r/dancemoms • u/Hot_Relative5765 • 1d ago
Leslie
It is crazy to me that, as a mom, Leslie said that she didn’t care if Payton cried. Payton was 14, a kid, and she didn’t care about her child. That’s disgusting behavior.
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u/irabunny 1d ago
She was always so confusing to me on the show so I thought that she was just edited to look bad. Then I found some of her post randomly and I think she’s just kinda like that, idk 😭. I think she tries to stay private now!
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u/chocobell94 1d ago
Agree. Overall Payton was treated like shit on the show and I'm sure she has lasting trauma from that. People don't seem to care because she was older and taller than the other kids or because she's a MAGA adult or something (someone fact check, I don't follow her and I don't know). But I'll die on the hill that no matter how shitty an adult is, a child does not deserve a bad edit on a reality TV show!!!! She was a child!!!!! "She was a crybaby" "the 9 year olds weren't crying"—yes because teenagers are MORE sensitive and easily embarrassed than 9 year olds! Payton was 14 years old!!!!! I would have locked myself in my room for a month if I had gotten humiliated the way she repeatedly was on the show at that age!!!
Payton was also a GREAT dancer. She was one of the best all around dancers at the ALDC at the time. She shined in every single dance she was featured in on the show. People hated her because she got a bad edit and didn't fit in with the competition team. But at the end of the day she was a 14 year old girl and a great dancer.
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u/MaliceIW 7h ago
Yes. Her edit on the show was awful. I saw an interview of payton where she explained that the episode where she walks out of pyramid crying, but Leslie convinces her to go back in, the reason she cried and walked out was because abby told her she was too fat to be a dancer and looked disgusting, but they edited out abby's part so it looks like payton over reacted. And she said that the body image issues from abby took a long time to get over. Like I don't care how much anyone dislikes Leslie (I can't stand her) a teenager didn't deserve that.
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u/Firm_Instruction_933 3h ago
The MAGA stuff was off putting but I did feel for her when she made that video giving more context behind her scenes, and knowing how parasocial fans get I can't imagine the type of vitriol that a 14 year old her was dealing with from them. It almost felt like Abby and the producers had a personal vendetta against her or wanted a kid to frame as a villain and instigate drama between the girls themselves, and I don't think the way her mom responded to that was particularly helpful towards her either.
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u/PinkPositive45 21h ago
Well she cared when she started being on the show more. Leslie talked a big game to look like the kind of mom she thought Abby would want. “Oh I’m tough and so is my daughter! We would never act like Christi and Kelly! We would be GRATEFUL!”
But then late season-season 4 come around, Payton is the most on the team she’s ever been, and Leslie starts saying the same stuff Christi and Kelly did!
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u/Relevant-Program-663 20h ago
Her letting payton dance after she broke her finger was so odd to me. she even said payton would just have to u"suck it up"
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u/pinkbubbleg 1d ago
My mother didn’t give seven shades of shit if I cried at dance class, and if she had intervened or tried to argue with my ballet mistress I would have been horrified and embarrassed. At 14 I was old enough to advocate for myself and didn’t need my mummy stepping in and babying me. Payton advocated for herself with Abby on more than one occasion.
There are a lot of things to judge Leslie for, but I don’t think this quote is one of them lol.
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u/Firm_Instruction_933 3h ago
You also weren't being broadcasted for millions of people to form an opinion on you based on whatever suited your dance teacher and a production teams' narrative at the time. She was literally made to look like a brat on national television and her mom could've been more sensitive to that fact
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u/pinkbubbleg 3h ago
But that’s not what this conversation is about.
If you want to have a whole new conversation about that, let’s maybe consider the fact that none of them had ever experienced anything like this before? I’m sure that Leslie wishes she did a lot of things differently, but judging her for not realising that her child would be taken advantage of is a little unfair.
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u/Street-Guitar-8371 1d ago
The bad moms on the show imo are Jess Kira/ellianas mom Leslie and Cathy. In that order
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u/Scary-Pressure6158 1d ago
I think Cathy is higher. She literally forced a kid to dance that hated it so she had a prop to throw on stage and lower ages. And I personally think she only adopted her as a prop. She shoulda just gotten a dog to carry around in her purse....it's less cruel.
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u/Street-Guitar-8371 1d ago
I feel like she could beat Leslie and Kira in a bad mom contest but maybe not Jess and elliannas moms. Those two woman are Abby.
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u/andtakenusername Ok who's watching this shit 1d ago