Often seen in TV commercials. The mother pauses in the hall and peers into the children’s bedroom. The kids are doing something especially cute. The mom squints and does a sort of a frown. It’s not a smile and not really a frown.
Not quite :rolleyes:
Glaring?
Apparently I’ve done a poor job of describing the expression. The expression is one of adoration, and it could be accompanied by an “awww…”
That’s just a pissed off frown.
I’ll call the expression "those wacky kids’ and wouldn’t be surprised to find it accompanied by head shaking. It is more like the pursed lips of someone trying not to smile.
Bemused exasperation?
Maybe a link to one of these commercials? Removing the guessing game might help.
I think I know exactly what expression you’re talking about, but I’m having trouble finding a picture because I don’t know what to call it either!
Is it the one where the parent crosses their arms and sighs because the kid’s getting into trouble, but it’s so cute that the parent can’t really be mad?
Oh, or I guess what jnglmassiv said.
Is it the “awwwwwwwwwwww?”
Maybe it’s a combination? A Joey Tribbiani “Smelling a fart” followed by a “Not exposing the teeth smile”?
Ghent (adj.): Descriptive of the mood indicated by cartoonists by drawing a character’s mouth as a wavy line.
-Douglas Adams, The Meaning Of Liff.
I found it by searching for “bemused”…not because that’s what bemused means or looks like, but because people very often used bemused incorrectly to mean just that kind of look that’s a mixture of bewildered and amused, and so I figured I could find that expression with that search term.
So…I’m going to vote for a descriptivist bemused. Not what dictionaries say bemused means, but what bemused is coming to mean as more and more people are using it that way.
I call it “Icky Poo”
Rolleyes.