Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don't get offended. My brother as a little boy looked just like our dad's childhood pictures. I don't see it as much now that he's an adult.
I look just like my grandmother, my dad's mom, who died when my dad was only 2 years old. Pictures were black and white then so I can't see her actual hair color, but her hair was dark and mine is light. But it's the same face. It's weird looking at someone who died 26 years before you were born and feeling like you are looking in a mirror.
One of my daughters looks a whole lot like her cousin, my brother's daughter. Looks, skin color and even mannerisms. My son has a lot of mannerisms of another brother of mine even though my brother lives in another state and my son has very rarely been around him and never for more than a brief visit.
It's weird how some strains stay in a family. A distant cousin stopped by my mother's house one day with a picture of a woman from about the 1890's, judging by her clothing and hairstyle. She wanted to know if my mother knew who it was. She didn't, but the woman in the picture looked startlingly like us, especially around the eyes/top of the face.
Also, my younger sister does our genealogy, and she found some sixth cousin who lives out west somewhere and found his photograph on Facebook. He looks amazingly like my youngest brother, more so than my other brother does.
I'm not biologically related to my father. I think it drove my mother crazy that people kept telling her how much I looked like him when I was a baby.
I actually look A LOT like her as an adult. I don't really like her, but I don't mind people telling me I look like her. It's a fact. Doesn't bother me.
My maternal cousins think I look like my mother - my paternal relatives think I resemble my father. Of course, my parents had similar coloring and facial shapes (which I inherited), though they really didn't look much alike otherwise.
But I do have the unusual eye color and eye shape of a great grandmother of French ancestry. One of my second cousins in this line has similar eyes, but we are the only two out of our generation to have inherited these eyes.
While going through some old family snapshots at a recent get-together, one of my first cousins asked me when and where a certain picture of me was taken. It was a photo of my parent, taken in the 1930s, well before I appeared on this earth. I had never seen that picture before, so was happy to get a copy.
My maternal grandfather had a distinctive mouth shape, which still shows up in some of his many descendants, oddly mostly in those who bear his surname. I have seen an early 19th century ambrotype of my grandfather's same-surnamed ancestor which shows that same mouth. My grandfather was also unusually tall for a man of his time (born in 1866, about six feet), and some of his same-surnamed male descendants are also unusually tall, with their heights increasing a few inches with each generation - a g-grandson is 6'8".
To me, character traits are even more interesting than physical ones. My maternal family members include many readers, writers, storytellers, teachers, historians, craftspeople, artists, gardeners and environmentalists, and individuals involved in childhood education and development in various ways. These same traits and professions occurred in previous generations going back well over 200 years. Figuring out nature vs. nurture would be tricky, as kids growing up in families with these traits typically share them (not always), but it's interesting to see some adopted family members of the current younger generation also sharing these traits and interests, though they were adopted in mid-childhood, not in infancy.
Interesting thread...thanks for starting and participating in it.
I have a friend, a single woman, who adopted a five year old girl. It's actually stunnhow alike they look. People tell her all the time how much her daughter resembles her mommy. She just smiles and says "Thanks, "
I have a friend, a single woman, who adopted a five year old girl. It's actually stunnhow alike they look. People tell her all the time how much her daughter resembles her mommy. She just smiles and says "Thanks, "
That kind of reminds me of the phrase, "Like attracts like". People say that women will often marry men who resemble their dad. Maybe it's a similar kind of thing.
Neither. It's a neutral statement, and most likely factual. Why wouldn't I look like my biological parents. I share half their DNA.
lol. This, pretty much. But my parents weren't anything outstanding in the looks dept., so there was nothing to feel flattered about.
What I've noticed, as I've watched a couple of generations in the family (including mine) grow up, is that kids can display affinity to one parent or another, as they grow. In childhood, they may resemble one parent, then in their teens, their features can morph, and resemble the other parent for awhile, then in their 20's, a blend of both may become evident. Now in older age, my oldest brother, who resembled my mother's side of the family most of his life, has taken on some of my father's features. People's appearance isn't static throughout their lives.
What I find tiresome and annoying is when I am with one of my sisters and the person I am talking to has been informed that we are sisters and says, "You two look alike." Umm..that is why we look alike genius!
Father's Day has come and gone and I miss my dad, who left us almost 9 years ago.
When he was with us, several of my friends who had met him used to tell me, "You look just like your Dad!" To which I replied with a smile: "I'm my Father's Son!" I guess to me is a compliment - my Dad was a very handsome man (maybe I'm biased, but he was.) Looking at an old photo album not long ago, I saw a pic of my Mom holding me, I had to be maybe 6 months old then - and I look at my sister now, and I'll be damned it she doesn't look like our Mom!
Do you take it as a compliment when someone tells you that you look like your Mom or Dad? Or do you get offended?
Intent matters, so I take it as a compliment even though my feelings for my father are ambivalent at best. Because it was intended as a compliment, you take it that way.
I often wonder why people feel the need to take offense over an innocuous comment when none is intended. Isn't life challenging enough without being so freaking neurotic and thin-skinned?
People see what they want to see..or expect to see. I've been told I look exactly like my mother, while others say I look exactly like my father. However, my father and mother don't resemble each other at all.
At any rate, it's a harmless comment that people make.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
