We’re a long way off from having a child, but Christina Aguirela’s windfall from the birth of her son Max got us thinking. Babies are expensive. So when our little bundle of joy comes into the world, why not set up a PayPal account for friends and family to see pictures of him? There’s no reason to wait until little league to project our needs and insecurities onto an innocent child.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a great business model. People lost money on the Christina Aguilera spread. The magazine paid an estimated $1.5 million (though some say $2 million) for the exclusive U.S. rights to the pics, and sales have been tepid at best. Unless People sells 200,000 copies in the next few days, they’ll end up $1.1 mil short of their initial return on investment.

People says they’d “do the deal again in a minute.” Even they lose money off of this issue, they see the cover shoot as part of their overall strategy “to reaffirm that People is the place for major life events of A-list celebrities.” [Christina Aguilera is A-list?-Ed.]

That’s all well and good for Jennifer Lopez, whose babies/payday should come through soon. People is ready to spend up to an estimated $6 million for those little gifts from God.

But about what regular people who aren’t famous at all? Our PayPal plan is totally f’ed, and not in a good way.

Well done, Max. Once again, you’ve ruined everything.