• Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Privacy And Disclosure Policy
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

Fandom Family

Uniting Fandoms through Life, Crafts, and Adventures

  • Home
  • Meet The Geeks
  • Geek
  • Family
  • Crafts
  • Adventures
  • Personal

What Losing The Gerber Baby Contest Taught Me

February 13, 2016 by Jessica 6 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Read about it here.

This post may contain affiliate links. Read more about it here.

When parents enter their kid into a cutest baby contest like the Gerber Baby Photo Contest, they’re filled with the hopes and dreams of winning that top prize! Because why wouldn’t they win? Their child is in fact the cutest! 

Unfortunately, there can only be one winner, and every year thousands of parents are disappointed to find out that their kid wasn’t the winner and they wonder if their kid really IS the cutest kid out there. 

What I learned when my daughter lost the Gerber Baby Contest

I can tell you that I completely understand because I’ve been there before. We entered our daughter Marvel into the famous Gerber Baby Photo Contest so she could be their Spokesbaby for 2016 and win a $50,000 cash prize! 

Since this post is about not winning, I’m sure you can guess that Marvel didn’t win. But her losing helped me learn some things that will help you when you’re feeling down about not winning. 

 

Marvel Gerber Contest Photo

The photo we entered into the contest

The Money Doesn’t Matter

This was the first thing I had to learn. I had this fantasy built up in my head about what we’d use that money for. I thought up vacations we could go on, houses we could build, debts we could pay off, so it was disappointing knowing we wouldn’t have that money after all.

But in the end, my husband Sean and I still have jobs that we love, a roof over our head, and lots of great memories that we’ve been able to make as a family. 

Would that money have made us happier? Probably not, because as they say “money doesn’t buy happiness.” 

It’s Not The End Of The World

While I waited for the announcement of who won, I would frequent the Gerber Facebook page. It made me sad to see some of the comments from the women on there. While most understood that the contest was just for fun, there were others who would leave comments that made it seem like the end of the world if their child didn’t win. 

I completely understand getting excited and your hopes up, because that’s what I did. But I had to remember that I have more chance of getting struck by lightning than winning. It’s still a chance, but you can never assume you’ll win, because then you’ll just automatically be upset. 

You can always choose how you’ll react and I’ve learned that I just need to remember it’s a fun contest and that, at least for a few more years, there’s always next year! 


Gerber Knows What They’re Looking For

Now this is just my own theory, but I am a firm believer that Gerber already knows the type of kid they want to win the contest. Gerber needs to be diverse in their winners or people will cry foul. 

To help prove my point, back in 2008 I auditioned for American Idol. The very first audition is with a group of producers and not what you see on TV. After I sang my song, one of the producers said to me, “You’re not what we’re looking for this year”. Instead of being upset, logic said to me that they would be looking for a specific style or type of person in order to weed through the thousands of auditions they saw. 

So when I was thinking about how in the world they would choose the winner for Gerber, I was reminded of this experience with American Idol. With the amount of entries they receive, they’d have to have set parameters to look for so the pictures don’t all start to blend together after a while. 

Last year’s winner was very similar to Marvel in that she was a caucasian girl and about the same age. So it wasn’t a surprise to me when the winner this year was of Asian heritage. It just proved my own personal theory true (though the baby IS very very cute!). (Edited to add that the winner for 2017 is a boy, which I had guessed they would choose a boy, further proving my theory).

Now don’t go relying on my theory. Next year 2018, I could be completely proven wrong (though I’m thinking maybe an older kid or a set of multiples). It’s really just my own fun way of guessing and it also helps me feel better about my daughter losing. 

My Daughter Is Still The Cutest Baby

The biggest thing I learned is that I don’t need a contest to tell me that my baby is cute, and neither do any other parents. Not winning the contest doesn’t all of a sudden make her magically an ugly baby.

Admittedly, there are some babies cuter than others but really what matters most is what the parents think and I’d argue to say that all parents think their baby is the cutest (or else why would they put them in cute baby contests?).

Of course, I’m one of those parents. Marvel is still the cutest little thing I’ve ever encountered, and every day she gets cuter (which I don’t know how it’s even possible!)

Marvel

So remember, when you’re feeling down about your kid losing the Gerber Baby Photo Contest, or any cute baby contest for that matter, it’s not about the money, nor is it the end of the world. What matters is that your kid IS cute, because that’s what you think and that’s what ultimately matters! 

 

Filed Under: Kids, Parenting, Personal

Five Fandom Fridays – Favorite Womances
My Disney Bucket List

Comments

  1. Kimberly at fitdisneymom.com says

    February 13, 2016 at 12:29 pm

    Great attitude! I take things personally too, so I can relate. She’s definitely a gorgeous baby!

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      February 13, 2016 at 2:13 pm

      Thank you very much! I was kind of glad for the long period between entry and announcing the winners because it helped me to gain more perspective.

      Reply
  2. Jared says

    February 26, 2016 at 8:22 am

    I agree with your theory- even though the contest was officially about the “cutest” baby, Gerber is still a corporation who needs to fill certain niches and still please shareholders. Who knows? Maybe they’re hoping to boost sales among Asians this year?

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      March 2, 2016 at 7:10 pm

      It’s possible! Either way I do think the winner is adorable and I wish her and her family the best of luck! Maybe next year will be our year!

      Reply
  3. Valerie says

    January 9, 2017 at 11:07 pm

    I love your perspective on this matter. Extremely positive, optimistic and quite genuine. You are absolutely right about everything. Truth is it’s just a contest! Wrong place for any parent to seek validation on their little one’s GOD given beauty.

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      January 10, 2017 at 8:49 am

      Thank you! I actually submitted my daughter again this year but I didn’t let myself stress about it at all. 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

twomarriedgeeks

Hi I'm Jessica! I'm a mother, wife, gamer, cosplayer, and all around fangirl. I love being a Geek Mom because I get to share many worlds with my daughter. Check out my about page to learn more about us!

Keep up with the geeks!

Check out these great partners!

Cricut is Easy as 123

USFamilyGuide.com

fandomfamilylife

Jessica Dalton
As the year is coming to an end, I wanted to highl As the year is coming to an end, I wanted to highlight something I’m very proud of. 

You see, I used to be an avid reader. I read ALL the time. Like the kid who would stay up way past her bedtime and being a book wherever I went sort of thing. 

One of the realizations for me that I was suffering from anxiety and depression was that I barely read anymore. Like I could count on one hand usually how many books I’d read in a year. And this devastated me because it was and is something I love. 

This year, like others, I made the goal to read more. Didn’t matter what kinds of books or if it was fanfiction. I knew I just needed to read. I got a kindle paperwhite and that plus my AirPods that I got (I count listening as reading because sometimes that’s all I can do), and my meds, helped me to do more. 

When I got this notebook a few months ago, I listed what I’d read and the sight of it makes me so happy to look at. They’re not in chronological order but for next year I will do it that way. 

A lot of these books too have been advanced readers copies! And that’s been really fun to read and review those and I’ll continue to do so. 

#amreading #bookstagram #writersofinstagram #bookgoals #booklists #booklist #kindle #kindlepaperwhite #fightdepression #fightanxiety #advancedreader #bookreviews
Merry Christmas from our family to yours! Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
My (sometimes) angel practicing her Korean. I trie My (sometimes) angel practicing her Korean. I tried speaking to her in French but she was stubborn and wanted to speak what she wanted to speak 😹 I can’t complain though because the fact she’s learning an Uber complicated language like Korean makes me proud! And we couldn’t do it without @talkboxmom Check them out with the link in my bio! 
#ambassador #learnkorean #learnaforeignlanguage #speakkorean #speakingforeignlanguage #talkboxmom #talkboxmomkorean #talkboxmomfrench
Ten years ago today I married my best friend. I kn Ten years ago today I married my best friend. I know that’s cliche to say but he is my person. He is my positive when I can only think of the negatives in my life. He makes me laugh (and I thankfully make him laugh too!) and I love the family we have created. Even though times are tough and we’ve been hit by many imperial cruisers in our life, we make it through. 
#tenyearanniversary #weddinganniversary #sealedforeternity #geekcouple #geekparents #marriedfortenyears #tenyears #anniversary
Today was my birthday. 33! Sadly I did not get to Today was my birthday. 33! Sadly I did not get to fulfill my dream of going to Club 33 for my birthday but I did order cheesecake from @juniorscheesecake through @goldbelly and it was divine! My brother @barney_bro is in the pic with me because his birthday is 2 days after mine. For basically our whole lives we’ve always celebrated together and I am so glad we did it (safely) this year too! He’s the best birthday buddy ❤️ 
#happybirthday #birthdaybuddies #siblings #brotherandsister
Happy thanksgiving from the fandom family ❤️ Happy thanksgiving from the fandom family ❤️
Saturday game night is brought to you by @talkboxm Saturday game night is brought to you by @talkboxmom ❤️ practicing how to say 배고파 (I’m hungry) and similar phrases in Korean. A year ago I never thought I’d be learning Korean, but that’s what Marvel wanted to learn 😹. 

Honestly it’s been a lot of fun and a good challenge for us as a family. We have really fallen in love with Korean (and Korean BBQ lol). 

I’m thinking next year of adding another language. Probably French since it’s one I already know a lot of! 

What language would you like to learn if you could? I really like using talkbox.mom because we use phrases we use at home already so we substitute them in. As such, I’m excited to announce too that we’re brand ambassadors for talkbox.mom! 🥳❤️🥰

Check out talkbox.mom (link in my bio, and hey it would be a good Christmas gift!). I’ve even got some discount codes for you. Use Jessica20 for $20 off a box+book bundle and Jessica5 for $5 off a phrasebook. 

#ambassador #learnkorean #speakkorean #learnforeignlanguages #partner #korean #kpop #koreanspeaking #teachkorean #talkboxmom #talkbox #speakforeiglanguages
Happy Halloween from Persephone and Hades (Lore Ol Happy Halloween from Persephone and Hades (Lore Olympus) and Cinderella and Elsa! 
#happyhalloween #cosplay #loreolympus #loreolympuswebtoon #loreolympuspersephone #loreolympushades #hadesandpersephone #elsa #cinderella #geekfamily #cosplayfamily #momofgirls
Was feeling a bit elfish today 🙂 #casualcosplay Was feeling a bit elfish today 🙂 
#casualcosplay #plussizefashion #plussizemama #plussizemom #elfears #spiritgum #naturalwaves #naturalwavyhair #momtogirls #momofgirls #geekmom #geekymom
My husband and I dropped our ballots off yesterday My husband and I dropped our ballots off yesterday. Our state has done mail in voting for years now and it’s the best. I’m able to take my time and look up the candidates and measures in real time. It also gave us an opportunity to explain to Ms. Marvel why voting is important. (Also I love my shirt so much). 
#unityoverdivision #unitedwestand #vote #vote2020 #votevotevote #american
Follow on Instagram
  • Meet The Geeks
  • Blog
  • Privacy And Disclosure Policy
  • Contact

Keep up to date with the Geeks

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2021 · Hello Sweets by Hello You Designs

Copyright © 2021 · Hello Sweets Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkPrivacy policy