Can kids tell if their parents are attractive?

[Anonymous]

Or do they just see them as grownups or mom or dad?

[Anonymous]

If your mom is Sofia Vergara, you probably get the hint that something’s going on when all your male buddies want to come over & play Monopoly. Even after you tell them you don’t have a Monopoly game.

[Anonymous]

What age of kids are you talking about?

[Anonymous]

OP - Elementary and middle. But all ages in general. I never looked at my parents that way as a kid but I’m adulthood I can assess if they are considered attractive by objective standards or not.

[Anonymous]

*in adulthood

[Anonymous]

Yes, of course.

[Anonymous]

No, they're clueless. My daughter tells me I'm beautiful all the time.

[Anonymous]

I could. My mom had horrible skin, wore bad makeup (think a weird shade of green eyeshadow), frizzy hair and dressed really poorly and always looked angry. Unfortunately for me she was a sub teacher in my school district so a lot of kids knew her. I got made fun of for how ugly she was, for years.

But even if I hadn't been made fun of I could see her in comparison to my aunts and my friends moms and tell she wasn't as pretty as they were.

My dad looked regular. It wasn't until a friend in 11th or 12th grade came by my house to pick something up and my dad opened the door and she said "Wow, your dad is so handsome!" that it occurred to me people might think he was good looking. But he was so mean and abusive that I was never able to see that in him.

[Anonymous]

Only if they are an outlier in some way IME.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only if they are an outlier in some way IME.

Agree.

For most kids, parents are just mom and dad. But if the parents are way more attractive (or frumpier) than their peer's, they'll notice by late elementary.

[Anonymous]

They know. My elementary aged kid told me I'm fat.

[Anonymous]

Not exactly, the same, but I have a vivid memory as a young kid of realizing that someone I thought was beautiful...wasn't. It was a woman who was very kind and loving, so in my young mind she was beautiful. And then one day I looked at her and realized that she wasn't conventionally attractive. I felt kind of sad about the whole realization, like I knew I had just become a more shallow person!

[Anonymous]

Of course they can. That's why some kids are so embarrassed and mortified of their parents. They worry their friends will also notice and make fun of them.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know that my young teens notice “attractiveness” per se…and from their remarks, they seem to think most parents look about the same. They sometimes remark about style differences or things out of the ordinary to me, or among themselves (gosh Larla’s mom wears a ton of makeup, wow Larlo’s dad has huge muscles etc) but not something they put much thought into. In the above cases the heavy makeup and the huge muscles are pretty extreme and hard NOT to notice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or do they just see them as grownups or mom or dad?

I think most children believe that their parents are beautiful.