I’ve always been a fan of American Idol. Well, let me clarify that a bit; I’ve always been a fan of the American Idol auditions. Once they get down to the Top 24 or so I don’t really pay too much attention aside from just keeping up with it so that I know trivial pursuit pop culture questions.

I like the initial process: everything from seeing all the raw talent that some of these kids have to the nut jobs who are attempting to get their five minutes of fame.

I recently started catching up on American Idol Season 10. Mostly, because i wanted to see what it was like without Simon, but as usual I got sucked in to it and have slowly been watching all the episodes I can get my hands on (up to the top 24).

Now, this particular post doesn’t have anything to do with American Idol, per se, but more of the reoccurring theme that I notice from season to season. There is always a handful of contestants who go in to the audition with this idea that they’re amazingly good singers. When in reality they sound more like a dying moose. Seriously, a dying moose.

Now the sad thing about that is that some how, some where, some one has convinced these poor souls in to believing that they might actually sound in tune. You constantly hear a hand full of singers say, “My family has always told me I sounds amazing.”, “I have three albums out already and every one I sing to says I sound awesome.”, or “No one has ever told me that I sound horrible.”

And to me … it’s almost heart breaking. Perhaps people are just trying to recover from the painful tones they’re belching out and just can’t find the words to tell them how awful they are? I just don’t understand how it’s possible that some of these singers haven’t been told by their parents that they really ought to try something else other than singing? But, perhaps they have been told, but just don’t want to face that truth just yet.

I can understand that excuse if you’ve only heard negativity from your friends or from people at a concert. Perhaps, these people are just good at blocking out negativity or deluding themselves in to not remembering the negative comments … which can sometimes be a good thing, but when parents are standing outside the room telling their disheartened terrible singers that the judges don’t know what they’re talking about and that they sound amazing. My jaw just drops.

Now, I’ve never been a parent and I can’t say that I know a whole lot about parenting, but since when did parenting involve lying to your children? I truly don’t understand how some of these parents could possibly live with themselves after telling these tone-deaf and appalling singers to “just go for it!” and that they need to keep singing.

I’m sure it’s not the easiest thing in the world to tell a child that they should probably pursue other options, but sending these delusional kids on to American Idol to be ridiculed in front of three star judges and an audience of millions on national television has to be some what detrimental to these kids? All for what? Because as a parent you couldn’t lead your child to find another dream that they might actually succeed at?