Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Your perception of other same age kids?

Have any of the other parents of mixed-race kids noticed that kids who aren't mixed are kind of, well, not that cute? At first, I thought I was the only one who noticed it, but seriously, strangers come up to me all the time to point out how beautiful my DD is. Even people who have seen lots of kids do it, and when I googled, it turns out that research shows it's true - people who aren't mixed just aren't that attractive. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100414092523.htm

IMHO, there is no polite way of saying someone else's kid is ugly. It does not matter if you're saying it about a class of kids, rather than a specific kid. It does not matter whether you attempt to cushion it with an appeal to empirical proof that some classes of kids are ugly. It does not matter how many other people agree that some classes of kids are ugly. It does not matter how honest and nonjudgmental your intentions are. It does not matter how many ugly people are in your family, or whether someone called you ugly when you were a kid. There is no polite way to call someone else's kid ugly.

And IMHO saying "my kid is remarkably beautiful" is not at all the same as saying "your kid is ugly," or even "ugly by comparison to mine."

I'm sure someone is going to respond by saying, "there's absolutely nothing wrong with being sleepy / lazy / glazed / slow / ADHD / blank / sedated / wrong / zombies / handbags / lumps / drugged / babyish / OMG I'm not even halfway through the thread." There's absolutely nothing wrong with being ugly, either. That still doesn't make it polite to point out.