Are babies actually cute and interesting?
I liked the comments of SpSq and Abby, and wondered what everyone else thinks. Are babies cute, or does everyone just say that to avoid being socially ostracized?
Personally, I admit I did actually think Annika was cute as a brand-new newborn, once she turned a normal pinkish color. But everyone else's newborn is a weird-looking alien monkey, as SpSq would say. To me, they get cute around 2-3 months when they get good at the social smile.
I agree that baby humans seem exceptionally helpless compared with any other creature I can think of... the list of things they can't do that most other newborn mammals can do.
4 comments:
At the risk of being socially ostracized, I don't think new babies are cute. I think they become more cute when they become interactive. But I've never had maternal feelings for babies or children. So - is cute really maternal feelings? Really - what's cuter, a baby person or baby skunk? http://www.windstar.org/eMagazines/eMagazine24/website%2520baby%2520skunks%25201.jpg
I have been around babies a lot recently as people around me keep having them. And I find it really awkward what with everyone gushing about the baby and saying how cute it is and wanting to hold it. Because that is not how I feel at all. My advisor would ask me if I wanted to hold baby Nora and really didn't want to. In fact it was so bad that for a while I really started to think "maybe I don't like kids and am not maternal at all."
But last weekend we had the open house where our lab runs the kids activities. And it was a totally different story. There were all these wonderful kids to play with and they were so adorable! There were two girls in particular that got all my maternal feelings up and raging (I wanted to hug them, love them, take care of them). But they were both about 5. So to me, it's all about being able to talk with them, play around with them (babies being so fragile), interact with them that makes them cute.
I'm sure if I had a child born of my own body I would feel differently, but in general, I really don't like babies.
Undoubtable baby skunks are cuter than baby humans, but adult skunks are cuter than adult humans. My ex used to comment that it was good (for the species) that humans find each other attractive, because really, we're overall ugly creatures. He pointed out that cats, overall, are just way better looking than humans.
Deb- Do you think any young humans are cute? Unlike Abby, I didn't think you liked them until grad. school or so.
Agh - my big long comment got lost. In essence - it's about personality. A cute or pretty person is no longer cute or pretty to me once I find out they are a jerk. And a hohum person becomes pretty when I find out they are nice and caring. So the cuteness of a child has to do with his personality. Though if a baby skunk bit me I'd still think it was cute, unless it gave me rabies. And I do like kids now more than I used to.
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