The first priority of a parent, specially when s/he has a toddler or smaller kid, is always the kid. If you have a kid, you would know how happy you would be when your kid wins a prize. Just getting straight As or just getting fewer Bs or fewer Cs also makes you deeply satisfied for the hardships you take on. That is the human nature.

The competitions decided by public voting is never fair. Winning the prize by the merit of the kid without push or campaign from parents and well-wisher is a hypothesis that surely fails. If you participate in the competition, you must commit your full-effort for campaigning, otherwise just don't participate. There are many other competitions where biased judgement such as public voting would affect a little and the kid has a fair chance of winning through his/her merit.