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?

I've just come back from Spain, where virtually every young woman was stunningly gorgeous, and slim, yet shapely.
The women of, say 40+, were not so much.

In some gene pools, how people look for the first half of their lives can be very different from the second half.

Are you ok?

It’s unusual for all the dc to be good looking but parents not. Normally everyone is good looking or everyone is average with one dc getting the best features.

Not sure how nutrition shapes features though?

Different beauty standards for each sex. A trait that might not be terribly attractive in a man might be very attractive in his daughter.

And as pp said many people are not photogenic & look far better in real life so photos are not necessarily a true representation

Environment and choices can change a lot. DSis and I looked similar growing up. But as adults, she's stayed "naturally beautiful" by working out, staying slim, cosmetic dentistry, expensive clothing, etc. I can only wish I had her motivation!

It can also be a combination of genes. My friend inherited her mum's bright blue eyes and her dad's tanned skin and dark hair. Her parents both look quite ordinary, but she's been scouted for modelling due to her "striking" features.

You get conventionally stunningly attractive people like Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, George Clooney who've got average/not especially traditionally attractive siblings.

You can also get two very 'attractive' people whose kids aren't as good looking as either of them.

I guess that's because when someone is attractive its a mixture of lots of different factors. And 'perfect' everything times two doesn't actually equal 'more' perfect because there's only so far it can go before the attractiveness might start to look 'different' or 'weird.'

Like a recipe. Sugar is delicious as part of a recipe but too much of it makes the recipe worse, not better.

People are meant to look different. That's a good thing. Another thing is kids looking nothing like their parents or grandparents because of extensive facial surgery.

This, old photos may not reflect well how they actually looked, colours were often terrible and now faded and definition was poor. Using modern cameras and flash photography can lift photos.

Victoria isn’t beautiful though and nor is Michael. Bruce has traits considered attractive in a man not a woman

Agree with a lot of these posts and also I think very tiny differences to facial features make quite a big difference in attractiveness - you can see this in famous siblings where the not-famous sibling looks clearly related to the famous person but not quite as attractive. It's just luck which way these tiny changes go. You've noticed it because your husband and his siblings all got lucky. If he was attractive and his siblings less so you probably wouldn't have questioned it so much, and there'll be plenty of families where that is the case.

Also the OP obviously finds her DH attractive so will
see similar traits in his siblings and find that attractive.

ExtraHotDoubleShot
I'm 44, do you think I should still hold out some hope??😀

Weirdly I was pondering this earlier. I often get random thoughts walking the dog!
I was thinking back to my childhood and then when my kids were small, the 'attractive' children tended to grow out of the looks by early 20s adult features changed their looks. , The 'cute and cheeky looking' but not as attractive were reasonably attractive as adults up into late 30s, middle age hitting then. The less attractive kids that weren't cute or attractive seemed to fair better, they seem to be keeping their looks longer, as if they grew into their looks. Men losing their hair, getting fatter, menopausal symptoms, saggy skin..aging at different rates.
Pictures of parents in the past can almost distort our perception. Haircuts in 70/80s were very hit and miss and clothing. Prevalence of hand me downs, homemade clothes, diet, smoking, all made adults look older.

SmallDFartyCarNRG You are easily disturbed.😀

This seems rather mean. I’m no judge but all if the above look perfectly fine to me.

I have 4 kids 2 by 1 dad, 1 by another. They're all good looking - not just need who thinks so - and I am definitely average and not at all photogenic. 1 kid from each dad is probably slightly more photogenic than the other, despite being very similar. It's just genetics, nothing else.

@user1464187087I think Helen Mirren got better in her 50s although she may have had help

And vice versa, unfortunately. My dad was quite a good looking man. I look very much like him and it is not fortunate.

For my children
they have better haircuts
have a good (age appropriate skincare routine)
are both fit
are more confident than I ever was

Yes. I think it just happens sometimes when two people's facial features harmonise particularly well when they create children. Who knows - maybe it's a sign of good genetic compatibility.

Given she’s talking about adult children, I don’t think it’s disturbing 😂

Can work the other way some celebrities have very unattractive children.

My DD8 looks most like her paternal Aunt but with some of my facial features, and i think she'll get my height and very long legs. Her Dad is fairly average and average height, I am not unattractive but her Aunt is very attractive even well into her 50s.
My DD is very pretty (I am aware that I may also be biased!!).

Some things are greater than the sum of their parts.

I thought it was about children, as it was in the title why are children good looking.