How can good looking children have not particularly good looking parents?

[smyshna]

Genuine question, just curious if anyone else has noticed this.

DH is very conventionally attractive. His two sisters are also very pretty and both modelled when they were younger. DH has been scouted too but wasn’t interested.

His parents are lovely people, but neither is what you’d call conventionally attractive. Even looking at photos of them when they were younger, you wouldn’t say either was particularly good looking.

I know genetics is a lottery but it seems quite remarkable that all three children turned out good looking. They’re all genetically related. Has anyone else come across this?

Someone said this about Zendaya and her parents. People were downright cruel about them.

This has the ring of truth about it, I think some British women hold up better in middle-age, but tend not to be as stunning or slim when young.

It's also true that people can be stunning at 18-21 and then go downhill a bit, we've discussed Jude Law, he hasn't aged that well, he has also had a hair transplant very early in his career. There's an exquisiteness that is lost.

I never had it and feel quite grateful to not be completely hideous in later middle age.

🤣🤣 nutrition has absolutely NOTHING to do with looks! I know women who were brought up stereotypically middle class with plenty of fruit/veg and home cooked meals. Still grew up to be overweight! It's GENETICS! And like a PP said it's a lottery.

Also, I've seen gorgeous couples end up with disappointing-looking kids, braniac parents end up with intellectually challenged/disabled kids, very active, healthy, and strong parents with kids with severe disabilities, alternative parents ending up with chav kids (and vicr versa) etc. Also celebs- I've seen the family eg siblings interviewed and they've been nothing like their celeb sibling/relative, very dowdy and "average", not "shiny" at all.

she was beautiful in The King- she needs to start wearing wimples off duty

In the south (Louisiana, USA) there's an old saying that goes "2 ugly people always make beautiful children". 😂

This is peak MN.

Good grief.

Certainly true in my case - I was considered good looking in my late teens and 20s - I still I think look quite young for64 ( others always say do too) but am overweight and far more average !!

Where we used to live there was a shop and the two people who ran it would give tubbs and edward from the league of gentlemen a run for their money both in personality and looks. We used to call it the local shop for local people. Anyway they had 3 older teens/early 20s two girls and a boy and we couldn't believe they were related but they were their children according to other local people who presumably didn't get grunted at when they tried to buy something.

Genetics are a very strange thing. My aunt was married three times, to three different guys, and had kids with them. She is quite short (1.6m) , her exes are all around 1.75-1.8m tall so "average" tall. But. All her kids are VERY tall, like her girl is 1.8m and her boys over 2m tall. Her exes also have kids with other females and none of their kids are freakishly tall like my aunts kids. So its obviously down to her genes! I always found it hilarious seeing this small woman with her giant brood.

Have you ever noticed that two very good looking people quite often have "odd" looking children. It's just a lottery.

It is very noticeable there. The young are jaw droppingly gorgeous.

There's a school mum that is absolutely stunning, very genetically blessed. You can see people look at her daughter and to her face say 'oh she didn't take after you!' or other ways to make it clear that they find her daughter lacking looks wise. it's horrible. I have no idea what it's doing to her self esteem, she's not even 10 yet.

Matter of opinion that, I think Victoria is beautiful

I think you totally misunderstood the OP!

Throw backs. Meaning somewhere in the ancestry features emerge after generations. It has happened where there was different nationalities children reveal the dominant gene but after some generations the lesser gene shows. Often if the genes of both parents match too closely say both with black hair and dark eyes one of the children has red hair or is albino

My son came out looking like a mouse!
He was a very pretty child and now looks like The Duke from Bridgerton.
My friends warned me not to watch it as it might be a bit weird.
My daughter was very pretty as a mature child, hated it and the attention from men who should know better.

Agree, particularly the observation that some families have kids who don't look alike where's some parents have kids who all look alike. There's a family where I'm originally from (South Yorkshire pit village) and they had 6 kids in 6 years. I was in the same year at school as their youngest. They all looked alike and my mam used to say about them "when you've seen one, you've seen 'em all!"

My sister brother and I don’t look alike but all our sons look like each other and look like their great grand dad. Very strange genetics out.

I say this about my exH 😂 He wasn’t good looking but I’m grateful both of my DDs got their height from him as I’m short. Eldest DD looks like him but is very pretty and the look works for her as it does for his mother.
I remember meeting the mother of a stunning mum friend years ago and being shocked at how unattractive she was. 20+ years later and the mum friends looks like her mother. Similarly people from school who were never conventionally attractive now looking great in their 50s. I don’t think looks always stay the same for life.

I wasn’t talking about weight at all. Of course women who had a good diet in childhood can still grow up overweight. 😊

I've often joked that it's lucky my son got the best features from both of us. We are not bad looking but our son is very good looking. He has always had girls interested in him and it's often been commented on so it's not me being biased.
If he had his dad's ears and hair colour and my nose and lack of height it would be a not so attractive outcome.

How can good looking children have not particularly good looking parents?

Are you sure it's yours?

This can happen. My DF is often mistaken for being Turkish or Syrian despite being the child of British and European parents.

I know a family much like this where the
mother is Indian and the dad is white British. The DD looks Indian and the DS looks British (neither of them look mixed at all). If the dad was Indian and the mum white, people would assume the son wasn’t his. But obviously nobody could think the son isn’t hers as he came out of her! It’s funny though how these things can jump around with genetics!