Why would you edit a toddlers first preschool photo?!

[Stormwhale]

I'm really cross, possibly unreasonably so, I will leave that to you to judge.

My dd had her first ever photos at preschool. I got the proofs last month and the preview photos were tiny with writing across them, but they looked nice so I ordered them.

I got them today, and immediately saw that my child did not look right. She looks like a porcelain doll. It's clearly her, but she doesn't look right at all.

I emailed the photographer to ask if they had been edited as she looks different and if so could I have the originals. She has replied (very nicely, seems lovely, so this isn't personal) to say yes, they edit the skin and eyes.

What!?!? Why!?! Toddlers are perfect, they don't have spots or wrinkles or any imperfections! I love my dd exactly as she is, I don't want to have a photoshopped version!! What is the world coming to?!

I'm so cross that even tiny little children are not fucking good enough, so they have to be edited to weird levels of perfection. I'm fuming!

Aibu?

This is incredibly depressing. All children are perfect in their parents' eyes, and if any superficial 'flaws' do exist, we see right past and through them - the idea of a stranger making decisions about my son's 'imperfections' and editing photos accordingly makes me despair. Poor OP, I can completely understand your anger.

I've photoshopped a couple of photos of my DC and even swapped their heads in some pics. But never so that they look "perfect". How weird.

I'm with you op, it's ridiculous.
My son damaged a front tooth when he was 1 so it always been much shorter than the other. It's just how he looks.
One of his photos when he was 4 came back with his short tooth edited to be the right size. It was the oddest looking thing we'd ever seen, it didn't look at all like him. He's always had squinty teeth.
I asked the photographer for the original one and he got quite huffy, it had taken him ages to edit in the tooth. But we didn't ask him to!
I think editing kids photos is just weird. Unless they have a runny nose or something, then I might appreciate it, or if you choose to have something edited out.
I took it quite personally, like they thought he wasn't cute enough.