Caleb's Perception of Beauty

The week that we went to Parkway after church, we were leaving the carpark and there was this huge Osim advertisement with photos of the movie star Lin Chiling endorsing it. We were waiting for our turn to go to the carpark barrier and I noticed Caleb staring intently at Lin Chiling's photo. I was curious to know what Caleb thought of her. You know how little children see beauty quite differently from adults. What we think is art and is beautiful, usually doesn't quite match their idea of "beauty". And I wondered, at the age of 5, has Caleb been socialised to see "beauty" like we do or does he think otherwise. So I started this little conversation with him...


Mummy: Caleb, are you looking at the photo of the girl?
Caleb nods his head.
Mummy: Caleb, do you think she's pretty? (Again, he nods his head)
Mummy: So do you think she's prettier or Mummy's prettier?
(Haha, yah, I bet you think I'm mad to compare myself to Lin Chiling.. Such a joke huh... but well, I was curious to see what my son thinks. And he's always been very PR, so I wondered whether he would PR me this time round...)
Caleb: She's prettier. (He said this a little cautiously and I have to be frank, he didn't hesitate for long... but I have to stress, his tone was CAUTIOUS..) (Ok, so this is the FIRST time he's told me there's somebody else prettier than me! But then, fine, no big deal right... she's Lin Chiling leh! How many of us can say we're prettier than her... so it's ok lah, she win. She's got all the packaging what! I'm a mother of 3 leh and she's younger and I don't have the packaging and...If I had packaging too, I’ll be Ms Universe ... ok, I'm digressing again...)
Mummy: Oh ok, so Caleb, who do you think is prettier? Mummy or Kimi? (Haha, evil Mummy is now bringing in his gf...)
Caleb: Urm... about the same...
Mummy: Hmm, so who do you think is prettier? Grandma or Mummy? (Ok, I'm treading on dangerous ground here but if I want to have a good gauge of what he thinks, I must have a variety of different people right?!)
Caleb: Mummy's prettier.
Mummy: OK, so between Mummy and Sarah, who's prettier?
Caleb: Mummy's prettier.

So, end of my little interview. My intelligent conclusion? I think if it's an obvious beauty (with all the packaging and all...) and she's pleasing to the eye, he'll think she's pretty. For the rest of us, I think he just ranks us according to how much he likes us. He likes Kimi a lot so he thinks Kimi is as pretty as me. He doesn't see Grandma all the time so he thinks I'm prettier than her. Sarah annoys him from time to time so perhaps that's why he also thinks I'm prettier than Sarah.

Anyway, our conversation didn't quite end there...

Mummy: Oh, actually I think that Sarah's prettier than me..
Caleb: Why Mummy?
Mummy: Coz she's my daughter...
(And ND who has been giving me funny looks from the rear mirror throughout the conversation, interrupted in a very buay pai sei way and said... "And coz she looks like me!")

Haha, the famileez skin all very thick. By the way, if you don't know who Lin Chiling is, you can go google her and see her photo... You think I'm gonna get a daughter-in-law in future who looks like her?