Cute Baby Contest

Every baby is absolutely perfect according to that babies parents and their friends and family. Pictures get passed around as everybody attempts to find new and creative ways to comment on the new baby’s beauty. As the parents of that new baby you are 100% convinced that your child is the most beautiful thing on earth. Prior to your child you had seen a lot of other “cute” babies but none of those babies held a candle to your child. Ever since your baby was born every other parent was jockeying their kid for second place in the good looks department. It’s a cruel, harsh, competitive world and it begins the day we are born.

Celia and I were talking this morning on Yahoo and I don’t remember how the topic got brought up but we began talking about cute baby contests. Celia and I are no different than any other parent in the world, when Jadon was born there was no child better looking than him. There were cute kids, sure, but they weren’t Jadon cute. We didn’t just say this because it was true, we believed it! We believed so firmly that if you put Jadon’s picture up against another child, like a boxing match, Jadon would prevail by way of unanimous decision. We attempted to stay as objective as possible when critiquing Jadon’s good looks but truth be told we never found anything to critique. He was flawless! He was like the Marlboro Man of babies; he was cool and every girl wanted him, young and old. Before Jadon turned 1 I think we already had 1,000 pictures taken of him, no lie. What we were doing was no different than what every other parent was doing. Our baby was beautiful and we wanted to capture every moment possible.

One day when we were still living in Kentucky Celia came home with some groceries that she picked up from the Food Lion. On that back of the receipt was a website for a Food Lion cute baby contest. Celia checked out the website and after doing some investigating we learned that 3 prizes were awarded, but for the life of me I can’t remember the specifics. I think 3rd place got 6 month’s worth of diapers, 2nd place got a year’s worth of diapers and I think first place got a year’s worth of diapers plus cash but I’m not quite sure. Whatever the prizes were the parents would be more than compensated for their kid’s good looks. We discussed in great lengths if we should enter Jadon into the contest, scared that we would be classified as “those obsessed parents.” Eventually we decided to enter Jadon into the Food Lion’s Cute Baby Contest with the logic being we could use the extra diapers. We sifted through many pictures before finally settling on one of Jadon wearing a Santa outfit on Christmas Day. Upon submission of the photo we were convinced that it would be a matter of time before we were contacted congratulating us on Jadon’s victory.

We checked the site every few days giving Jadon our vote while checking out the competition. Whether your child is in a baby contest or not I think that every time you see photo’s of somebody else’s child you immediately think, “That baby is cute but nearly as cute as mine.” I know I did this. I would look at pictures of other kids and think to myself, “You don’t stand a chance!” How mean am I? After a few weeks the results were made public of the babies that would be advancing to the next round, not the finals, but the next round. Jadon didn’t even make it to the next round. If this were the NCAA Basketball Tournament Jadon would have been a #1 seed getting knocked off by a #16 seed. It just doesn’t happen. I was so angry and unable to comprehend how he didn’t advance. I decided to look at pictures of the other babies who did advance which only infuriated me more. I was like Ron Artest jumping into the stands to fight the Detroit Piston’s fans in 2004; that’s how angry I became. “Jadon’s better looking than that kid!” “That’s bull crap! That kid is ugly!” “Only his mother could think he’s cute!” “Ok, I can understand this baby making it but there is no way this kid should be here!” How pathetic was I? I’m trash talking to kids who have yet to grow teeth, I’m an awful person. But I had the anger side covered; Celia on the other hand was inconsolable, she was crushed. She was silent and heartbroken. That was her little boy and it broke her heart that other people didn’t think he was as cute as she did. We understood supporting your own child but we also thought these other people should have upheld the integrity of the contest by voting for our son, not theirs.

If anybody thinks I’m exaggerating a bit do this for me, enter your child into a baby contest and tell me how you feel when other kids advance that are not nearly as cute as yours. Trust me, you will empathize with me completely.

After that we swore off baby competitions. There was no need to subject our son (even though he had no idea) and ourselves through that anguish. Then something happened that changed my mind and is part of the reason why I think I started talking to Celia about this today. Hailey was born and we continued to make the world a prettier place. On top of that, Jadon had continued to grown as his good looks grew with him. Knowing this, we now had two sure things, two “can’t miss kids.” Celia was hesitant, reminding me how much it sucked when Jadon didn’t win the first contest because it was simply a popularity contest. Right there on the spot I devised a plan that consisted of a blog and emails. We would overflow the cute baby website that denying Jadon and Hailey would be impossible this time.

I did some searches on Google and found a website that I registered for and submitted both Jadon and Hailey’s photo to. Moments ago I received a confirmation email telling me that it could take as many as 10 weeks for the photos to be accessible for voting which is why I’m getting the word out early. With the two photographs I submitted even other parents will see them and think, “We’re done!” Obviously the thought of both Jadon and Hailey not getting selected to the next round did not enter my mind and after seeing their photos, why would it have?

Ok, understand this was written in fun but every parent understands my point I made at the beginning. We all think our child is beautiful, we are so proud of them and want to show them off to as many people who will look. The odds of your child winning a competition like that are very slim because as

I mentioned before, it is solely a popularity contest. Even though your child doesn’t win in a way it is still exciting pondering the possibility of your child winning. Even if Jadon and Hailey don’t prevail I will still know in my heart, along with every other parent whose child doesn’t win, that my kids were the best. It’s that pride of being a parent and what makes being a parent the best job in the world. Nothing you ever do in life will ever be as good as the little ones you have crawling around on the floor.