s/o Craziest things strangers have said to you

[Tangerine]

 

***One more footnote, just so I can be like David Foster Wallace.

 

:lol: I think you need a footnote for your footnote.

[Moxie]

When I was pregnant with #3, the deli clerk at WM looked at my son and daughter in the cart and then, with this really bummed look on her face, said, "Oh, you're going to ruin your perfect family!". :glare:

[stripe]

*Great Girl is often assumed to be Wee Girl's teen mother--for some reason, when we were in the UK last summer, this was the universal assumption--and I had endless discussions with bus drivers who were determined to charge her full fare because she was obviously the mum and I the grand-mum.

 

When I was 4, my mom was visiting a friend. I got bored and took her baby out for a walk in a stroller. Everyone I passed -- everyone! -- glared at me. When I was sitting on a bench at one point, a young woman with a baby came along and smiled at me in a nice way. But I found it almost painful.

 

I worked at a video store and it totally creeped me out when this guy (who I'd seen renting porn movies before) kept trying to get me to go out with him. He really thought that by telling me he was leaving for boot camp the next week would convince me. Yeah.....that sounds tempting...I wonder what he wanted.

I was at work once and this old guy started basically asking me out, and then told me he had a brain tumor, and would I move with him to Saudi Arabia. By the way, he was clearly non- Saudi and non-Arab. I am not Saudi either. He kept going on about how the desert air would be good for him, yadda yadda. It was weird. Why would I want to be saddled with them? He was just creepy.

Edited July 20, 2011 by stripe

[MelanieM]

My oldest two were 6 yrs and 4 yrs and I was pregnant with #3. We were all at the grocery store and a man working the produce section came up to us, looked at my belly and our two kids, then turned to my husband and said "wow, so are you going to get a vasectomy now?" I laughed and replied "oh no... we're hoping for at least 8 or 10!" (Not true, actually... I'll be happy to be done after #4 arrives.) He didn't know quite how to take that so just mumbled at us a bit longer and went back to his business. My husband and I had a good laugh at that.

[Rivka]

My daughter (now 3) was born with hip dysplasia and had to wear a cast from her toes to her chest from three to six months old. I had a FEW people ask, "Did her brothers do something to her?" :glare:

 

On the other hand, I say a baby in Target once who had a cast on her feet that looked like my daughter's cast had. She was covered with a blanket over her body though so I didn't see that the cast was only on her legs and didn't go all the way up to her chest. Anyways, I think I acted a little too excited (because I didn't know anyone else with a baby with hip dysplasia in a cast) when I asked if she had hip dysplasia and showed the parents my own daughter in her cast. They weren't excited and explained that their own child had club feet. I can see them writing about the encounter on this sort of thread. :blush:

 

I had hip dysplasia and had casts for a very long time in infancy. My mother got so tired of answering questions. She likes to tell the story of when a woman came rushing up to her in the grocery store saying dramatically, "Oh my goodness, what HAPPENED to your BABY?!"

 

My mom looked down at me in my giant cast and said calmly, "Oh, it looks like she spit up a little." She dabbed the corner of my mouth and went on with her shopping.

[Rivka]

My husband and I co-teach a sex ed class for middle schoolers at our church. At a lunch for the class members, I was nursing my son when one of the boys in the class came over and asked, "Is that your baby?"

 

Of course he isn't! I just really like breastfeeding! :lol:

 

Talk about a kid who really needed the class he was signed up for...

[Mommy22alyns]

I also had someone ask if we were going to try for a boy next... when Sylvia was just a few weeks old. :glare:

[gardening momma]

On the first Thanksgiving after DH and I were married, we were at my ILs house. I was in the kitchen with his mother and two sisters and all of a sudden my MIL says, "You know, a few years ago I would not have approved if DH brought you home" (She said this because I am biracial and she used to not like interracial relationships). Say what??? We had only been married for a couple of months then and now that I know MIL better, I know she didn't mean any harm, but it still threw me for a loop.

That reminds me of the time when dh and I had just gotten engaged. I came to visit him and his parents (I lived in a different state at the time). It was the second time I had seen his parents, and as soon as I got in the door, MIL wanted to see my ring. As she looked at it, she babbled about how she and FIL were hesitant about this (the engagement), and how they didn't know if it would last. (FIL broke up with MIL when they were engaged and spent the money for the ring on a stereo system. They got back together sometime after that.)

 

ETA: this does count as a crazy stranger story, as MIL was basically still a stranger then, and is still crazy. :tongue_smilie:

Edited July 20, 2011 by gardening momma

[k2bdeutmeyer]

This thread is great :)

 

When DD #2 was just a baby we went out to eat. We approached the hostess stand, me carrying DD in the infant carrier. I said, "2 please". She glanced at DH and I and said "and the baby?". Nope....thought we'd leave her at the bar, is that okay?

[Scarlett]

Oh the mischief you could have sewn! :D

 

"I'm from China. I came here to adopt one of your abandoned American boys."

 

LOL

 

I about fell out of my chair on that one.

 

:lol:

[Impish]

Well, leaving aside the insane things my MIL says...

 

Probably the craziest is when Tazzie was a baby.

 

I had a mom at Diva's then ps approach me, gaze at Tazzie, and then tell me that she'd seen Wolf dropping off Diva. I nodded. She then proceded to tell me that Tazzie was 'too white'. All the children SHE knew who had one parent that was white and one that was First Nations looked like the First Nations parent (Tazzie was blonde and blue eyed). She then asked if my husband had any suspicions. :001_huh:

 

Similar thing happened when I was pg with Princess, and we were visiting MIL at her brother's house. Wolf's aunt went on, and on, and ON, questioning why Tazzie was so fair when Wolf was so dark. Wolf explained, several times, that HIS bdad was Norwegian/Swedish, blonde and blue eyed. Then her son came in, and started in saying the exact. same. thing. It wasn't until I offered to explain basic genetics and draw them a Mendelian chart that they finally shut up.

 

MIL sat there smirking at me the entire time. :glare:

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

My Grandmother-IL made sugar cookies for a bake sale, but put fork marks on the top like peanut butter cookies. Many people insisted that they were peanut-butter, and swore they could taste the peanut-butter, even though she was right there telling people that she cooked them and there was no peanut-butter in them. :willy_nilly:

 

 

And I had a similar experience like a pp, but it was an aunt. It was at my 18th birthday party, I had just become engaged to my honey (7 years in October!) and she told my in-laws-to-be that they should just give us a box of condoms and tell us to go at it rather than get married. :glare: (We're conservation Christians, she's not.)

[gardening momma]

This thread is great :)

 

When DD #2 was just a baby we went out to eat. We approached the hostess stand, me carrying DD in the infant carrier. I said, "2 please". She glanced at DH and I and said "and the baby?". Nope....thought we'd leave her at the bar, is that okay?

I've found at restaurants that it's better to count your baby when you say how many people, and ask for a car seat sling or high chair or whatever you need. When you say 2, they think a table for 2, but then they see the child and need to revise that thought to a table for 3.

[LibraryLover]

Shut. Up.

 

Those puppies must be PHENOMENAL! :lol:

 

 

LOL Drunk men playing Craps are never good reporters. :tongue_smilie:

[Julie Smith]

I have a lot of crazy Mother stories. (Not that is my Mother, not my Mother in law)

 

This is the craziest one from strangers. When my youngest was born I got more then once, "He's so cute". then look at him, look at me, back at him... "He doesn't look a thing like you".

 

:confused::glare:

[k2bdeutmeyer]

I've found at restaurants that it's better to count your baby when you say how many people, and ask for a car seat sling or high chair or whatever you need. When you say 2, they think a table for 2, but then they see the child and need to revise that thought to a table for 3.

 

After thinking about it for a minute, I realized this is exactly what she was doing/thinking, but it just sounded funny at the time.

[Birdwinglips]

This women looked at me, laughed, and said, "You must have been busy and not overly picky!"

Tara

 

Holy Freakin' Cow!!! :001_huh:

 

My sister and I have the same parents but are very different shades. She takes after my Mexican father, I look like our Spanish mother. We had so many people ask if we had the same parents growing up. I hated that!!

[k2bdeutmeyer]

I thought of another one. When we found out we were expecting DD, we took a photo of a hotdog bun in our oven and mixed it in with some generic prints of our kids. We handed the stack of photos to DH's grandma and she got to the bun photo and promptly looked up at me and said, "is this your oven?" - to which I replied "yes". She then shook her head and said, "it's kind of dirty" and continued on with the photos. At this point, MIL stops her and says "do you realize what that photo means?" and she says "yeah, you're getting pretty old"!!

 

DH has a spinal cord injury that left him a quadriplegic after the accident, but he has since recovered to a point that he is able to walk with a cane and function fairly normally. When we handed the stack of photos to MIL and FIL and they got to the bun photo, the first thing out of MIL's mouth was not "congrats", a gasp, or anything of the sort. She looked up and said with a sigh, "Oh, I'm just so glad your plumbing works!" LOL!!!

[Julie Smith]

DH has a spinal cord injury that left him a quadriplegic after the accident, but he has since recovered to a point that he is able to walk with a cane and function fairly normally. When we handed the stack of photos to MIL and FIL and they got to the bun photo, the first thing out of MIL's mouth was not "congrats", a gasp, or anything of the sort. She looked up and said with a sigh, "Oh, I'm just so glad your plumbing works!" LOL!!!

 

:)

[Birdwinglips]

One Saturday I was waiting outside the grocery store for DH. We were using the divide & conquer method of errand running. I had done the grocery shopping and he was at the home improvement store a couple blocks away. I had a screaming infant, a tantrum throwing toddler and an older child. A woman approached me and asked me how long I had been homeless and could she take my kids into the store and buy them a treat. Not my finest hour.

 

Amber in SJ

 

This one made me laugh out loud!!!:lol:

[Birdwinglips]

This was a stupid thing I said (unintentionally)

 

I have a child with a disability and worked at a Not for Profit in our last state. One of the requirements of employment was having a child with a disability (to preface).

 

My boss had a son with limb differences (no arms or legs) and we were chatting about a motivational speaker I'd learned about who had the same disability as her son. I had seen this guy's website the day before and was commenting on how EXPENSIVE his videos/books etc. were and I said, 'He charges an arm and a leg for those things!!".

 

About 3 seconds later it hit me what I had just said and I about died. Fortunately she didn't even bat an eye. I apologized a day or so later (after feeling just awful). She had never even thought thought twice about it. She had such a great sense of humor that even after pointing out to her what I'd said, she had to laugh!!

[WeeBeaks]

I have been chuckling here.

 

My MIL has said this one more than once when someone comments on how skinny my kids are when MIL is with us - she looks at them, smiles broadly and proudly states "They take after ME. I have always been sooo petite." She also is fond of looking at new items I'm wearing and asking if they make those in "small" sizes too. Someday I'm going to respond, "No only for us fat people" but don't want to create a war. LOL

[AndyJoy]

My mom and brother are olive-skinned (they tan dark in the summer), dark hair, whereas I am very fair-skinned and strawberry blonde. My dad is fair, blonde hair.

 

When I was in 2nd grade, my teacher sent me down to the office for an errand. The secretary asked me if I was adopted. I was so confused and said no. She said, "are you sure? You don't look like your mom or your brother!" :001_huh:

 

As a little girl, my sister was blonde with dark brown eyes but my parents and I are brunettes. My dad was blond as a child, but you wouldn't guess it from looking at him. She used to get asked if she was adopted ALL THE TIME when she was 5-8 years old. She got so sick of it one time that she burst into fake tears and sobbed something like, "Yes, I am adopted! Why would you bring that up? It hurts to remember my 'real' family." The adult was instantly apologetic and tried to comfort her as she continued sobbing. Then she instantly snapped out of it and said, "I'm not adopted, but that was a rude question!" and walked away.:lol:

[AndyJoy]

In the 1970s when my mom was 20, she was babysitting an African-American infant and took the baby out for a walk. An African-American woman saw her walking by and assumed the baby was hers and started screaming profanities at her and said, "How DARE you steal a good black man you white *bleep*! There aren't enough of them out there! We don't need white women stealing all the good black men!" My mom looked away and kept walking as fast as she could and the woman kept screaming at my mom until she was out of sight.

[TracieT]

I must have blocked this one:

 

When my boys were probably like 6 months and 18 months we were at a restaurant. The waitress was talking to us and talking to the boys. Then she looked at Oliver and said:

 

"Oh! Were Mommy and Daddy trying for a girl?" :001_huh:

[saraha]

A few years ago our family went to one of my husbands family reunions. An aunt of his that I have hardly seen comes up to me. She compliments me on our children (I think we only had 4 at the time) and then says "No wonder he likes to put them babies on you) I nearly died. My husband and his dad thought it was hilarious! Now whenever my husband wants to compliment how I look, he will whisper "No wonder I like to put them babies on you"

[Mom-ninja.]

About my oldest I've been told (repeatedly and by many) that it's too bad he's a boy because he's too gorgeous to be a boy. Like there are no gorgeous men? It was one thing when he was a baby/toddler, but now that he's older and we still hear it while he's standing right there, I get angry.

 

My middle ds has red hair. When he was about 18 months old a woman asked me if I colored his hair that color. :001_huh:

 

My youngest (and oldest actually) have really curly hair. Think Shirley Temple locks. I've been asked if I permed his hair. He was barely one year old at the time.

 

My first two sons don't look anything alike at all. My oldest looks like my side of the family and my second looks like my dh's side. I hear comments all the time about how different they look. I have been asked if they are actual biological brothers and if they have the same father. People have asked this in front of them as well. Just once I want to respond by saying, "You know, I'm not exactly sure."

[HistoryMom]

People are incredible. It's like a random misfiring of synapses.

 

Along the lines of people mistaking a child for a parent or spouse:

 

When I was about 12 or 13, my dad belonged to a flying club affiliated with his university. I had gone with him to the quarterly "plane wash," and his flying instructor started flirting with me while we were working on the same plane, saying that "your husband is a lucky man." What the what?

 

A month later, Dad and Mom came to watch my basketball game, and the a few of the girls on the team wanted to know if he was my boyfriend because he was "so cute!" Um, yuck. Because that makes the most sense out of all the possible scenarios. That I'm dating the bearded 40-year-old man sitting next to my mother.

 

Lastly, from the department of Are You ALL Insane?:

 

I was a waitress at a restaurant with an attached bar when I was in college. Some of the rougher characters nicknamed me "Ivory Baby" because I was pretty young, clearly out of my element, and didn't wear any make-up or do stuff to my hair. Nonetheless, a woman who frequented the bar had the whole place convinced that I was a hooker, and I was forever getting propositioned by the male patrons after that. From a 70-year-old regular: "My wife will be out of town next week." Blank stare. "And I have $50." Oh! Ack! Blech!

[Scarlett]

A few years ago our family went to one of my husbands family reunions. An aunt of his that I have hardly seen comes up to me. She compliments me on our children (I think we only had 4 at the time) and then says "No wonder he likes to put them babies on you) I nearly died. My husband and his dad thought it was hilarious! Now whenever my husband wants to compliment how I look, he will whisper "No wonder I like to put them babies on you"

 

I think that is really sweet....well when your dh says it to you...the aunt saying it was a little over the line...:D

[*********]

When I was riding the bus to work one day, a crazy guy asked me if I wanted any spaghetti, then pulled a baggie full of spaghetti out of his pocket. I declined.

 

See, out of all of the posts in this thead, I really think this is the weirdest. I mean, *who* carries a BAGGIE of SPAGHETTI in their pocket, much less offers it to a stranger on the bus?!

 

The Jackie Onassis one is a close second, though. :001_huh:

[Mom-ninja.]

I thought of another one.

 

I was 24 when I was pg with my oldest. I was about 7 months pg and in line at the ice cream cafe with my younger sister. A woman came up to me and congratulated me for choosing life, handed me her card, and said she knew lots of good couples who would love to adopt my baby. I was stunned and stared at her. Then I told her that I was married and my husband and I had very much planned the pregnancy.

[Danestress]

Maybe they're coming from the opposite POV. Anti-abortion and inserting that into the conversation. Either way, creepy. Pro or anti, it's a private matter.

 

Very pointed anti-abortion agenda. But weird. I mean, who would ask a new mother about her that? I would assume both men were mentally ill and did not engage either of them in a conversation.

[TracieT]

I thought of another one.

 

I was 24 when I was pg with my oldest. I was about 7 months pg and in line at the ice cream cafe with my younger sister. A woman came up to me and congratulated me for choosing life, handed me her card, and said she knew lots of good couples who would love to adopt my baby. I was stunned and stared at her. Then I told her that I was married and my husband and I had very much planned the pregnancy.

 

:001_huh:

[OnTheBrink]

When dd was about a month old or so, I was at Walmart in the baby section. I had dd in her car seat in the seat of the cart, with a blanket over the handle, making a tent. A group of three women and two men approached me, saying, "Can we see the baaaaaaybeeeee? We want to see your baaaaaybeeeeee!" The men both had long beards and wore dark brown work pants and tan work shirts. The woman had long skirts, some sort of calico blouses and kerchiefs on their heads. They definitely looked like they belonged to some sort of religious group. Anyway, I told them no, she was sleeping and they continued to follow me through the baby section. I finally took off almost at a run to find EX and when I turned around to point them out to him, they were gone. Very, very strange and scary!

 

When ds was about 10, he participated in St. Jude bike-a-thon. He'd either raised the most money or something, but he won a prize for whatever it was he'd done. The woman came by our house to drop off his prizes. I'd not met her previously; EX had picked ds from the event. Anyway, she saw me and said, "Oh, is your son adopted?" I said no, he isn't. She just looked at me and said, "Well, he doesn't look like you or your husband!" in an accusatory tone. I said, "Oh, really?" and offered her no further explanation. She continued to stand there, trying to see around me into my house and continued to ask in different ways if Ds is adopted. She just couldn't accept that no, he's not adopted; and no, he doesn't really resemble me or EX. My son's biological father is half black, half Honduran and I'm Scots and German. EX is of German descent, so no, DS wouldn't look like us. She just would not let it go. I finally got Ds's prizes from her and said, "Thanks for bringing these by" and shut the door in her face. My patience for that kind of thing from a perfect stranger is paper-thin.

 

And there are myriad dumb-donkey comments from exmil and exfil. Exmil is a total racist and would make racist comments about Ds whenever she could work them in. She burned a pancake and gave it to DS specifically and said, "Here, you get the DARKIE." She made a point to refer to Brazil nuts as "n***er toes" in his presence. Exfil said, when he found out I was raised in CA, "Better watch out; ever one in Califarnya uses them weegee boards. They're all devil worshipers out there. I know; I was in Califarnya when I was in the navy!" He's also famous for, "If you're at a long stop light, flash your headlights at it and the light will think you're an ambulance!" :001_rolleyes:

[WishboneDawn]

When dd was about a month old or so, I was at Walmart in the baby section. I had dd in her car seat in the seat of the cart, with a blanket over the handle, making a tent. A group of three women and two men approached me, saying, "Can we see the baaaaaaybeeeee? We want to see your baaaaaybeeeeee!" The men both had long beards and wore dark brown work pants and tan work shirts. The woman had long skirts, some sort of calico blouses and kerchiefs on their heads. They definitely looked like they belonged to some sort of religious group. Anyway, I told them no, she was sleeping and they continued to follow me through the baby section. I finally took off almost at a run to find EX and when I turned around to point them out to him, they were gone. Very, very strange and scary!

 

That's sort of funny. :001_smile:I wouldn't have thought it strange but then there are a group of Mennonites who live not too far away from us. They're very much just regular folk and they'd dress pretty much as you describe.

[Kirch]

When I was 4, my mom was visiting a friend. I got bored and took her baby out for a walk in a stroller. Everyone I passed -- everyone! -- glared at me. When I was sitting on a bench at one point, a young woman with a baby came along and smiled at me in a nice way. But I found it almost painful.

 

 

Surely you meant 14, not 4??? If I'd seen you walking with a baby alone at 4, I'd probably have called the police!

[gardening momma]

DH has a spinal cord injury that left him a quadriplegic after the accident, but he has since recovered to a point that he is able to walk with a cane and function fairly normally. When we handed the stack of photos to MIL and FIL and they got to the bun photo, the first thing out of MIL's mouth was not "congrats", a gasp, or anything of the sort. She looked up and said with a sigh, "Oh, I'm just so glad your plumbing works!" LOL!!!

:lol:

[gardening momma]

The adult was instantly apologetic and tried to comfort her as she continued sobbing. Then she instantly snapped out of it and said, "I'm not adopted, but that was a rude question!" and walked away.:lol:

Good for her! :D

[goodgollycr]

When youngest ds was a baby I was approached by a stranger in the WM parking lot. She offered to hold him for me while I put my groceries in the car. :glare: I told her I could manage.

 

When I took my oldest ds to the doctor when he was a few days old the doctor looked at a dimple in his ear and asked me if I'd gotten his ear pierced!

 

Two of my boys are red heads and neither dh nor I are. We get the 'where did the red hair come from?' question all the time!

[Forget-Me-Not]

We get the 'where did the red hair come from?' question all the time!

 

I have two red headed girls I can't count how many times I've had this question asked. Most people are simply complimentary and want to make conversation, but there are a few who almost act like we stole our kids or something!

[Ksol]

 

My middle ds has red hair. When he was about 18 months old a woman asked me if I colored his hair that color. :001_huh:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is ours. My youngest has a unique shade of red hair and we get this question AT LEAST once a week and have since she was born three and a half years ago. The sad part is, when she was an infant, it was closer to 2-3 times a week. As it is now, I get the "where did she get that hair" comment at least every day. sigh. I get that people are being friendly, but why does it matter where she got the hair? Depending on my mood I say

A) Clairol

B) her dad (not true)

C) the truth (but this usually leads to a conversation I am tired of having about explaining genetics to strangers)

D) the mailman (only said this a few times)

[zaichiki]

See, out of all of the posts in this thead, I really think this is the weirdest. I mean, *who* carries a BAGGIE of SPAGHETTI in their pocket, much less offers it to a stranger on the bus?!

 

 

 

I hate to be the one to kill the humor, but -- mentally ill people would do that. And the Jackie O comment? Probably a mentally ill homeless woman.

[Joanne]

That I have the nicest "real" boobs that he's ever seen. :tongue_smilie:

They *are* not surgical, and for a middle aged, overweight mom of 3, pretty nice. How he knew that they haven't had an assist :confused:?

[zaichiki]

I have two red headed girls I can't count how many times I've had this question asked. Most people are simply complimentary and want to make conversation, but there are a few who almost act like we stole our kids or something!

 

I never get asked where dd's red hair comes from, but I do get "She's Irish, isn't she?" a LOT.

 

Actually she is (a little), but the exact shade she has comes from her father, who isn't Irish at all. :lol:

[eternalknot]

Oh the mischief you could have sewn! :D

 

"I'm from China. I came here to adopt one of your abandoned American boys."

 

:lol: Were but I only so quick to think on my feet!

 

I'll file it in Long-Term Memory and wait for the next opportunity to arise. That'll give me time to perfect my deadpan expression LOL.

[gardening momma]

Two of my boys are red heads and neither dh nor I are. We get the 'where did the red hair come from?' question all the time!

 

I have two red headed girls I can't count how many times I've had this question asked. Most people are simply complimentary and want to make conversation, but there are a few who almost act like we stole our kids or something!

I know nothing about the intricacies of redhead genes, but I know that when I see non-redhead parents with a redhead child that it had to come from somewhere up the line (assuming it's a biological child, which I usually do assume). When a parent is a redhead and has a redhead child, I think, "Cool!" 'Cause doesn't the gene usually skip a generation, and you have to have the genes in both parents or something??? (showing my ignorance)

[NatashainDFW]

I don't know how many times we have been told we have such a nice blended family. My son is a dead ringer for his father and looks nothing like me. My daughter on the other hand looks exactly like me with lighter hair. I don't know how many times I have been asked if ds is mine and my husband has been asked if dd is his. I mean I know ds doesn't look just like me but give me the benefit of the doubt especially after he has said mom to me about a half billion times while you stood there.

[Carrie12345]

On the red hair-

 

Ds has been playing baseball with a redhead for 2 years. I usually sit with that boy's mother. Neither she nor her ex are redheads. It never occurred to me to wonder where the red hair came from.

 

*However*, there was a family of redheads who used to come watch a bunch of the games. And we only had that one redhead on the team. It drove this mom and me absolutely crazy, trying to figure out which non-redhead belonged to the redheaded family! ;)

[zaichiki]

I know nothing about the intricacies of redhead genes, but I know that when I see non-redhead parents with a redhead child that it had to come from somewhere up the line (assuming it's a biological child, which I usually do assume). When a parent is a redhead and has a redhead child, I think, "Cool!" 'Cause doesn't the gene usually skip a generation, and you have to have the genes in both parents or something??? (showing my ignorance)

 

There were studies done or something... so in 1997 (am I remembering this correctly?) there was an announcment made that red hair (the allele for phaemelanin that allows red hair) is a recessive gene. I can see that, but I also wonder if there aren't maybe other things going on with some types of red hair...

 

My dh has a rather rare shade of red hair (that has darkened to nearly brown now that he's older). Dd has this exact shade. I can understand that I may carry a recessive gene for phaemelanin, but the exact shade (and the accompanying skin tone) has *got* to come solely from dh. I think there's something dominant going on in this case, too.

[TracieT]

I saw a little girl at McDonald's today with the most BEAUTIFUL shade of red hair I've ever seen. It was long, too. I immediately thought of this thread and kept my mouth shut.:lol: