I have four kids. None of them looks much like me at all. And they don't look like each other either, not really. Yet I know some families where the kids all are like different-aged peas-in-the-pod, each strongly resembling one parent. Which must totally make the other parent feel weirdly left out, like their genes aren't being passed on at all. Julia Roberts is complaining about this, though her genes likely lead to gawky-looking kids who turn into beautiful adults (I read once that most models etc, as kids, looked like their features were too big, but it all evens when they are adults).
But what about you? Who do your kids look like?
Adoptions aside, it seems likely that most kids will resemble one parent or the other, or partly both. But I know some families where the resemblence seems to skip a generation, going back to the grandparents, or to aunts and uncles. Weird stuff, genetics, hey?
I've never felt too badly about my kids not looking like me. My older son is fair like me and I noticed recently that his head is shaped more like his father's, but none of them really look much like either of us except in bits here or there. Part of me says, "So what! he's beautiful!" (he is, and they all are), and part of me says "Who IS this kid?" At any rate, it seems to me that he's more his OWN kid, and headed toward a life independent of either parent.
So do kids and parents derive some of their identity about one another from appearance? In other words, do kids who strongly resemble one parent or another also identify more strongly with that parent?
So, again, who do YOUR kids look like?
Photo: k92fm.com
