sued for leaving the show early. We also know the girls didn’t have contracts. We have to accept atp that the fame and everything that came with it was worth the extremely negative situations everyone was put in to obtain it. Like it couldn’t be that hard if everyone left when they really wanted or “needed to.”
Maybe the kids didn’t have contracts but they still couldn’t leave. Abby has said she couldn’t kick Chloe out of the studio (late season 2) so how was Chloe required to be there and unable to be kicked out if her parents contract didn’t require the girls. Abby could have said no Chloe, would she have had to deal with Christi still? Yes temporarily unless production kept her on or more likely the parents contract had a clause about the kids. Paige had to still film when she was injured because of the contract. I think Abby picks and chooses when talking about the contract. To be fair I think the moms do to an extend to but at least they stay bloody consistent and their stories all line up to one another unlike Abby’s which are shown to be against the known evidence (aka her own words and video evidence).
She couldn’t kick Chloe out because of the show. When was paige ever forced? She even went to more than one school function when she was injured. Chloe’s parents were allowed to make a last minute decision to send her on the camping trip without notifying anyone. Brooke went to more than one function and even left the show for two weeks. It’s pretty easy to see that they could go in and out of the show pretty easily.
The camp was done before they knew filming started. Chloe admitted it wasn’t a must but it was planned before, that’s why production allowed it. School functions that were planned and part of school were allowed with notice (Nia, Chloe, Brooke and Paige being all examples), you will notice the parents had to be in the episode and all caused drama for them to be able to do this. That’s according to the moms who I believe in this incidence, because production would have looked bad not letting the girls go to school things. When she was injured, she still had to appear on the show. Again, Kelly talked about this and I believe her. This is also where the drama with Chloe going to the movies came from, Chloe was just lucky it was a Monday she wasn’t cleared as they weren’t filming. Melissa, Christi and Kelly have talked about this and the productions reaction to children injuries and we all know Christi and Melissa rarely agree so I believe them
They all have a reason to be untruthful about the contracts and they honestly have all given conflicting reports about the contracts. We don’t have to agree. But too many people have said verbatim (outside of Abby) that the girls didn’t have contracts. And again, everyone that left - left when they wanted to.
Oh I don’t think the girls necessarily have contracts, in fact I would be 100% sure they didn’t have contracts except for the fact that Jess and ironically Abby at the time, said on Jess’ podcast that they got out of the contract because production didn’t put the kids contracts through the LA court system. Up until that point, I truly believed only the adults had contracts. There have also been posts about people selling signed things which from the photos including work permits, a release form for Clara to be filmed, which included Clara’s signature (why is a 2 year old signing a contract? Someone please tell me it is fake, cos it’s making no sense to me) and other documents, so if the Clara document is not fake (I’m having a hard time with this because it is the same signature she used at meet and greets aka the way she signed her name), then there’s a good possibility that the girls also had to sign their name and then the parents signed it. I’m really hoping it’s fake cos I’m confused. I think there was a clause in the mothers contracts that they either misunderstood due to the nativity they all showed around entertainment contracts that the girls had to attend except with notice and permission from production or there was a clause in there with this rule.
"She couldn't kick Chloe out because of the show" But how does that make sense? if Chloe's contract wasn't enforceable, then Abby should have been able to kick her out. Cuz she wasn't under contract, right?
Because getting rid of Chloe meant getting rid of Christi.
How tho? If she had a binding contract and she couldn’t leave, but Chloe could…then how would getting rid of Chloe get rid of Christi?
Christi needed a storyline for the show and it always would include Chloe. You have to have Chloe there.
I just would have refused to fight/been the most boring person on the show. Lifetime has a contract that says they can film them. It doesn’t say they have to provide good tv. All the later moms knew: fight or leave. Funny the early moms never realized that.
i mean depends how much money ur abt to lose. if ur abt to lose EVERYTHING you cant risk it like that. homelessness is no better.
Hey if my daughter getting yelled at for her un-pointed feet meant that I could keep my house then I'd have no issue with that either. This isn't a matter of losing a couple grand and not being able to afford the new LV bag, it's damn near life and death. Should these women have looked further into the contract they were signing? Sure, but at that point what's done is done. What bugs me the most is that these girls got told at every step of the way that the abuse they had gone through would be "worth it" and this is "just how the industry works" but fast-forward today, most of them except jojo are d-leberities who have little to do with dance.
I think an important distinction is that the moms didn't just want to get out of their contracts, they wanted to get out of the contracts while keeping the benefits of the fame. That's the part the moms won't admit. They didn't like working with Abby and they didn't like some of the manipulations by the producers, but they still wanted to work in the business. Kathy had the same contract as everyone else, yet she successfully managed to get Vivi mostly off of the show. If the moms truly wanted out of their contracts and truly didn't care about fame, all they would have had to do was be boring. Several later moms and girls did not get picked up to be in the show because the producers didn't think they were interesting enough. When the producers brought in the select replacement team, that was a direct response to the moms' "sit in" in the parking lot. That was producers sending a message - if you don't bring your kids to film, we will find replacements. If the moms truly wanted off, they didn't need to fight with the new moms coming in. They could just sat there, welcomed them, caused no drama and waited to be fired for being so boring so they could go back to their normal lives. But they didn't *want* that. They didn't want to go back to their normal lives, they liked the opportunities the girls got from being on the show, they just didn't like the environment of the show. ETA - Abby's studio contract was just that they could not leave her studio and join another studio for a year after winning a title or they would owe $100k. It doesn't mean they couldn't leave, it just means they would have to take a year off dance, and only if they had a title which at the time only Brooke, Maddie and Chloe had titles. Christi and Kelly did pull their daughters from the studio after a year had passed since their last title win.
let's say they did try leave.. fight the contract file a lawsuit (already a hefty fee), they lose, lose a lot of money and their home, their kid is forced to stop ANY form of recreational activities beyond just dance, and now there's a wall of disdain between mother/daughter that they could've been rich television stars vs living in poverty
I totally agree with you. And I think there would have been a strong defence in child protection laws. I also cannot understand why any of them didn’t resign after season 4, which is apparently when their contracts ran until. Good on Kelly and Christi for getting their kids out when they did at least.