Why is the first child, the ugliest

Most parents will tell you their kids are adorable, but when granted the anonymity of the internet, some will admit that when they first met their baby — after going through the trauma of childbirth and nine months in utero — their initial reaction was more like, "WTF?" It can take a little while for that cute baby to become, well, cute!

A viral thread by Reddit user u/koreanjudas asked parents of the internet: "Did any of you go, 'Damn, my baby is ugly' when you saw your child for the first time? And how did you react?"

Here are some of the top-voted responses from users:

1. "I was in the delivery room when my son was born. When his head popped out, my first thought (and I’m not making this up) was, 'Jesus Christ — this kid looks like Don Rickles!' Happily, his looks have improved significantly, but I was concerned at the time that he might be designated 'Ugliest Baby in the Maternity Ward' or something. For all I know, he was."

2. "My first words to greet my daughter were, 'Oh god, what's wrong with her?' I was expecting a cone head, but I was not expecting the lopsidedness of the cone head. It looked like someone had fused an entire extra head on top and shifted it 30% to the right. She was perfectly healthy and turned out super cute eventually, but between the head thing and the baby acne, she was objectively ugly for a bit."

—Inannaspocket

3. "As a mom of two, my babies looked like weird, misshapen potatoes. Puffy eyes, cone heads, squished ears. Newborns are weird looking."

—justasmucho

4. "My son was born with a horribly scrunched-up face, blue skin, and a full head of silver hair. We called him 'Chucky the Smurf.' All his older cousins were beautiful from minute one. My wife took one look at him, apologized, and said 'Maybe he will be the smart one.'"

5. "My children very much took advantage of the softness of their skulls. The first child was squeezed so bad that her head was completely elongated, and when she was first put into my wife's arms she was, like, lavender purple. Totally looked like an alien or something. After the first independent breath, her color went back to normal pretty fast, and her head got back to the right shape after about two days. Lemme tell you — those weird caps for babies in hospitals? NOT only for baby warmth. Also 'cause weird heads."

—superkp

6. "I have had two girl babies. The first one came out looking like a perfect little doll. The second one came out looking like Mr. Burns."

7. "Our daughter was not a pretty infant. I knew that, so it was funny when people would come running up to the stroller to peer in, all ready to gush, then bam — Ugly Baby. Them trying to find something, anything, nice to say was completely hilarious."

—EntrepreneurOK7513

8. "It is a long-running joke that my 21-year-old son was an ugly baby. It even got worse as he had the nastiest baby acne I'd ever seen... As he was my first child, my reaction was to ask my wife if all babies looked this way when born, and I hoped it would improve. He did. Just took a bit longer than I assumed."

—Wha_She_Said_Is_Nuts

9. "My first daughter was born underweight, so her face looked like a little alien, no puffy cheeks. My second daughter was carried a bit over-term, so her face was red and irritated (they lose the greasy protection when procrastinating). My youngest son was born legs-first, so his face actually wasn't as squished. He could be considered cute from the start, except he was born with dark hair not only on his head, but also on his earlobes, nape, and shoulders, so my first thought was, 'Holy shit, I gave birth to a werewolf.'"

10. "My dad’s first words to my mom post-delivery were, 'That is the ugliest baby I’ve ever seen.' And of course she busted out sobbing."

—rebel1031

11. "I thought mine looked like a weird alien potato when she was first born. Then when I showed people baby pics, they all said she looked just like me."

12. "When my son was born and the nurses wiped him off and handed him to me, I felt like Rafiki holding up Simba in The Lion King. The world was singing. I looked at him and he was so beautiful... A year later, I looked again at a baby pic and was like, 'Oh. I may have been impaired by that rush of endorphins...'"

—Sunhammer01

13. "My youngest daughter was very red, her features were all scrunched up, with hair on her head that stuck straight up on top, and an extremely hairy body — including her face and especially on her back. My ex was worried that she had that werewolf hairy gene. In other words, it was clear that he thought she was hideous. I still remember that look of disbelief on his face when she was born, lol."

—chismosamimosa

14. "I didn’t think she was ugly, but she was COVERED in hair. She was the hairiest baby I’d ever seen. I tearfully asked my mother if it would fall out. It did."

15. "God, when my son was born he was ugly AF. Not even a face only a parent could love. A few weeks passed and he became less hideous, then boom — he is fucking beautiful. Like literally a poster child."

—Key_Ad_1006

And finally...

16. "I had twins. One came out much cuter than the other. The doctor saw the cute one and said, 'Oh my, what a cute baby.' She looked at the other one and didn’t say anything. She immediately just stopped gushing. That twin did come out looking a bit like a gremlin, but she got cuter."

You can read the full thread of responses on Reddit.

Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.