Now do people 'just love babies' or do they feel obliged to bill and coo?

[Curmudgeonlett]

Because honestly .. sometimes I feel obliged to bill and coo and act all gushy over other people's red-faced and spotty progeny .. particularly when meeting them when they're under 3 months

I feel its expected and most parents do not appreciate that in the first couple of months babies tend to resemble aliens

I adore them. It's not so much what they look like its what they represent.

some do, some don't
I think they're scrupmtious, but agree with hativity (hatstand?) that it is what they represent. new babies are Good News.
and I am aware that my new baby bears a passing resemblance to Johnny Vegas.
and you can TELL starightaway if people are faking it.

Best to be as enthusiastic as you can
My friends brother, a very cold fish indeed, pronounced his new nephew resembled a MeeKong.

Of course the baby did, we all knew he did, but the sister got bottom lip trembley.

Aw, new babies are sweet. Even if some of them do look like Winston Churchill! (Ds was gorgeous from the moment he was born, of course ).

I love the alien stage. All 3 of ours looked like Yoda. I feel more gooey and cooey then than when they're some podgy, dribbly, snot covered 1 year old. Even worse are precocious oh so cute 2 year olds. Give me a newborn scrumptious eatable alien any day.

They make me want to cry. just a blank little person with all their life to write. all that hope. [soppy emoticon]

i love the pre-smiling stage (in other people's children) when they look SO serious, as if they are about to pronounce on the Budget or international affairs of state, even the pluggiest of plug uglies looks amazing then (ds was pretty odd looking at that time)

I love newborns too, especially when they are just starting to smile and they give you that gummy grin

It's true that very few tiny babies are things of beauty (mine certainly weren't!), but they are so innocent and new - and tiny - even I manage to make some non-specific admiring comment and I'm certainly not renowned for tact and diplomacy

They are so gorgeous and innocent. Even when, at first glance you see a baby that isn't so cute, he/she will grow on you and as others have said the looks are irrelevant, they all have a beauty to them.

I have to admit, I've seen a couple that made me take a step back in horror, but I truly hope I covered it well. Most are so terribly sweet - not beautiful exactly - too alien-like for that - but sort of magical.

I'm another one that goes for the baby-ness of them, rather than looks....(not quite to Hativity's gushy stage ).

Well a lady stopped me in town yesterday looking at my 5 week old boy and said "he is beautiful" looked at me then back at him and said "no no I really mean it he is so beautiful"

It made my day I also love it when someone spots George and then runs off to tell there friend on the other side of the store they then both come marching over and coo and aahhh then carry on with there shopping (this is mainly old people) never fails to amuse me DH pretends it irritates him being stopped all the time but I see the glint of pride in his eyes everytime it happens.

My dd is ravishing to me, but maybe not quite so ravishing in baby modelling terms...but she is a consummate flirt. I often wonder why people are grinning so broadly, then realise she's been at he grinning and eyelash fluttering again. It's really lovely.