We don't love our children as much if they're ugly...

[starkadder]

..says this article. But it looks pretty shaky to me...doesn't show the actual findings of the research and the article seems rather manipulated.

That was Robert Winston.

One of my sisters, the favourite does look my mum so that would give weight to that theory. I look like my dad's side of the family.

My dd looks like me, which really worries me. At present she is very pretty so maybe she holds my features better.

Kerry that's true for me. My dc2 looks more like me. not sure i love him more but he's easier to love if that makes sense. my x favours the child who is the image of him too...

no parent thinks their child is ugly do they??

wastwinsetandpearls, your mum messed with your head. you are pretty.

twinset Can't believe your mother sai that to you! Awful!

(nice to see you back btw)

What possible purpose does that article and its 'research' serve?

It is an awful thing to say, although in some ways it did me a favour. I am not a looker in any way shape or form, I had to work at other things so am successful at work, am a nice person and clever. I would have got nowhere in life relying on how I look.

Of course I would never say it to my own daughter.

twinset, that was not very nice of your mum . Although I think you are right - I think it would be a worse disservice to a daughter to bring her up thinking that her looks were the be-all-and-end-all.

No idea what purpose the article serves. None at all, as far as I can tell..!

(or to a son)

Interesting to note that the more objective factors they observed were missed from the headline - that younger parents were more careful with their children than older parents (and more care was taken with younger children, particularly boys).

I agree starkadder, my other sisters had it drummed into them that they were thick. It took my middle sister years to get over that.

Not much actual research in the article!

My DD is, according to my mother, so beautiful that all other children look plain in comparison

I am obsessive about her safety and protection but, to be honest, even if she were a little ugly bug I'd be the same. I thought she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen when she was born but when I look at photos of her as a newborn now she just looks like a newborn.

I dunno about the 'parents prefer the child who looks most like them' theory. Doesn't work in my family. I am the spitting image of my mother but was always my father's favourite. Sister was, as a child, spitting image of my dad and was always my mother's favourite. Even though our parents couldn't stand each other (very messy and protracted divorce).

Bizarrely we look VERY similar as adults, have grown into each other to the point where when ds was a baby and hadn't seen my sister for a couple of months, he freaked out at this person who looked like Mummy but wasn't Mummy and treated her with great suspicion.