Sorry, but babies aren't cute - old Teddy Bears are

My friends post pictures of their babies. At the moment they are talking about the royal baby and that all babies are cute (even if they are royal is the general comment).... It's not just the parents, but childless people too, talking about the cuteness. I haven't come out and told them that I don't think babies are cute.

Sure, when you hold them they smell nice and turn all your nurturing switches. The more time you spend with them, the more your instincts to protect kick in. It's nice. But they aren't cute.

They especially aren't cute in pictures. I've seen cute pictures of toddlers - mostly the things they are doing and the clothes they are wearing, but babies? No.

Doing strange things to them like putting them in flower pots is especially not cute. That's just sickeningly bad taste.

Generally I just keep my thoughts to myself and think 'each to their own'. I think baby animal photos are sometimes cute, but I'm not into the obsession with cute really at all. I think Teddy bears are cute, but I don't collect them. I'm not into looking at pictures of everyones' cats either - I'm just not a part of this Cult of Cute....

Panda image is from this Etsy shop

My things now and forever

Under Dad's house after we had cleaned up some....

I remember every single thing of mine anyone else has ever thrown out no matter how small - even if I do understand why they did it now.

Looking back, I can understand how my father must have felt when I tried to clean up at his house. I used to try and throw things out that he wouldn't miss or that were a fire hazard and we would have arguments. I eventually did some reading and I got a better understanding of what he was going through (and realised I was collecting things too - it just wasn't piles of newspapers). I didn't understand how much it hurt him for me to throw out his old newspapers and boxes, until I read about hoarding.

People with hoarding tendencies are emotionally attached to their stuff - like it's their children or their memories. They need to make the decision themselves to get rid of it and that in turn helps to change the way they think.

I was always confused by my father being such a logical man and yet unable to throw out things that I saw no value in, but also paradoxically confused years before by my mother not understanding that I had to keep all MY stuff throughout my childhood. After her death and after I had moved out, Dad kept everything in my room as it was and even added things he thought I would like. Later he started storing other things in there and I had to stand my ground and make it my space since I came to stay once a year. My sister's bedroom was covered in car parts.

These days I'm trying to be a bit more like my mother.