Please mommy, can I go outside? Toddlers & Tiaras mother shuts daughter indoors to prevent her skin from tanning

PUBLISHED: 15:48 EST, 20 December 2012 | UPDATED: 16:45 EST, 20 December 2012

A pageant mother on Toddlers & Tiaras left viewers aghast last night, as she shut her daughter indoors to prevent her skin from tanning.

Three-year-old Selena Cruz was seen with her face pressed against the window as her brothers played basketball outside.

'I really want to play outside. Like my brothers,' she complained. But her mother said that she must stay indoors so her 'natural, golden skin tone' would not darken.

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Shut indoors: Toddlers & Tiaras star Selena Cruz was seen with her face pressed against the window as her brothers played basketball outside

An edited clip of last night's episode shown on The Huffington Post attracted dozens of angry comments.

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One viewer wrote: 'Good grief put some sunscreen on the kid and let her play. This is child abuse.'

Child's play: Selena's brothers were seen outside in the garden

Fed up: The three-year-old explains to viewers that she wants to play outside

While another added: 'Let the child outside or she won't have healthy bones and skin. She needs to play with others.'

However Selena's mother simply explains on the TLC show: 'She has to stay inside, so she follows the proper protocol.'

Last night's installment featured a pageant contest held in Columbia, South Carolina. last June.

Strict: Selena's mother told viewers that her daughter 'has to stay inside, so she follows the proper protocol'

Selena appeared to be getting a little tired of the constant preening and posing.

'Bein’ a diva’s exhausting. I don’t know how Beyonce does it,' she exclaimed after she took to the stage.

Other youngsters to feature in the episode were Mackenzie, six, and Faithlyn, nine.

Catch Toddlers & Tiaras, every Wednesday at 9 pm ET on TLC

'Toddlers & Tiaras': Daughter Not Allowed Outside

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depriving a child of their childhood just so their parents can make them succeed where they failed!

- Chris , Manchester, 21/12/2012 12:31

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Poor kid looks like she needs all the exercise she can get.

- Jak , Staffs, United Kingdom, 21/12/2012 12:18

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I think she's as tan as she's gonna get.

- pb669 , Brisbane, 21/12/2012 11:53

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Well her daughter is going to have issues when she is older being kept indoors is not healthy and there is such as thing as Sunshades, hats, long sleeves and sun block!!!!

- rantingwoman , northants, United Kingdom, 21/12/2012 11:51

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You couldn't make it up could you?!

- Helen Marianne , Eastbourne, 21/12/2012 11:37

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I live in NZ, and I think most people here and in Australia would tell you that letting a 3-year-old get a suntan is harmful and disguting. Tanning is DAMAGE to the skin. Most parents here wouldn't entertain the idea. My daughter has slightly olive skin (we are white but have some Indian heritage about four generations back) so some people have mistaken this colouring for a tan, and I have been criticised by absolute strangers for it. My daughter does not go outside at all without a hat and sunscreen for five months of the year, and for four months of the year we do not spend extended periods of time outside before 5.00pm. Most of my daughter's school friends are dressed in long-sleeve tops and long pants even when it is 30 degrees. So, I get that this mother's reasoning for not allowing her daughter out might not be quite the same, but I can't understand why everyone thinks a 3-year-old should be allowed to tan.

- CarolineS , Auckland, 21/12/2012 11:34

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Tanning?

- DT , Jaywick, United Kingdom, 21/12/2012 11:25

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WHERE'S THE VIDEO?!

- Maci , London Essex, 21/12/2012 10:57

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Why do parents of fat children push them to take part in beauty pageants when they haven't even done the most basic thing: make sure their children don't become so obese you can't even see their facial features. Poor little girl.

- Berty , Oxford, Algeria, 21/12/2012 10:54

Click to rate Rating 36

She's pretty tanned as it is tbh....

- NataliaRosa , Manchester, 21/12/2012 10:45

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