Can a parent see that other children are more beautiful than their own children?

[Anonymous]

Yes. My kids are attractive in a conventional and unremarkable way. There are a few kids at their school who are strikingly attractive - you can tell that they have a chance to get through the awkward years of age 10-14 without going through an ugly phase.

For attractive kids like that, it’s more than just their looks and body type. They usually have a natural understanding of how to move, pose, and make facial expressions that is also attractive. One of my kids cannot look directly at a camera or smile naturally at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and can be very culturally dependent. I have a coworker who makes a lot out of her daughter’s platinum blonde hair. I feel sorry for the kid if it darkens because that is all her mother ever brags about.

well to be fair probably most moms are going to be sad when their kids blonde hair starts to darken so she wouldn't be in the minority.

??? My kids are blond and I have brown hair and my DH has very dark brown hair. We were both blond as kids. I will not care one whit when my kids' hair darkens. I hope it gets as dark as my DH's hair.

OK great that you think that way, but you know you are in the minority.
Why do you think most adult women we see out on the streets with blonde hair are bottle blondes?

DP: I don't know that I know that--if I go with my gut, I think blonde hair on adults looks kind of childish and not quite as attractive as darker. I know this is just subjective, but that's my taste and I don't know that it's a minority view. The expression tall, dark and handsome? Women with dark hair always strike me as more beautiful and interesting whereas blond has more of a cute (or fake) look. I think there might have been a generation that liked blondes most, but I don't think that's a current preference.

[Anonymous]

My kid is objectively gorgeous (like, get stopped by strangers on the street regularly), probably in no small part b/c she checks all the 'western ideal' boxes - long blonde hair, blue eyes with long lashes, tall and thin and graceful. However, like both of her parents, she is almost comically unphotogenic so will never be a model There are certainly other children more striking than her across a range of beauty standards, and especially so if we're considering print/media and not just "kids you might see on the street".

[Anonymous]

I have three girls that are all pretty, but I realize not get a modeling contract pretty, but still pretty. But looks don't last (nor should they) so I never want then to rely on their looks for anything. But I do in the back of my brain wonder if life is easier for the beautiful in some way.

[Anonymous]

To me, my kids are the cutest kids around - they are mixed-race and have big dark eyes and tan skin and the happiest smiles and are tall and slim.

To others they are probably unremarkable, brown-eyed brown haired kids. Lol.

I can see when other kids are beautiful, but I honestly don't find them more beautiful than my kids (even though I understand that others almost certainly do). So my answer is no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and can be very culturally dependent. I have a coworker who makes a lot out of her daughter’s platinum blonde hair. I feel sorry for the kid if it darkens because that is all her mother ever brags about.

well to be fair probably most moms are going to be sad when their kids blonde hair starts to darken so she wouldn't be in the minority.

??? My kids are blond and I have brown hair and my DH has very dark brown hair. We were both blond as kids. I will not care one whit when my kids' hair darkens. I hope it gets as dark as my DH's hair.

OK great that you think that way, but you know you are in the minority.
Why do you think most adult women we see out on the streets with blonde hair are bottle blondes?

DP: I don't know that I know that--if I go with my gut, I think blonde hair on adults looks kind of childish and not quite as attractive as darker. I know this is just subjective, but that's my taste and I don't know that it's a minority view. The expression tall, dark and handsome? Women with dark hair always strike me as more beautiful and interesting whereas blond has more of a cute (or fake) look. I think there might have been a generation that liked blondes most, but I don't think that's a current preference.

+1. Many posters on here are old and out of touch.

[Anonymous]

Not me.

My children are the most beautiful people on earth. I know I am very biased, but what the heck. lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not me.

My children are the most beautiful people on earth. I know I am very biased, but what the heck. lol

I feel sad for the kids whose parents don't think their funky little faces are the most beautiful! How can a parent not think that?!
Even my kids' friends who I am most partial to, I consider great beauties but they all look really different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and can be very culturally dependent. I have a coworker who makes a lot out of her daughter’s platinum blonde hair. I feel sorry for the kid if it darkens because that is all her mother ever brags about.

well to be fair probably most moms are going to be sad when their kids blonde hair starts to darken so she wouldn't be in the minority.

If it was my son? No. I don't like Blonde on men. My daughter? Maybe. Her hair is a beautiful blonde but darker than mine was at her age so I suspect it will darken in her teenage years. Also her hair was a really dark brown, almost black when she was born before turning blonde. But she still has dark eyebrows and lashes with the most amazing blue eyes and I LOVE the dark hair, light eye combo so we will see.

[Anonymous]

My kids are exactly who they are meant to be, and that is, to me, the most beautiful thing. I hope that every parent feels that their children are the most beautiful creatures in the world.

[Anonymous]

I will say that my cousins kid was stunningly beautiful as a child, like seriously pretty. She's in her teenage years now (16 I think?) and she's still cute but as she aged her chin never grew with the rest of her face so she's not nearly as pretty as she was-cute still but no longer eye catching. You never know how childhood looks will translate...see a lot of child stars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and can be very culturally dependent. I have a coworker who makes a lot out of her daughter’s platinum blonde hair. I feel sorry for the kid if it darkens because that is all her mother ever brags about.

well to be fair probably most moms are going to be sad when their kids blonde hair starts to darken so she wouldn't be in the minority.

??? My kids are blond and I have brown hair and my DH has very dark brown hair. We were both blond as kids. I will not care one whit when my kids' hair darkens. I hope it gets as dark as my DH's hair.

OK great that you think that way, but you know you are in the minority.
Why do you think most adult women we see out on the streets with blonde hair are bottle blondes?

Hopefully not because their moms were disappointed that their hair darkened when they got older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will say that my cousins kid was stunningly beautiful as a child, like seriously pretty. She's in her teenage years now (16 I think?) and she's still cute but as she aged her chin never grew with the rest of her face so she's not nearly as pretty as she was-cute still but no longer eye catching. You never know how childhood looks will translate...see a lot of child stars.

+1. Parents looks are a better indicator of future beauty in my opinion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting question. For me, my DD is the most beautiful kid in the world, but I understand that what our culture considers beautiful may be different. It's the same with my H, he is by far the most attractive, gorgeous man in the world to me, even though he looks different than what our culture holds as ideal beauty. I can tell when a person fits societal beauty norms, but that doesn't necessarily mean I find them beautiful or attractive. I find most beauty norms fairly generic and bland.

But that being said, I have been working to stop defaulting to noticing/commenting on peoples' looks. I was classically beautiful my whole life and have heard non-stop commentary since I was a very young child. It was not good for me to hear and did damage to my self-esteem, since I thought that was all I was good for. And I was a total wreck once I hit my 30s, had kids, and suddenly wasn't "hot" anymore. So I've been training myself to notice other aspects of children and adults other than their looks, and to never comment on someone's looks to either them or other people. Humans are more valuable than that.

I could have written the bolded. DH is gorgeous, but he's Asian American and 5'5". Although not always overlooked, he has often been invisible, especially to white women. I don't find blonde hair attractive, personally (on men or women) and am not often attracted to white people, but I'm aware I'm the exception, not the rule. I see a light-eyed blond white kid who is otherwise unremarkable and I know that while I don't think much of their looks (though I may like them a lot!) most people will coo over them.

As for my kid, I think she's gorgeous, but she both suffers and benefits from racism and colorism, because she's biracial and lightskinned. I do think she's "objectively" (ha) beautiful, and I'm sure that I can't help adding another Mom Point or two-- so I wouldn't say I've seen too many kids that are obviously significantly more beautiful than she is. To my eye. But on the other hand-- I would definitely say there are one or more kids in her class every single year that are as attractive as she is. And I can definitely recognize and even comment on that-- but only to my husband, in private. Or maybe once in a while to their parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and can be very culturally dependent. I have a coworker who makes a lot out of her daughter’s platinum blonde hair. I feel sorry for the kid if it darkens because that is all her mother ever brags about.

well to be fair probably most moms are going to be sad when their kids blonde hair starts to darken so she wouldn't be in the minority.

We live in a country full of Nazis.

Np. My family is very liberal and still likes their blonde hair and blue eyes. It’s just unique. (I have neither)

It’s the same as me hoping my kids have my own curly hair.

Blond hair and blue eyes are far from unique. Now blue hair and blond eyes…that would be something.