Child beauty pageants are the epiphany of over-parenting, which most of us would gasp upon. And yet, children are being projected online, by their parents-but under the pretence of love, acceptance and adoration. What happens when they no longer meet the mark?
Over-parenting, an easy mistake many of us could make whilst bringing up our children. Living in the 21st century puts pressure on us all, and that includes our children. Take school for instance, we attend school and by the time we are 10 years of age-the comparison between you and a school friend is hard to ignore.
Who Are You In Relation to Them?
When we are growing up and learning, it is a rational and some might say-a vital part of growing up. We experience ourselves in relation to others and recognise ourselves in others. Where this is an enjoyable experience, it can also be daunting and threatening. It is called social comparison theory, which can either motivate or de-motivate. It can either make you up your game, or chastise yourself for not doing better.
‘Struth’, the complexities of being’
The problem with making comparisons in adolescence is that the rational brain has not yet developed, and therefore it is difficult to make balanced judgements. This is not necessarily in relation to only yourself, but also in relation to others. Living in today’s society only confounds this further when the brain is continually bombarded with ‘other people’ and their supposed perfections, via social media.
And It Doesn’t Stop at Adolescence
We may benefit from the experience and wisdom of age-but it certainly does not vanquish doubt or insecurity. Social comparison is a natural process when we are getting to know someone, and a safeguard, as well as an education. We have to be able to trust the person before us, and so we must understand first who they are. Normally, we do this from our own experience, and therefore we look for our own selves in another.
Although all we may see is:
‘what we would like to be’ instead.
With all this self-comparison surrounding us, is it any wonder we turn to our children and prepare them for this upcoming onslaught. The pre-millenial generation did not grow up with computers or social media, they have discovered this in their adulthood. Where this has always been a fact of life, it is now more physical than ever in the daily feeds that are hard to get away from.
Neuroticism In The Pre-Millennial Generation
This, perhaps for the pre-millennial generation is more alarming. Certainly, it is the pre-millennials who have taken up Facebook as a daily habit. Where millennials seem to have deserted it and moved over to Instagram, the pre-millennials are using it as a child parade-I have never seen so many pictures of people’s children. It is the new accepted form of kid pageants…
“you know those hideous American spectacles; where parents dress their children up asbeauty queens”.
We are literally surrounded by affirmations left, right and centre from friend and foe. And most of these affirmations are now in relation to their children, since pre-millennials are now the ones taking up the news feed…with their children.
Research has in fact found-those sensitive to the social media of others, and active participants in the demoralising aspect of social comparison, exhibit neurotic behaviour. They found neurotic behaviour, was a precursor in motivating a tendency towards over-emphasising one’s profile and status on Facebook. A type of narcissism, because it is motivated by the need to be above others, rather than to be accepted by them.
Facebook practically breeds the neurotic mother.
So, my thinking is: have pre-millennials birthed their own narcissism in the idealisation of their children on Facebook? And what an outlet Facebook is.
What Does This Do To Children?
As someone who has spent a lot of time with children, I can tell you: the over-parenting, or the over-expectations of children, will-in the end, either turn them into fellow narcissists, or make them run the other direction. It is emotional abuse in its true from, but often goes overlooked and undiscovered. A lot of children are suffering from this these days, because in one instance-the world is tough and competitive, and in another-they are not receiving the kind of attention they need.
Instead of love being the foundation of a child’s upbringing-money, status and power become the preferred threshold.
And yet, mothers parading their children at child beauty pageants may only be admired by onlookers.
‘How they must love their girls!’
One of the mother’s of a child pageant contestant remarked:
“I’m a perfectionist-I have to get it right”
(in conversation with Sky News)
This behaviour, although extreme-shows a mother living her life through her child. All the regrets and dashed dreams, can be re-born again.
The over-personification of children is introducing the world of adulthood at far too quick an age. Where many proud parents will be happily sharing a big part of their lives online, these are often images and descriptions, which only seek to idealise their child over another.
‘Kayla came first in gymnastics…we are so proud’ And so follows perfect ballerina esque photo after photo. Where ‘Kayla’ may adore gymnastics, and respectfully her parents ought to be proud-why does there seem to be a price tag attached to it? Aren’t parents always ‘proud’ of their children? And why are we being bombarded with so many adolescent children-still in single digits?
Young girls love to dress up, I did too-still do, but my mother didn’t put me on display or idealise my status within a group. I wasn’t pampered as a child and I wasn’t the princess. I largely grew up unassuming and approached those topics in adulthood, rather than childhood, because that is where it is meant to be explored.
It means, even though I have an idea of who I am, it has been birthed from my own self-discovery and not via someone else. Think mothers and daughters in tow at the supermarket-in matching outfits, and Kayla is only aged 4. When you decide a child’s destiny-you are suppressing a child’s development.
What happens when little Tilly doesn’t grow up to be the apple of her mother’s eye?
She becomes ostracised. Emotional abuse at the ‘heart’ of the perfect family.
Gaza’s heinous genocide is no longer confined to moments of direct attack. It is now visible in the complete breakdown of daily life itself. Families are still being butchered vehemently in places where they had sought shelter. To worsen these matters, shortages of fuel, engine oil, gas, and spare parts are crippling hospitals, bakeries, rescue vehicles, water systems, and ordinary transport.
A Tent Camp Hit in Gaza City
On June 6, despite the so-called “ceasefire,” an Israeli air attack hit a tent camp in Gaza City where displaced Palestinians were sheltering. Resultantly, at least seven peoplewere killed, while at least 15 others were injured, many of them treated in intensive care. Women and children were believed to be among the casualties. The strike hit a United Nations school compound that had become a shelter for displaced families.
These were displaced people already living with the consequences of bombardment, evacuation, and loss. A tent camp is meant to be a temporary refuge for families with nowhere else to go. When such a place is hit, it deepens the fear that no civilian space is beyond danger.
A Wedding Turned Into Mourning
Moreover, the Gaza City strike by Israel targeted a tent next to another tent where a wedding appeared to be taking place. Unfortunately, earlier the same day, a strike in Khan Younis killed a man who was scheduled to be married later that day. His cousin said the family had prepared for the wedding but was instead attending his funeral.
This detail shows how deeply the genocide has entered private life. A wedding in Gaza is not just a celebration but an attempt to preserve social life despite displacement, hunger, and fear. When a groom is killed on the day of his wedding, even brief moments of normality remain exposed to violence.
The Ceasefire Gap
The attacks came amid discussions over the Gaza ceasefire process. Specifically, Hamas was preparing for meetings in Egypt on the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, while several Israeli attacks across Gaza that day killed at least nine people. Gaza remains under Israeli military control, and the second phase of the agreement has been stalled for months.
For people, the real meaning of a ceasefire depends on whether people can sleep safely, gather without fear, reach hospitals, and rebuild some predictable rhythm of life. If strikes continue and basic services keep failing, the gap between imaginative political claims and reality remains painfully wide.
The Shortages Freezing Daily Life
Alongside these unprovoked attacks, Gaza is facing another severe pressure due to a shortage of gas, engine oil, and spare parts. Undoubtedly, these shortages are affecting emergency services, bakeries, water supplies, and hospitals. Items that may sound technical outside Gaza now decide whether a generator runs, a vehicle moves, bread is baked, and whether water can be pumped.
These shortages are damaging daily life in connected ways:
Hospitals need generators and spare parts to keep operating rooms functioning
Bakeries need power and maintenance materials to continue producing bread
Water systems need energy supplies, chemicals and parts to keep desalination and pumping services running.
Hospitals and Rescue Services Under Pressure
Hospitals have been among the most vulnerable since October 2023. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza warned of an imminent health disaster after extreme power failures affected surgical operating rooms. Moreover, all of its generators have stopped working while summer heat is expected to place more pressure on the remaining equipment.
This is not a minor operational issue as Gaza’s remaining hospitals are already treating genocidal injuries, malnutrition, infections and chronic illness in overcrowded conditions. If generators fail, surgical care, emergency treatment, refrigeration, lighting, and essential equipment are all affected. Gaza’s authorities have also warned that fire and rescue operations risk coming to a halt as vehicles break down due to shortages of spare parts, fuel and engine oil.
Bread, Water and Survival
Food and water systems are also largely affected. Bakeries depend on fuel, generators, and maintenance materials, while water systems need energy supplies, chemicals, and spare parts. UNICEF data showed that seawater desalinationoutput had fallen to about 16,000 cubic metres per day, compared with 20,000 in March, due to the restrictions on essential supplies. In a densely displaced population, any reduction in water production quickly becomes a public health concern.
This is why Gaza’s broken daily life must be understood as a connected genocidal crisis. The strike on a tent camp, the killing of a groom, the failure of hospital generators, the collapse of rescue vehicles and the shortage of water-production supplies are not separate stories. Together, they show how civilian life is being attacked directly and indirectly at the same time.
In a nutshell, until these conditions change, daily life in Gaza will remain trapped between immediate violence and the gradual destruction of everything needed to survive.
In Gaza, water is no longer something families can expect to find when they need it. It has become a daily search, a health risk, and a painful measure of how deeply daily life has collapsed. For thousands of displaced families, the day begins with containers, queues, extreme uncertainty, and the fear that even the little water they manage to collect may not be enough for drinking, cooking, washing, or protecting children from deadly diseases.
This is not a normal shortage caused by dry weather or poor planning. Gaza’s water crisis is part of the genocide stretched far beyond its limits.
“Water is life and the right to life is a basic human right.”
When water systems fail, the impact is immediate and personal. A family cannot cook properly; a mother cannot keep her child clean, and a wounded person cannot wash safely. Thirst becomes only one part of a much wider and often unseen disaster.
Gaza’s Children Are Living With Daily Water Uncertainty
UNICEF’s latest Water, Sanitation and Hygiene report paints a devastating picture. It highlights that 1.1 million children in Gaza face daily water uncertainty, while 82% of families remain water insecure. Even more alarming, up to 70% of people are unable to collect the minimum six litres per person per day needed only for drinking and cooking. UNICEF and partners are still trying to support emergency water services through trucked water, desalination, wells, and limited network supply, but access and operating conditions remain highly restricted.
Six litres is an extremely small amount when seen against real family needs. It may help someone survive the day, but it does not allow a household to live with dignity. Families need water for hygiene, laundry, cleaning shelters, caring for infants, supporting the elderly, preparing food safely, and preventing disease. In Gaza, these normal needs have become difficult choices.
More specifically, children suffer first in such conditions. They are more vulnerable to dehydration, diarrhoeal disease, skin infections, and the emotional stress of living in dirty, overcrowded spaces. Many have already lost homes, schools, routines, and safety. Now even the simplest comfort, a clean drink of water, is uncertain.
The Collapse of Water Systems Is Deepening the Genocide
Gaza’s water emergency is not only about empty containers. It is a deliberate genocidal strategy by Israel. Water primarily depends on pumps, wells, desalination plants, pipes, electricity, fuel, chemicals, spare parts, engineers, drivers, and safe roads. Most of these parts have either been destroyed or entirely blocked by Israel.
In another report, UNICEF states that seawater desalination output fell from 20,000 cubic metres per day in March to 16,000 cubic metres per day because of shortages of chemicals and spare parts. It also says shortages of engine oil, lubricating oil, and other essential items are disrupting water production and related services.
The Al Mansoura filling point shows how fragile the system has become. Water-trucking operations there were suspended after two UNICEF-contracted truck drivers were killed in April. UNICEF says the site had been critical for the daily drinking-water access of 285,000 people, and partners are now trucking water from desalination plants at an additional cost of about $40,000 per day to replace the two million litres previously collected from that point.
Sanitation Failure Turns Thirst Into Disease
When clean water disappears, sanitation collapses simultaneously. Gaza’s overcrowded displacement sites are already under severe pressure, and the lack of proper water makes hygiene almost impossible. Waste accumulates, pests spread, and families are forced to live in conditions where preventable diseases can move quickly.
OCHA’s latest humanitarian report warned that health risks from pests and rodents remain high because access to landfills is restricted and essential sanitation items remain difficult to bring in. It also highlighted UNICEF’s warning that water shortages are forcing families into a daily trade-off between drinking, hygiene, and disease prevention.
This is where the crisis becomes especially cruel. A family may know what it needs to do to stay healthy, but knowledge is not enough when there is no water, no soap, no proper waste collection, and no safe place to live. Parents are not failing their children, but the conditions around them are failing every basic standard of human protection.
Aid Is Shrinking While Needs Keep Growing
The emergency response is also under serious strain due to Israel’s complete blockade of all borders, especially the Rafah border. OCHA reports that since mid-May, four partners have been forced to start phasing out water-trucking activities because of funding shortages. Some have already stopped, while others are expected to complete the phase-out by mid-June. As a result, more than 330,000 people across around 250 sites risk losing their primary drinking-water source.
For people outside Gaza, this may sound like a usual problem, but for a displaced family, it means tomorrow’s water may not arrive. In a place where markets are broken, movement is dangerous, and public services are shattered, losing a water-trucking route can immediately push families toward death.
Thirst as a Test of the World’s Conscience
Water is one of the clearest measures of human dignity. Without it, people cannot remain healthy, clean, or safe. In Gaza, the water crisis shows how genocide destroyed life even beyond the moment of Israel’s attacks. It continues through damaged pipes, stalled pumps, empty tanks, contaminated surroundings, and children growing up around scarcity.
The world should not wait until disease spreads further or water systems break beyond repair. Gaza needs safe humanitarian access, fuel, spare parts, treatment chemicals, protected workers, restored sanitation services, and sustained funding for emergency water delivery. Most of all, people need protection from the conditions that are turning basic survival into a daily struggle.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, which was made up of 40 vessels, tried to sail towards Gaza with much-needed humanitarian aid and a direct challenge to Israel’s blockade. Unfortunately, Israeli forces intercepted the boats in international waters and detained around 430 activists.
It is not a story of a blocked aid mission but a collection of facts revolving around intense abuse, humiliation, anger, and a brutal reminder of what Gaza’s blockade really means. For the people of Gaza, the flotilla is a symbol of hope, but for Israel, it is being perceived as a threat to its heinous genocidal mission.
A Hope Against the Siege
For decades, Gaza’s people have lived under an intense blockade that restricts movement, controls access to goods, separates families, and turns humanitarian relief into a political bargaining tool. Since Israel’s genocide in Gaza intensified, the siege has become even deadlier.
Hunger, destroyed hospitals, mass displacement, disease, and extreme shortages of fuel and medicine now shape daily life. This is why flotilla mattered, but the question that the world is asking is legitimate: Why should food, medicine, and solidarity be treated as crimes?
The flotilla, as a hope for the people of Gaza, who are suffering from famine and diseases, was intercepted by Israel about 250 miles or roughly 400 km off Gaza’s coast. These aid vessels were still far from Gaza when Israeli forces illegally captured them from international waters.
Analysts are highlighting that these flotilla activists, who volunteered from more than 40 countries, were not entering an Israeli city or attacking any military base. In fact, they were sailing through open waters to help innocent people who were dying of extreme hunger and bombardment.
Extreme Abuse by Israel
After the release of some of the detainees, they described inhumane treatment that had never been imagined before. South African activists highlighted that they were electrically shocked, denied water, food, and toilets, and were kept in abysmal conditions.
Moreover, most of the activists said that they were sexually assaulted in a very harsh manner. Some other activists also reported extreme beating and humiliation. For example, 15 cases of sexual assault, including rape, have been reported during May 2026.
Ben-Gvir Turned Humiliation into Spectacle
The most shameful moment came from Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Even the government of France banned him from entering French territory after he taunted zip-tied detainees and waved an Israeli flag over them. France’s foreign minister called his actions “unspeakable,” and Poland also imposed a five-year ban.
He also shared footage of restrained activists, triggering international outrage and calls for broader European sanctions.
This was not hidden mistreatment accidentally exposed. It was deliberately performed, and the minister chose to stand over bound detainees and turn their humiliation into a political message.
When a genocidal state official proudly films powerless detainees, cruelty is no longer a secret, but a policy theatre.
Airport Violence Added Another Layer
It did not end with unlawful detention and punishment, as another episode of extreme humiliation was shown at the airport. At the Bilbao Airport, after some activists returned from Israeli detention, police harshly beat them. Videos showed some police officers brutally beating and dragging humanitarian activists.
This was just a glimpse of how Israel treats people who come to help humanity. They were maltreated in such an inhumane way to make them an example for the world. Anyone who comes to Gaza to help people will either be killed or detained in death-like prisons.
In this scenario, words are not enough as Palestinians remain heavily trapped, and those trying to reach them are harshly beaten, detained, deported, or killed. Condemnation must turn into legal action, sanctions, arms restrictions, diplomatic costs, and pressure to end the genocide.
The World Saw the Blockade’s Face
Israel may deny everything, but the world knows about its genocidal policies far better than ever before. It may deport activists and call the flotilla a provocation, but this episode revealed something the world should not unsee.
Even some activists from Brazil and Spain are still detained by Israel, and they are being punished in unprecedented ways. In this regard, Amnesty International also reported several injuries to these flotilla activists during detention.
After observing all this, one thing is certain: Israel is trying to eliminate Palestine from the world map and make every effort to stop necessary aid from reaching Gaza. Nobody can imagine the instances of cruelty by Israel in the 21st century. Even the International Court of Justice has urged this prolonged genocide to be stopped as soon as possible; otherwise, life in Gaza is under extreme threat.
Gaza’s isolation is being enforced with extreme cruelty. This time, the world did not have to imagine it. It is already watching!
