Care and Feeding

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Care and Feeding is Slate’s parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? Submit it here .

Dear Care and Feeding,

My 8-year-old daughter, “Sally,” is going through a phase where she thinks she’s ugly (she’s not!). I have never emphasized valuing looks to her, so she must have picked it up from school. My husband has come up with an unconventional solution he thinks will make Sally feel better about herself.

He plans to enter her in an upcoming local child beauty pageant! I have always been against them.…