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Resemblance within families is a very interesting thing.
I feel like we cannot ever really see ourselves the way others see us, so sometimes gauging resemblance is tricky. For example, off and on for my entire life I've occasionally bumped into relatives and other people while out and about who pause and half-stare at me, then stutter out a remark about how I'm my father's exact twin. The personality similarities between us have always been extremely obvious to me, but in my opinion the physical resemblance was always more vague. Not that I didn't see any resemblance; I just never had that notion of "hey, if you exchange us for one another no one would know the difference ... "
I have a larger, broader build than my father had. I'm a black guy and on occasion, when I've shown up at a nice restaurant or whatever, people have mistaken me for a professional athlete. I could have gotten the build from either side of my family. There are muscle-men on both sides, and a not-insignificant number of giants (though my height is only slightly above average).
Interesting aside: my older half-brother on my mom's side was the exact twin of his paternal uncle. Have fun with the obvious jokes there ...
My wife has blue eyes; we have several "mixed" children. There's a stereotype that biracial children are uniquely attractive. I hope I don't sound too much like a biased dad when I say it's definitely true in our case. Our children do resemble us, but we're not that good looking. Some people who've met my children (half) jokingly say they didn't know I could make a baby that pretty -- then later on they'll do a double-take and go, "well actually, the kid does kind of look like you ... "
One uncomfortable thing to mention that I've seen in some families is parents are sometimes less close to children who resemble the opposite parent -- especially if the other parent is an ex that the person no longer particularly cares for. For obvious reasons a lot of parents tend to bond more naturally with the children who more closely resemble themselves. I only mention this because I'm amazed by how it's the exact opposite in my family. lol. The child who has always been labelled my twin appears to be the one among her siblings who is least fond of her dad.
While we're on this topic, even though they're clearly different personality-wise, I've always thought the physical resemblance between both former presidents Bush was quite remarkable. With the exception of the elder Bush being slightly taller, those two are identical twins imho.
If I hadn't seen my daughter come out of the chute myself, I would have been convinced that they mixed up babies in the hospital. She had such a funny shaped head, though, that there was no mistaking her for anyone else. My husband and I were both brown haired and brown eyed and she was a green-eyed blonde. We always wondered what far-back great-great-great grandparent she got those genes from. She didn't grow to resemble either of us, either. She had the same funny-looking feet as her father, though, down to the smallest detail.
That cracked me up because of the feet. One of my kids looks like no one else on either side of the family, but the feet are a dead giveaway trait from dad's side of the family.
I have two sons. One looks exactly like me and one like my wife. They one who looks like me is impervious to cold, as am I. The one who looks like my wife shares her sensitivity to cold. The one who looks like me likes every kind of ethnic food in the book, as do I. The one who looks like my wife shares her picky tastes.
The "crossovers" are that the one who looks like my wife has my father's nose and the one who looks like me sunburns easily rather than tans, as does my wife.
I look quite dissimilar to my family. Either side. But I went to a country in Europe where my ancestors are from and I looked like many, many people there. Met many people who initially mistook me for someone they knew.
I have a cousin who looks even more dissimilar than I. But I came across an ancient photo of one of her ancestors who looked exactly, exactly like her.
We find it interesting. Didn't really care before. We all just joked about us being special. :-)
My kids are adopted and a different race...so they don't. But raising them their whole lives, they have some of our mannerisms and sometimes people will comment that one of our kids looks like me or my husband (knowing they are adopted). So that is kind of weird they do kind of look like us.
We have contact with one birth family, photos only. While my child has never been with them past pregnancy, I find it pretty amazing that he makes similar expressions and mannerisms to them. Its very odd to see (and of course he looks like them).
I don't have kids, but I had 7 siblings. Both parents had brown eyes & black hair. All us kids were varying shades of blonde & all of us had different eye colors... varying shades of blues, greens, hazel, black. None of our faces resemble each other... 3 boys are tall & lanky & over 6', another 5'9" & more medium build... I'm 5'7, long & lean... my sisters are 5' & have that athletic, cheerleader build. All different face shapes from oval to heart to square.
Not 1 of us looks anything alike at all... not noses, not lip shapes, we don't have similar gestures or walks & since we all grew up in different places, we also all have different accents. If you took any 2 of us & put us side by side, you'd never guess we were related in any way. None of us looks like either parent, not even a little. I used to be asked if we were all adopted.
Further, none of my siblings' children look like their parents either, from build to hair/eye color.
I have photos of all my family members, on both sides, that date back to just a few years after the camera was invented, in 1840. And the only one who bore the slightest resemblance to me, was a grand-uncle, who was a homosexual. But he made a lot of money as a stockbroker in NYC and gave my grandmother $1,000., to build a house. It cost $900. for the house and $100. for all the furnishings. She and her 8 children would have been homeless, without his generosity.
Neither of my kids look remarkably like me or their father - they look a lot like each other and both have some traits of each of us, but nothing that would stand out in any way as much of a resemblance if you were a stranger looking at us. They are a pretty good blend of the both of us, but no mini me's here. The part that I find weird (to me) is that they both have a different eye color than me (oldest has hazel and youngest has dark brown), and even though my so has dark eyes, I guess I always grew up picturing having blue eyed kids so it's strange not to see much of myself in them. I don't know why, but the eyes thing is where I always thought the resemblance would be. (And yes, I know they are mine, I am the mother, haha!)
Can anyone else relate to what I am saying? How much do your kids look like you?
Blue eye color is a recessive trait, and so if you marry someone who does not also have blue eyes, there is a good chance that only 1 in 4 of your children would also have blue eyes.
Blue eye color is a recessive trait, and so if you marry someone who does not also have blue eyes, there is a good chance that only 1 in 4 of your children would also have blue eyes.
Genes are awesome. I'd love to learn more about that. I mentioned way back that both parents had black hair/brown eyes & all 7 of us kids are blonde with varying shades of blue/green/hazel/grey eyes. How'd that happen! And, both parents are also the only dark hair/eye kids in their blonde, blue/green broods.
Also, each generation has the stray 1-3 orange hair with green or blue eyed additions. Further strange that none of our facial features are anything alike... that's siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, grands, etc. No one resembles their parents or siblings. I wonder if that's odd, the norm or happens only once in awhile.
I used to show people pics of my siblings, until I tired of the constant comments that none of us look alike, so they can't be siblings. < Big sigh > What do they think... I'm an only child lying about having a gaggle of siblings? I also wonder if that's normal? Whenever I have seen pics of friend's families, there's some sort of a resemblance... body build, face shape, coloring... something.
The only similarity is my youngest sister & I have a similar soft-spoken voice... it used to confound her son when he was small.
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Some people who've met my children (half) jokingly say they didn't know I could make a baby that pretty -- then later on they'll do a double-take and go, "well actually, the kid does kind of look like you ... " 
