Smart answers to stupid questions......another spinoff

[Remudamom]

Here's my favorite.

 

"Oh, are your boys identical twins??" "No, they're identical strangers!"

 

Okay, I (mostly) wouldn't say this to (most) folks, but I think it every time.

[Mrs Mungo]

Here's my favorite.

 

"Oh, are your boys identical twins??" "No, they're identical strangers!"

 

Okay, I (mostly) wouldn't say this to (most) folks, but I think it every time.

 

Well..people used to ask if my sister and I were twins all the time because we look alike and I was always petite but we're over 2 years apart.

[gandpsmommy]

Here's my favorite.

 

"Oh, are your boys identical twins??" "No, they're identical strangers!"

 

Okay, I (mostly) wouldn't say this to (most) folks, but I think it every time.

 

Well, I have both an identical twin sister, and a sister who is 2.5 years older than we are. When we were growing up, people often asked, "Are you all three twins?" I was always polite in answering, but I felt like saying, "No, that would be triplets!"

[cin]

I have a 3 yr old and a 6 yr old. And I have been asked if they are twins, um yeah, and I don't feed one. Then there is the classic that ALWAYS irks me: Are they sisters? Let's see, I'm their mom and he's their dad. Yup, that makes them sisters. (OK, they ARE adopted but that is just SO rude!!!)

[Jean in Newcastle]

My son is Eurasian (black hair, milk chocolate skin tone, brown eyes). My friend's son is Russian (very blond hair, very pale skine tone, blue eyes). I had the boys at the park on day on a playdate and someone asks me, "Are they twins?" :confused::confused: "Ummm. No."

[TXMomof4]

I have a friend that has adopted 2 children. They are 2 years apart, but the little boy is tiny so they look about the same age, just very different in coloring, features, etc. Someone at church asked her if they were both hers because they look so different, but so close to the same age.

 

Her response, "Yes, they just have different fathers."

 

She didn't clarify that they have different mothers also. :lol:

[Jenny in Atl]

My youngest has diabetes... often when strangers find this out they ask how could such a young and skinny kid get that. I always have to explain that she has type-1 not type-2. Even if she did have type-2, the question is always insulting at best. Not sure there is a funny (smart) answer to it. :confused:

[Jeannie in NJ]

my dc are adopted and I often get asked "Are they REAL brother and sister"? I say yes, they are brother and sister and then the question will be "No, I mean are they REAL brother and sister, like back in Korea" I just keep giving my orginal answer, even tho I really want to say "IT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS"

[Colleen]

Here's my favorite. "Oh, are your boys identical twins??" "No, they're identical strangers!"

 

Call me crazy ("Craz-y!!!":tongue_smilie:), but I don't consider it a stupid question. I've known twins who look pretty darn similar yet are fraternal, not identical. And my best friends, growing up, are identical twins. So I might ask the question simply out of curiousity ~ fraternal or identical? One doesn't necessarily know by appearances.

[Scarlett]

I have a 3 yr old and a 6 yr old. And I have been asked if they are twins, um yeah, and I don't feed one. Then there is the classic that ALWAYS irks me: Are they sisters? Let's see, I'm their mom and he's their dad. Yup, that makes them sisters. (OK, they ARE adopted but that is just SO rude!!!)

 

Yeah, but...how do they know you are the mom and he is the dad? Ds has a friend who is 12 days older than him and I've been asked dozens of times if they are brother and sister. Never thought to be offended by the question. :confused::confused:

[Lolly]

My son is Eurasian (black hair, milk chocolate skin tone, brown eyes). My friend's son is Russian (very blond hair, very pale skine tone, blue eyes). I had the boys at the park on day on a playdate and someone asks me, "Are they twins?" :confused::confused: "Ummm. No."

 

They are fraternal twins. One has darker skin, dark hair, brown eyes. The other has milky white skin, almost white blond hair, and blue eyes. Same mom. Same dad (twins have been born who have different fathers). Just two totally different looking kids!

[RoughCollie]

I have fraternal triplet boys who do not look alike, yet people ask me if they are identical and how I tell them apart. Methinks they need either a dictionary or spectacles.

 

I also get asked if one of the boys and DD are identical twins. She has waist-length hair and definitely does not look like a boy, nor does he look like a girl, nor do they look like one another. These folks need dictionaries, too.

 

Then there are the folks who think I have triplets, which group includes DD, but leaves out one of the boys.

 

Then there are the people who think I have 2 sets of twins, in various arrangements.

 

Then there are the folks who think I have quadruplets. This was a big pain in the you-know-what when the kids were small because large crowds would gather around us when we were in public, and people would shout questions at us, like we were on a talk show. They did that when we just had the boys, too, but it got even worse when DD came along, after she learned how to walk.

 

I also get asked if they are all my kids. There are only 4 of them, for heaven's sake!

 

And I get asked the really stupid questions like, "Which one is the smart one?". To which I would like to say, "It obviously isn't YOU."

[Lisa in Jax]

Referring to my ds and dd (adopted from India): "Are they *real* brother and sister?"

 

No, they're imaginary...

 

Or, the people who say, "What happened to their *real* mom?"

 

I *am* real!

 

UGH.

[SheilaZ]

I get a stupid twin question.

My youngest two are two years apart but they look very similar. I expect people to ask if they are twins. They do look like twins.

 

But when I tell the people that the boys are acutally 2 years apart, I am always amazed when they ask...."Are you sure?"

 

I respond, "Yes....I distinctly remember being pregnant twice."

[Storm Bay]

 

Call me crazy ("Craz-y!!!":tongue_smilie:), but I don't consider it a stupid question. I've known twins who look pretty darn similar yet are fraternal, not identical. And my best friends, growing up, are identical twins. So I might ask the question simply out of curiousity ~ fraternal or identical? One doesn't necessarily know by appearances.

 

:iagree: I've known non-twin siblings who looked more alike than some identical twins I've met. I try not to ask the question anymore, since reading threads like these, but sometimes it's hard to tell. My way around it now is just to ask how old the kids are. But some parents of twins look at me like I should have known they were twins, but if they're fraternal, you can't always tell.

 

As for looking a lot alike, some of that has to do with family body language, mannerisms, etc. My sister is 4 inches shorter than me (but was a full head shorter than me when we were kids, even though we're only a year and a half apart) and we're built totally different from the neck down, plus have different features, but I can't tell you how many times we've had people mix us up.

[Brigitte]

I get that question and my girls are twins. When I say reply that they are twins, people will then ask if they are identical....Umm, you just thought that they looked so different that they can't even be sisters, and now you think they look so much alike that they could be identical. Ooookay.

[Oak Knoll Mom]

I have a friend that has adopted 2 children. They are 2 years apart, but the little boy is tiny so they look about the same age, just very different in coloring, features, etc. Someone at church asked her if they were both hers because they look so different, but so close to the same age.

 

Her response, "Yes, they just have different fathers."

 

She didn't clarify that they have different mothers also. :lol:

 

I have a friend who is very pale, but has very dark hair. She and her dh adopted a boy from Guatemala. With her hair coloring, he looks like he *could* be her bio kid, especially if his dad were Hispanic. So, when people ask her if his dad is Hispanic, she responds, "I think so." :lol: She gets a lot of raised eyebrows.

[Laura Corin]

In China I get the twin question, even though there is 3 1/2 years between my boys and almost ten inches in height. In this case, I assume it's just that siblings are so rare, unless they are twins, that this is an unthinking assumption.

 

Laura

[Elaine]

I have a friend that has adopted 2 children. They are 2 years apart, but the little boy is tiny so they look about the same age, just very different in coloring, features, etc. Someone at church asked her if they were both hers because they look so different, but so close to the same age.

 

Her response, "Yes, they just have different fathers."

 

She didn't clarify that they have different mothers also. :lol:

 

Very funny!:lol:

[Aubrey]

I also get asked if they are all my kids. There are only 4 of them, for heaven's sake!

 

I was asked today at the store if I was a professional nanny.

 

"Wait. These are ALL yours????"

 

I have 3.

[Brindee]

I shared this somewhere else, but....My cousin will say about her adopted son, "I adopted him from Belize when he was 6 days old." People will then ask her, "Does he speak English?":001_huh: :001_smile:

[Tap]

Just recently I had someone comment that my baby looked so much like me :D

 

Verry sweet, except my baby is my foster daughter who is Native American with a stocky build (30+lb 20mo), very dark curly hair, rich chocolate brown almond shaped eyes, and a dark completion. She is very pretty. I have had a lot of people ask if she is of Asian decent, especially because of her eyes and warm skin tone.

 

I am Norwegian: blond, very light completion, round blue eyes and thin build :)

 

We are related by a 16th but there is absolutely nothing that we share in common in looks.

 

This person also knows my other children who are also light blond, and blue eyed. She has also seen my husband. The German father with blond hair, light complexion and green eyes.

 

Sometimes it makes you wonder how much we say on 'auto pilot' instead of actually thinking about what we are saying.

[RoughCollie]

We have lived next door to the same family since the boys were a year old, and since I was 9 mos. pregnant with DD.

 

They never talked to us, but we were kind of hard to miss with 4 toddlers.

 

Fast forward 5 years, and the neighbors came outside when lightning hit the house on the other side of us and the fire department came (in the end, there was no fire).

 

We talked for the first time. All those years, they thought I was running a day care center! Even though they have 4 kids of their own (in college, living at home, closely spaced in age, including a set of twins).

 

I was asked today at the store if I was a professional nanny.

 

"Wait. These are ALL yours????"

 

I have 3.

[TravelingChris]

I just never understand why people ask such stupid and/or rude things. We are a military family so we move around a lot. I never ask people about the children in the family trying to ascertain parents, adoptions, twinness, or anything like that. If the people in question and I become at least acqaintances, after a while they generally slip in that so and so is adopted, from a former marriage, is an identical or fraternal twin, or whatever. I feel that this is personal information and why should I inquire just to feed curiosity? I have a friend I met in one base who when I first met her, I thought she had maybe one adopted (because the child looked very different from her husband and her) but that four others were their biological children. It turned out that all five were adopted although the youngest four shared a mother and some shared a father between them. The parents had two older children who were out of the house who were their biological children. What difference did it make? Well, until I was a friend, I had no business knowing. Once a friend, it helped clear up some things and I was able to help give her support. They had adopted the sibling group only two years prior to my knowing them so they were still adjusting when I met them.

[Quiver0f10]

My 5 and 3 year olds are the same weight and height and both have red hair so we get asked that alot too.

 

Recently we brought our 8 yo to the Dr and we took the 3 and 5 yo with us. As we were leaving, DH had my 5 yo's hand, I had my 3yo's and our 8 yo was walking along side. Some woman smiled at us and told us we had our hands full. DH and I just grinned at each other and kept walking. If she only knew :)

[Brigitte]

My way around it now is just to ask how old the kids are. But some parents of twins look at me like I should have known they were twins, but if they're fraternal, you can't always tell.

 

 

 

My twins look nothing alike, at least to me. One has dark hair, olive complexion, is "solidly" built. The other is fair skinned, blond hair, and has a wispy build. There is about 1.5 inches difference in height and 10 lbs difference in weight between them. So, I frequently get the question what is the difference in their age (not how old are they), which I think is a funny question, to which I reply "10 minutes." That gets some puzzled looks. Usually they think I said 10 months, so they reply "Wow, that is close." And I say "Not for twins." Then the light goes on in their heads and they realize that I said minutes and not months. It's a good chuckle moment.

[TwinMominTX]

One has blonde curly hair and the other deep red hair.

 

I've been asked all of the following (repeatedly):

 

Why don't they look the same?

Wow, they look exactly the same, how do you tell them apart?

 

Are they twins?

Who's older?

 

Why does she have red hair?

Why does she have curly hair?

 

I think goofy comments go hand in hand with multiples.

[runamuk]

We have 3 children, two girls and a boy. While I was pregnant with our third, we'd be out somewhere as a family and I'd be asked if, since we had two girls already, we were hoping for a boy this time. I got tired of hearing this and started answering with "No, we're really hoping for a pony."

 

I get a lot of questions regarding the spacing of our children (our oldest is 18, our middle child is 8 and our youngest is 4), like did I plan it that way, why did we wait so long between children, or why did we have another child after we were halfway done raising the first one.

[WTMindy]

People ask all the time(more when they were younger) if my kids are twins (girl and boy 18 months apart). But, they never wonder if they are identical.;)

[PiCO]

My son is Eurasian (black hair, milk chocolate skin tone, brown eyes). My friend's son is Russian (very blond hair, very pale skine tone, blue eyes). I had the boys at the park on day on a playdate and someone asks me, "Are they twins?" :confused::confused: "Ummm. No."

 

My very blond dd has a friend who is half Japanese. He is about 18 mos younger, but they have been the same height since dd was 4 or 5. When I have them at the park, I have had people ask if they are twins.:confused: Sure, they're identical!

[Storm Bay]

One has blonde curly hair and the other deep red hair.

 

I've been asked all of the following (repeatedly):

 

Why don't they look the same?

Wow, they look exactly the same, how do you tell them apart?

 

Are they twins?

Who's older?

 

Why does she have red hair?

Why does she have curly hair?

 

I think goofy comments go hand in hand with multiples.

 

I'm having so much fun with this thread. This gave me one of the best laughs so far. No twins in our family, but I do have 2 adopted brothers and grew up playing with a set of super-identical twins who dressed alike (but I could easily tell them apart because I knew them.)