Financial talk

I'm not looking for any rates at all - quite the opposite. It seems that poetry.com simply tells people they have good material, etc. and basically are looking for - if your poem goes to the "finals" - money so that you're "lovely" poem can be published in a book. Now, I entered this contest without any of this knowledge, thinking it was a good competition - guess not. I apparently made it to the "semifinals" and am receiving a letter by mail confirming this. My parents, however do not know and my mother is very protective about information that is published online. So how do I tell them (my mother in particular) that I published a poem, made it to the "semifinals" but that it's basically a stupid competition? I don't want to lose her trust, although I probably deserve. Hah. I got myself in such a tough pickle. Any help appreciated. Thanks. Oh, and check out my previous question - which is basically the same, or just to read my poem.