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As we all well aware about mothers emotions toward their children since birthgiving up to the end! Usually, all mothers think deep down inside that their children are the most beautiful and no other child is so beautiful in their eyes as their own.

In my language metaphorically, people have a proverb which says:

  • The cockroach tells its child, how beautiful and white are your legs! :) [Meaning that even to the eyes of a beetle mother, her children are the most beautiful]

It is often said sarcastically when a mother is making good remarks about her child or when someone is saying some good words about a person who is in favor with them. Please note that such a saying should be usually said in a humorous tone; otherwise if it said directly can seem offensive and maybe quite annoying.

Here is my founded expression which I have my doubts whetehr it is a commonly said one in English or not!

  • No mother thinks their children ugly.

I would be appreciative if you let me know what does a native normally say in such a situation?

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    I don't know an English proverb for this, but I really like yours! I think it would be understood and enjoyed in Engish, though in US English I think I'd make it a cockroach instead of a beetle.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Apr 22, 2019 at 13:59
  • Thank you very much @ Stoney B; agreed! I thoughy about it too and while it seems better to me either, let me change my thread. Just what do you mean eaxclt by my own offered sentence? "The cockroach sentence" or "Mother sentence"?
    – A-friend
    Apr 22, 2019 at 14:01
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    The cockroach sentence. The other is fine, too, just not so witty.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Apr 22, 2019 at 14:07
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    I don't know a native-English equivalent of this either (hence posting as a comment rather than an answer) but an inverse to this, for someone ugly, is to have "a face that only a mother could love"!
    – seventyeightist
    Apr 22, 2019 at 17:23
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    I've heard "there's only one beautiful child in the world, and every mother has it." I get quite a few search results for it, but I can't find it in an idiom dictionary.
    – Katy
    Apr 22, 2019 at 19:00

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My mother had a phrase she used, which she must have heard somewhere. I've never heard anybody else say it, but it was intended to mean exactly what you want to say.

"All my geese are swans."

She used this to refer to her own children (it was a largish family) to suggest she wasn't able to see the faults that others might see. I doubt it needs explaining, but a goose (traditional European domestic geese are white) was a fairly run-of-the-mill bird, while a swan of course has some natural additional grandeur, and in the UK, a literally royal connection.

A quick Google shows this is a phrase with some level of currency: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/all+my+geese+are+swans

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  • Very interestin @fred2. Just I need to know if it is understandable for Americans too.
    – A-friend
    Apr 22, 2019 at 21:50
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    Possibly not, but I'm a British-English speaker living in North America, and I throw in British idioms all the time - can't stop myself - and people tend to work it out. It's a lot more intuitive than 'teaching my grandmother to suck eggs', which is an incredibly useful phrase, but leads Americans and Canadians to look at you in utter bewilderment.
    – fred2
    Apr 23, 2019 at 15:54
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    I see @fred2 :)) Much appreciated.
    – A-friend
    Apr 23, 2019 at 17:02

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