It’s a truth universally accepted that all parents think that their newborn child is flawlessly beautiful, or so we thought.
That was until one anonymous mum shared a post on Mumsnet this week, asking other parents if she was being unreasonable to start saving up for a nose job for her baby daughter.
While some families might put aside some pennies for their child to spend on a house, a car or travelling the world, the mother explained the reasoning behind her rather unusual piggy bank.
She said that her husband has a “very large nose” and although she personally likes this part of his appearance - in fact she thinks it makes him look handsome - he isn’t fond of this feature and has been bullied in the past about it.
And, despite being a young baby, the mother is already pretty sure her daughter will be taking after her father “in the nose department”.
She said in the post, which has attracted 190 responses so far: “AIBU [am I being] reasonable to put some money aside each week incase she wants a nose job when she is older? If her nose isn’t like her dad’s or it doesn’t bother her she could use it for other things.
“I’m just concerned she will be self conscious as other people make remarks to DH [dear husband] and he had been teased about it in the past.”
Although she did caveat the post by saying “obviously she would still be gorgeous to me” it was too late for most commenters, who had already decided this was a terrible idea.
One person said: “You can’t possibly know what a baby’s nose will look like when she’s an adult!”
To which the original poster replied: “Yes that’s why I want some money put aside. I read on here earlier about someone whose child wanted help financing loose skin removal and thought I would hate it if I couldn’t help DD [dear daughter] if she was unhappy with her looks.”
Another added quite simply: “Is this a joke?”
Equally unsympathetic, another said: “Don’t forget to start saving for implants for her 18th.”
Lots of people were concerned that the mother is going to damage her daughter’s self-esteem over the issue, one said: “It’s your job to make her feel beautiful and have a great sense of self worth regardless of her nose”
“How mortified will she feel when she finds out you’ve been saving for cosmetic surgery since she was a baby,” said another.
And some people were just totally confused: “How old is she? I’ve never really seen for example, primary aged kids with big noses.”
Although there were some people who were more sympathetic to her plight: “As someone who inherited an ugly facial feature and subsequently was bullied for it I applaud your planning. I got surgery on the NHS aged 17 and it changed my life so I’m not judgmental if people want to alter their appearance.”
Another summed up the situation, saying: “Saving for a child is never a bad thing. Why not save some anyway, and it’s there for her for whatever - a car, a gap year, or if she asks for one... a nose job. But don’t mention the nose job bit yourself.”