I have always jokingly said that every person should have at least one title they are proud of. An award, a record broken or a certificate of achievement that at a dinner party you can jokingly brag about, or you can add to your CV for a bit of colour and comedic relief to stand out from the rest.
For example I am Miss Launceston Cup 1997, I am also the Grade 4 Chatter Champ and only last year won the prestigious title of 13th best dressed on the Gold Coast.
Sure, I’m no Cate Blanchett with two shiny Oscar bookends, but still it’s something, it’s my thing, and I’m proud of it.
But there is one title that is upsetting me at the moment. I won’t mention the brand that is running the particular competition because quite frankly I love the brand. I can’t live without it, but what I can live without is it’s yearly baby search.
For the last 24 hours I have been DM’d, PM’d and Text messaged from friends and family desperate for my valuable vote. All of whom are delusional that their baby will win what is in essence a brilliant marketing campaign and not the cutest baby in the Universe competition that they think it is. I’ve been asked to cast my vote for 29 thousand different kids, and this is where the flaw is. The only people voting are friends and family, so it isn’t who is the most beautiful bubba, it’s who is the most popular mama. She with the most amount of friends on the internet wins.
I could be all PC and say all babies are beautiful, and they are, to their mothers.
Take me for example, in my baby daze I thought Millie was the most divine creature ever created, and she is the most divine creature ever created, by me!
Now that she looks more like a little human and less like a bowling ball head I can see that well, she wasn’t as cute as I once thought. I look back at those first photos and go…..Wow, love really is blind.
But my point is not to be a meanie to my kid, my point is that normal humans aren’t all over the internet trawling for baby competitions to vote for, and if they were, wouldn’t you think that was creepy? Some stranger rating my child over another?
NO, it’s simply like I said, friends voting for friends and family voting for family and all the other mothers who have entered their babies judging the hell out of your child.
And here’s the thing, I’m not all baby bah humbug, I’m more than happy to vote for my friends children, but that’s the problem, I have HEAPS of friends with babies who have entered, I either have to vote for all or none because that could be construed as me believing that one of my friends kids is cuter than the other, and even if I do think that, I don’t want my friends to think that I think that.
You can’t vote for both Liberal and Labor, life doesn’t work like that, unless of course you are a clever advertising campaign/ baby competition.
Mum’s, your children are going to be judged for the rest of their life. They will judged at school, at work, in sport, in clubs, on their manners, on their looks, on their results and achievements….the judging will never end, but does it have to start so early?
Please, you don’t need a competition to validate your child’s perfection factor, your child is already perfect, because you made it. Let them choose to be judged later in life.
Like in a wet t-shirt competition, you will be so proud.
I 100% agree with this post! I have always wondered though do I silently protest and simply not vote on my friends and families gorgeous bubs, because I do think they are very cute babies, or make it known so I don’t offend anyone? I’m worried the mums have this list of those who voted for their bubs and when Aunty Beck isn’t listed, it will hit the fan!! Oh well, you can’t please everyone! Thanks for sharing what thousands of people are thinking… Enough with the endless demands to vote!
I really hate any of those get the most likes competitions.. But this one especially. It’s like all my friends are having babies and all I’m doing is going back to work…
100% agree. I’ve been told to enter Ollie in this competition so many times, but I outright refuse. I may upload a lot of photos of my son on Facebook, but that is private between me and the people I actually care about. I’m proud of my precious son and think he is the most gorgeous boy/baby of all time, however I will refuse to parade him for all public to see & judge him. I will do all I can to protect him for the rest of my life. I don’t vote on these competitions, I think it’s degrading for children. The thought of someone looking at my son and not believing he’s beautiful or not as “cute” as someone else’s child, is hurtful. His perfect to me, that’s all I need. I certainly don’t need anyone else’s approval or satisfaction. Basically, I’m happy for him to be outside eating dirt….at least I know he’s having fun at just being a kid. Besides, the way society is these days, there’ll be enough time when he’s older to parade himself in front of a camera.
As a 24 year old childless lady who spent an hour going through babies in that comp, saying “Nope, gross, cute but not this brand type cute”, it’s accurate to say I felt pretty creepy. I didn’t cast a vote, it felt too mean.
I’m sorry but I don’t agree with you at all. My sister entered her only baby this year. The first time she has ever entered. I will just put it this way, if on the off chance her baby happens to win this competition as he grows up I seriously doubt he is going to be affected by the few other mothers who had a glance over his baby photo and voted/didn’t vote, or that it is going to shape the man he will become. As this is a one off thing my sister is doing. If he doesn’t win, which is the most probable outcome, one day it may come up in conversation that his mum entered him in a baby search when he was six months old, I very much doubt it will even phase him, or make him feel violated/judged/hurt, he may just think his mum thought he was the cutest little baby ever, and well is that really that bad? It’s not really a life changing decision. And on the other point you made about other people judging or looking at the baby photos; people can say and think what they want about him, people look at him every time my sister takes him out, she will raise him not to worry about what others think. My sister is hardly the crazy pageant mum you’re article is making her out to be. I just don’t like the fact you are making thousands of mothers feel silly or beneath you because they entered their child in a mainstream competition, when really all they think is that they have the cutest baby, and just think they might give it a go. I seriously doubt many mothers actually believe their baby is going to win. At the end of the day its a bit of fun. Nobody is forcing you to vote. Also not all the babies are selected on public votes, there are the people’s choice and the rest are chosen by bonds judges.