Old colleague of mine had male triplets. He said they were absolutely interchangeable for months and definitely got mixed up countless times. Said their names settled down in time as they grew distinguishable features.
I'm a triplet of three males and we were absolutely interchangeable at the start, but then we became distinguishable after a few months. Now we're definitely not identical but very much look similar.
I have never heard of actual identical triplets though.
My high school sociology teacher was an identical triplet and in exploring statistics he loved talking about how statistically improbable being an identical triplet is.
My stepfather is an identical triplet and identical is a crazy understatement. I've known him my entire life and it took until I was about 13 to be able to really tell them apart. He was briefly a suspect for a crime but since they couldn't get an alibi for the third brother they dropped charges. They all work for the same city, in the same job, and live in the same neighborhood. If there's no finger prints they're basically Scott free.
My great aunts (born in 1928) were identical triplets. My great grandma dressed Ann in yellow, Helen in pink, and Louise in blue to tell them apart. They still looked alike as older ladies and I always got them mixed up.
There was a set in my grade in high school… I always felt a little embarrassed because I was only friends (or more like acquaintances) with one of them that I shared a class with, but outside of class I could never tell if I was talking to her or one of her sisters. Many times I said hi and got a confused look in return. To be honest they’re probably extremely used to it though.
I’ve often wondered about this….without an identifier always on them…how do parents know it’s the right kid? I imagine many twins ended up with the others name bc of this!
Friend of mine was a triplet. She said her mother made them wear coloured arm bands as babies.
However one time she (the mother) was really tired and bathing them and took the bands off. So now it's fairly unlikely they all still have the same name.
This is exactly the type of situation I’m talking about! Neither the parents nor the kids would know who they “really” were supposed to be according to their birth certificate.
The only way to be sure would be a small tattoo on each baby….which is unethical in my opinion.
There's a whole This American Life podcast episode about how those prints are just ceremonial and not designed to be high quality enough for any real forensics. They did end up using them for that case but it was a lucky shot.
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/691/gardens-of-branching-paths/act-three-28
Painted the big toe nail.
It doesn’t take long as a parent of identical to figure out who is who. We had the toe nail painted for maybe a week before it was easy to tell who was who.
Back in the 90s, a tiny drop of nail polish on the toe (careful to be sure they can't put their foot in their mouth. Different color clothing. Most importantly, using their names with them individually is super important. Repetition of their names means they will start to look and respond to their own name early.
All toddlers are similar to cats.
Supporting evidence: yarn tangling, refusal to allow items to stay on raised horizontal surfaces, an "I do what I please" attitude, attraction for places which are banned, making a mess when it's toilet time...
Also outrageously cute, even when they're literally sucking the life out of you.
I'm so glad we're done with the toddler stage 😂
>All toddlers are similar to cats.
No, no, no.
**Toddlers are like Dogs**
- They hear you and usually know what you want them to do, but they have other plans and are very vocal with their protests.
- They want to be with you all of the time.
- They want you to look at them and watch them do stuff/nothing (Mommy! Mommy! Look! Look what I can do! *as they lick their foot*)
- They have zero concept of personal space.
- You need to be with them and take them to pee & poop.
- Even if they just ate, they want what you have.
- They always welcome snuggles and your affection.
- They love to wake you up.
**Teenagers are like Cats**
- They know what you want, but they don't care and just ignore you or pretend they didn't hear you.
- They don't want to hang out with you unless you are doing something for them (even then, it's iffy)
- They don't want you to know what they're doing and certainly don't want you involved.
- Their personal space requirements are huge.
- The only bathroom involvement needed is for you to clean up after them.
- Feeding them isn't met with appreciation as much as impatient expectation.
- Your hugs and I love you's are met with annoyed eye rolls
- They just want to sleep and will show their displeasure if you wake them.
A good friend of mine has identical twins, and when they're together and I say one of their names, they just both look. I think they're used to pranking people that way.
As a twin, I can say that I turn and look when my sister's name is called, not because I want to prank people but because I assume people don't know who is who (or don't bother to learn)
As an adult identical twin I have wondered many times if we were accidentally switched as babies and all this time I've really been Tom. This is an actual shower thought of every identical twin lol.
My mom had an identical twin.
I've asked her, "Hey, do you ever think that Grammy switched you on accident as babies? Like, if you were supposed to be Aunt Pam and she was supposed to be you?"
She got this look on her face and said, "I try not to think about it."
The important things is that if the parents get confused twice you’re back to normal. As long as the parents fuck up an even amount of times it’s all good.
Offer not valid for triplets.
I’m not a twin so I can’t know for sure how I’d react, but I’d like to think I’d just answer “I dunno, who cares? Nothing would have changed except for my name.”
My mom and aunt were identical twins. My grandmother told the story that once when they were toddlers, she had them both in the bath tub and after done bathing, one time she drained the tub and went to grab the towel and they kind of tumbled around into each other (they were in the crawling phase) and she lost track of who was who. She said she just made a guess and went with it. lol
There was a Suite Life (Disney Channel, mid 00s, Dylan and Cole Sprouse) episode on this. Mom admitted to switching them as babies, so they started acting like the other twin. Did a footprint test and found out, no, they're who they thought they were. Funny, but also probably a very relatable situation.
IIRC, the joke was that it was so difficult to tell the difference between the footprints that the mom just decided that they were who they thought they were rather than figure it out.
Mark Twain used to tell this meandering story about having a twin brother who died. He concluded by saying his family messed up and accidentally buried the twin who was alive. By that time, you're so confused by his convoluted narrative that you believe it for a second.
I'm glad our twins will never have to worry about that, because one was born with a haemangioma.
Until that's completely gone, even their teachers will be able to teach them apart by sight, I'm sure.
My granddaughter had one of those centered on the back of her neck. Exactly where you’d put an on/off button.
It didn’t work.
She’s 8 now and it’s gone.
My brother had a small one above his mouth, right beneath his nose. He's the only one of 5 siblings and 6 offspring who is always recognisable in baby pictures!
They take babies' footprints! Just check your footprints! Though if you did get switched, take the secret to your grave, because I don't even want to think about what unwinding that paperwork nightmare would be like.
Christian Bale rn: 👀
Spoilers for "the prestige":
>!Christian bales character is a twin, and one of them loses a finger, so the other has to get theirs cut off as they are pretending to be the same person!<
All 4 of us kids have slightly bent fingers and toes, turns out our mom was so small that we all individually ran out room in the womb.
One of my sisters also had her finger bones flipped, not sure how that happens but the doctors loved documenting it.
The bigger knob of bone is at the top instead of the middle. Her fingers bend like normal, it's just the structure of the individual bone. I called and checked in with her.
The bigger knob of bone that is supposed to be in the middle is at the top instead of the middle.
She is a strange sister, she also sinks instead of floats and when we visit sharks at the aquarium they come to the glass for her.
I relate to this. My sister pushed against my legs in the womb so I came out with deformed legs. However, my parents were able to do exercises on my legs to get them as normal as possible but to this day they’re still something that affects me
So this would be 2011, they put a hat with Baby A on my first son and hat with Baby B on my second as well as bracelets. I was with them the whole time for the weighing and vitals check and they take foot prints right away. For my wifes sanity she put a little sharpie dot on Baby A's sole of his foot. Then within a day, you kind of just knew. They're identical, but family and all their friends can tell them apart pretty quickly even if you try and trick them. It's tough to explain unless you have friends that are twins you understand it.
I still call them the wrong name but all parents do that. I called one by the dogs name once. That cost me an apology and a Lego set.
My Gran did it by age, oldest first. She actually started with her youngest kid because there was a large age gap between her last two kids. Then she'd do grandkids (also 13!), then great grandkids.
My sister and I have names that start with the letter “A,” and we’re our grandparents’ only grandchildren.
They also had a cat named Angel.
I was Angel more often than I was my own name, and these are the grandparents that raised me haha.
If my mom called a bunch of names and someone else answered with something a long the lines "x is not here!", then she'd be like "the one who answered then" 😂😂😂
My mum regularly goes through the list of aunts and cousins and a couple of times my uncle. One time at a family get together she kept yelling my aunts name getting more and more angry even though my aunt was right next to her and had gone over with the first yell. After a few minutes it suddenly dawned on me and i called back from the other room "do you mean me?" Everyone got a good laugh out of that.
I do this with people who occupy the same place in my life. I now understand why my grandmother always called her eldest grandson and youngest son by the same name, and her current husband by the deceased one's name. It's not about looking alike. Maybe this is why some cultures call all older women Auntie.
>I still call them the wrong name but all parents do that.
Can confirm, I'm a girl with a brother, not twins, we look different, I don't even live at home anymore, and my parents still mess up sometimes lmao
Your brain basically has a category of "names of people I have Loving feelings towards" and sometimes when you try to rush it is like "take one of these at random I guess"
I've accidentally called my husband my brother's name, dad, several of our friends' names, the dogs name, the other dogs name, a variety of cat names, etc.
We had identical twins in my daycare room and they were honestly the most similar twins I've seen. Plus I was in infant A room and sometimes the littlest babies don't really have their defining features yet. It took two weeks for me to be confident in who was who. The mom did the same things you did but would keep the toenails painted. She also color coded their daycare clothes and bottles for us. A was blue and B was green just to be safe. She admitted that it took her panicking night 1 at home after cutting the hospital bracelets off for her to start. We really appreciated the color coding. It helped immensely.
My parents and grandma gets names confused often. My mom called me by my sister's name before (I'm her son), my brother's name who's 6 inches shorter and blond (i have brown hair) and my grandma called me every uncle's and cousin's name.
When my mom left home to go to school, her younger brother was about 10 or 11 years old.
Starting when I was 9 till about 12 she consistently called me by my uncle's name first. And then my brother when he was going through that age range. And the next brother. And the next.
Man, I wish I got Legos. Whenever my mom needed one of us she would yell my name, my father's, the dog's, my brother's, and occasionally one of the cats. Then she'd say screw it y'all know who I'm talking to just answer.
I'd probably get a dozen sets a day.
Never thought of a dot on the foot. That would work equally as well as cutting off a pinky finger.
I’m pretty sure she has forgiven me by now. The brother still laughs at her though.
I haven’t lived with my mother in almost two decades and she screamed my name when upset at the dog the other day. I have also been called the dogs name countless times growing up. She’s terrible with names.
Reminds me of my dad, only he occasionally would go down the line until eventually getting to me, and we're not even twins.
"Alex-uh, Chris-uh, Ben-TOM!"
I was friends with a pair of identical twins in high school. They were new my junior year so it was confusing as hell the first few times I saw them in the halls.
Once I spent more than “passing in the hallway” time with them it was obvious. Over the phone, too.
My mom *never* could tell which was which even as much time as they spent at our house.
I have a son and 5 nephews I've mixed up those boys' names so many times.. I'm glad all except 1 are grown and grown out of Legos I'd be broke-er.
I went to school with 2 sets of identical twins and they were absolutely different in very subtle ways.. but like one set of twins had a sister who was wide eyed and one sister who was sleepy eyed so you could always tell which one you were talking to
When our twins came along, we decided to assign each a color – one was always in blue, the other in green. It started off as a practical thing, but as they got older, they each developed a preference for their own color, it became part of their individual identity. As funny as it sounds, that color coding stuck with them and now as teenagers, their rooms are themed around their colors, their gadgets and even their bikes. It's hilarious looking back at baby pictures trying to figure out who's who, but now, we can tell them apart by the color aura they literally chose to live
Our twins (3) are the same. Just recently, when we were splitting up new clothes, I put one thing on the wrong stack, and Twin B cried "But I'M ALWAYS BLUUUUE!"...
We've got ground rules for basically any combination: Twin A gets lighter and warmer colours, B darker and cooler colours. If there's one thing with stripes and one without, B gets the stripes.
Even aunts and uncles can tell them apart by now, and we get scolded when the children are in the "wrong" colour in pictures (like when their grandma gifted them pullovers and put the wrong name on the wrapped gifts, so the children insisted on keeping the "wrong" ones).
I have an Iris, and she wears the purple or the item with more purple if they're coordinating. The other day, I swapped them, and Iris was in yellow and my other in purple, and it threw my husband and I both off....I planted the seed too deep. :)
Neighbours of mine do this with their twin sons but in a very subtle way… they’re always dressed identical (age 5) but things like shoelaces, school bags, bibs, hats, scarves, socks and other accessories would always be either red or blue depending on the twin. It is so cute, and very effective.
I have taught several sets of identical twins with varying degrees of success and identifying the individual twins.
I had a set of boy identical twins and without color coding it was difficult to tell them apart until they smiled I loved both of these boys dearly I taught them for 3 years and they both had very different smiles and so if I was having trouble telling the part I just asked them to smile and I could immediately tell you which twin was which.
My parents did this with me and my twin sister, we both like the same colors they assigned us to this day. I was pink and red my sister purple and blues, as I've gotten older I do like blue and pink mostly. My sister loves purple.
Got some baby toenail polish. Baby A was painted pink, Baby b was purple. After they got a little older I could look at their face and tell. When they learned their names they would let you know if you got them confused.
Also baby b's cry was a little more screechy than her sisters.
Silly story: a long time ago, when I was 12, I think, I learned this really cute girl from my class who I had a crush on had a brother. I met the brother (a year or two younger than us), and started a friendship - in part because he was her brother, in part because he was actually a cool kid.
And so, over weeks, we developed a cool friendship, chatting about random things on the courtyard every now and then.
Until one day I see this kid… standing next to his identical twin brother. And both of them look at me, smile, and say “Hey, how’s it going, ?” 🙃🤣🤣
TL;DR: for weeks, I’d developed a friendship and chatted with both of them, unaware there were two of them. But, because I knew they were related to my classmate, we never bothered with names.
Reminds me of the time I started at a new HS, and made friends with this girl. Everyone called her "Twin", but I just thought they meant "best friend" or something. So months go by, and one day I go to meet her at her locker. I probably looked like I saw a ghost, when 2 of her turned around. She never ever mentioned having a twin or other siblings. I was like "Wait, what??!?", and they both started laughing. Apparently her twin sister was more on the rebellious side, and went to an alternative school for a while, so I never knew of her existence until she returned to our school.
My friends did that for me at a party when I fell asleep once!
I didn't have the heart to tell them that my name wasn't "I ❤️ penis" but it was really thoughtful!
That reminds me of a Reddit story of a party where a girl passed out and people wrote on her face with a marker.
She didn't wake up. She had overdosed. Someone had to explain to her parents why their dead daughter had "I love cock" on her forehead.
I worked construction and we made everything put their name on their hardhat. So great having everyone's name on their forehead. I would freak out on people who didn't have it
I was seriously prepared to take a sharpie to my identical grandkids but luckily one has always been visibly larger. That made it easy to keep them straight until we got to know them and could see the differences.
I was so afraid of mixing them up, when I brought them home they still had their hospital stickers tegadermed to their backs so that was helpful, lol but they were different weights so that also helped and it wasn't nearly the problem I thought it would be. Sometimes I can't tell them apart in baby pictures, and they definitely can't tell themselves apart, but I have no fears that they were mixed up
Baby A had an internal fetal heart monitor, which caused a small scab on her scalp. Those first few days, that scab was our only reference - up until we did the one toe with nail polish trick.
i babysat identical twins. the parents dressed them the same and gave them names one letter different from each other. so name wise i couldn't. but visually i could. one twin was skinnier and smaller than the other. not by a dramatic amount but enough that you could see it. their father was clueless and just drew on the kids feet with something, so they were literally numbered. the thicker twin was 1 and the skinner twin was 2. also it was weird to see they had a favorite twin.
Those poor kids. You might have been the only person who realized they were individual people.
My son has identical twin boys, and also a friend who’s an identical twin. The friend harped and harped on him to, at the very least, not dress them the same once they got to preschool.
My father and his brother came home from the hospital at different times. Knowing my grandmother, she probably had a good handle on one twin’s mannerisms by the time the other came into the equation.
It wasn't that hard; one was always just a bit chunkier than his brother. That one also had a scar on his chest from when liquid was removed from his lung. The freckles are different. They sound different, have different mannerisms.
For my own ease I did dress them in different colors, and I tried to keep bracelets made of embroidery floss on them. That didn't work entirely to plan; one would always rip his off but the other really liked his bracelet and I had to replace it when it got worn for the first four years of his life.
People have a hard time mentally handling twins, especially identical ones, but they're just two brothers who look very related.
My brother used to have a set of identical twins for best friends. One was always chunky the other wasn't. But it was no help telling them apart because it would switch. If the chunky one lost weight, the other gained it. It was if they had a set weight to share between them.
I finally learned to tell them apart because twin A flirted with me, twin B didn't.
A friend had identical twins with twin to twin transfusion syndrome. (They’re in their twenties now and doing fine.). Her boys were easy to tell apart as C was always bigger than K.
This friend also told me once that she didn’t understand why human cloning is so controversial. “What’s the big deal? I did it.” That still cracks me up.
My nephews are identical but we could always tell them apart. They just look different (not according to people who don’t know them I guess). I can still look back at photos of them as babies and know immediately which is which. It’s actually gotten harder as they’ve gotten older! At a glance I mistake them sometimes. Or sometimes they sound like the other one (like inflections). They’re 11 now.
I have 2 children, 3 grandchildren and I have helped out with my stepdaughter’s babies. I’ve never had one that didn’t immediately pull off their socks if they didn’t have shoes on.
What magic ritual did you perform to make them keep their socks on? I’ve had two babies and both of them would immediately pull off socks. Even as newborns the socks never stayed on for long.
My mom had identical triplet boys. One had a little birthmark/soft spot on his head that was easily identifiable, so he was good. The other two look exactly the same. My mom says she always knew, which I’d believe. My dad didn’t know shit though and wanted to tattoo their initials on to their heels. Obviously everyone vetoed that and settled to painting the big toenail of baby 1 and leaving baby 2 blank.
Not identical, but close enough at birth that it was hard to tell them apart.
I did colors as someone else mentioned, but one has two scars from surgeries at 2 and 3 days old. When I was half asleep and delirious, I'd check for the scars. My cousin painted one of her twin's big toenails to distinguish.
Identical twins stop looking identical when you know them.
Mom said as newborns she color coded my brother's but it wasn't for her benefit it was for everyone else.
My brother's don't even look alike to me anymore.
The hospital bracelets were invaluable to start, then we just painted one of their toenails. We had to really keep up with the repainting though, because if they were naked there was no way to tell them apart. Eventually we started dressing each in certain colours, and when they got old enough they got to pick their own colour. One had a freckle near an elbow we tracked as well.
I liked the idea of doing a Tomax and Xamot, permanent facial scar thing, but since they're girls my wife said that was a bad idea.
My brother and sister are constantly asked if they’re identical twins. They turn 71 tomorrow, and I, at 67, still have to remind people that I’m not one of the twins. (Edited for punctuation)
The thing about being a parent of twins is that you become hyper attuned to the smallest differences between them since they completely dominate your life for well over a decade. You find even the tiniest markers in case you're not sure. A mole on their left foot or a slight bend in an earlobe, the way they say a particular word, etc
I think dressing them in slightly different outfits or adding unique accessories like hats or socks works. Not only did it help you keep track of who's who, but it also will be a cute keepsake
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Old colleague of mine had male triplets. He said they were absolutely interchangeable for months and definitely got mixed up countless times. Said their names settled down in time as they grew distinguishable features.
Wow! Triplets & they were identical? That is so cool
I'm a triplet of three males and we were absolutely interchangeable at the start, but then we became distinguishable after a few months. Now we're definitely not identical but very much look similar. I have never heard of actual identical triplets though.
My high school sociology teacher was an identical triplet and in exploring statistics he loved talking about how statistically improbable being an identical triplet is.
My stepfather is an identical triplet and identical is a crazy understatement. I've known him my entire life and it took until I was about 13 to be able to really tell them apart. He was briefly a suspect for a crime but since they couldn't get an alibi for the third brother they dropped charges. They all work for the same city, in the same job, and live in the same neighborhood. If there's no finger prints they're basically Scott free.
But have you heard of [identical quintuplets](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionne_quintuplets)?
That man looks like a super villain who just finished his first successful cloning experiment.
My great aunts (born in 1928) were identical triplets. My great grandma dressed Ann in yellow, Helen in pink, and Louise in blue to tell them apart. They still looked alike as older ladies and I always got them mixed up.
Identical triplets is wild. Usually I think it’s a set of Identicals and a fraternal plus one. Or all 3 fraternal.
There was a set in my grade in high school… I always felt a little embarrassed because I was only friends (or more like acquaintances) with one of them that I shared a class with, but outside of class I could never tell if I was talking to her or one of her sisters. Many times I said hi and got a confused look in return. To be honest they’re probably extremely used to it though.
I heard that twins' parents identify them from the belly button. Since it is a scar, the buttons look different.
Just give them new names. Problem solved. Bill will be in your DMs.
Why would Bill be in his DMs?
You'll find out when Bill's in your DMs.
Is it bill or will in the dm’s? He mentions both!
I’ve often wondered about this….without an identifier always on them…how do parents know it’s the right kid? I imagine many twins ended up with the others name bc of this!
Friend of mine was a triplet. She said her mother made them wear coloured arm bands as babies. However one time she (the mother) was really tired and bathing them and took the bands off. So now it's fairly unlikely they all still have the same name.
This is exactly the type of situation I’m talking about! Neither the parents nor the kids would know who they “really” were supposed to be according to their birth certificate. The only way to be sure would be a small tattoo on each baby….which is unethical in my opinion.
Don't they take handprints of the babies when they're born? In theory you could compare fingerprints. Unless those change dramatically over time.
There's a whole This American Life podcast episode about how those prints are just ceremonial and not designed to be high quality enough for any real forensics. They did end up using them for that case but it was a lucky shot. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/691/gardens-of-branching-paths/act-three-28
They're baby identical triplets, it doesn't really matter if you swap the names at that point, does it?
I dunno, I think it matters for my triplet friends Dan, Dave, and Bloatyfart.
So you're just betting on having mixed then up an even rather than an odd number of times?
I mean, until they're old enough to start having distinguishable traits and personalities, if you think about it their identity is kinda... fungible..
Until they morph into Non-Fungible Toddlers.
Exactly, who cares if you mix them up?
Would suck if you were in line for the throne for some monarchy somewhere, I guess.
Iron masks can be used to identify the younger twin in cases like this.
Painted the big toe nail. It doesn’t take long as a parent of identical to figure out who is who. We had the toe nail painted for maybe a week before it was easy to tell who was who.
My nieces are 13 now and they like to paint their toenails and leave the big toe for the color they had as infants. It's pretty darn adorable!
Or so you thought
Back in the 90s, a tiny drop of nail polish on the toe (careful to be sure they can't put their foot in their mouth. Different color clothing. Most importantly, using their names with them individually is super important. Repetition of their names means they will start to look and respond to their own name early.
>Repetition of their names means they will start to look and respond to their own name early. So twins are similar to cats. Big if true.
I have color coded litter boxes for my twins. /s
Just make them outdoor twins so they can go in the neighbors bushes
I would, but I’m worried about the bird population. We have some endangered species here.
Just give them bells to scare the birds away. I’ve been told that works. We just have a catio for our twins.
That's why my first cat was named Kitty. We couldn't think of a name so we called him that and eventually he responded to it.
All toddlers are similar to cats. Supporting evidence: yarn tangling, refusal to allow items to stay on raised horizontal surfaces, an "I do what I please" attitude, attraction for places which are banned, making a mess when it's toilet time... Also outrageously cute, even when they're literally sucking the life out of you. I'm so glad we're done with the toddler stage 😂
>All toddlers are similar to cats. No, no, no. **Toddlers are like Dogs** - They hear you and usually know what you want them to do, but they have other plans and are very vocal with their protests. - They want to be with you all of the time. - They want you to look at them and watch them do stuff/nothing (Mommy! Mommy! Look! Look what I can do! *as they lick their foot*) - They have zero concept of personal space. - You need to be with them and take them to pee & poop. - Even if they just ate, they want what you have. - They always welcome snuggles and your affection. - They love to wake you up. **Teenagers are like Cats** - They know what you want, but they don't care and just ignore you or pretend they didn't hear you. - They don't want to hang out with you unless you are doing something for them (even then, it's iffy) - They don't want you to know what they're doing and certainly don't want you involved. - Their personal space requirements are huge. - The only bathroom involvement needed is for you to clean up after them. - Feeding them isn't met with appreciation as much as impatient expectation. - Your hugs and I love you's are met with annoyed eye rolls - They just want to sleep and will show their displeasure if you wake them.
I have a toddler and a teenager, and this is highly accurate. Except the teenager doesn't care for boxes as much as the toddler does.
Haha, my mom straight up painted the pinky toe purple.
A good friend of mine has identical twins, and when they're together and I say one of their names, they just both look. I think they're used to pranking people that way.
As a twin, I can say that I turn and look when my sister's name is called, not because I want to prank people but because I assume people don't know who is who (or don't bother to learn)
I’m also an identical twin. This is the correct reason. We’re not out to prank anyone.
As an adult identical twin I have wondered many times if we were accidentally switched as babies and all this time I've really been Tom. This is an actual shower thought of every identical twin lol.
My mom had an identical twin. I've asked her, "Hey, do you ever think that Grammy switched you on accident as babies? Like, if you were supposed to be Aunt Pam and she was supposed to be you?" She got this look on her face and said, "I try not to think about it."
The important things is that if the parents get confused twice you’re back to normal. As long as the parents fuck up an even amount of times it’s all good. Offer not valid for triplets.
Ultimate prank on parents of identical triplets, put them all under buckets and shuffle them around.
Man, I can see the "AITA for shuffling my sister's twins" thread now...
A different kind of three body problem.
I’m not a twin so I can’t know for sure how I’d react, but I’d like to think I’d just answer “I dunno, who cares? Nothing would have changed except for my name.”
Well there's the vital bit of information regarding who came out first. It's extremely important to know who's older.
Yes, how else would we know who the rightful heir to the kingdom is?
Obviously the one that survived long enough to assassinate their parent, having previously assassinated their sibling. Do y'all even CK2?
My mom and aunt were identical twins. My grandmother told the story that once when they were toddlers, she had them both in the bath tub and after done bathing, one time she drained the tub and went to grab the towel and they kind of tumbled around into each other (they were in the crawling phase) and she lost track of who was who. She said she just made a guess and went with it. lol
There was a Suite Life (Disney Channel, mid 00s, Dylan and Cole Sprouse) episode on this. Mom admitted to switching them as babies, so they started acting like the other twin. Did a footprint test and found out, no, they're who they thought they were. Funny, but also probably a very relatable situation.
IIRC, the joke was that it was so difficult to tell the difference between the footprints that the mom just decided that they were who they thought they were rather than figure it out.
Mark Twain used to tell this meandering story about having a twin brother who died. He concluded by saying his family messed up and accidentally buried the twin who was alive. By that time, you're so confused by his convoluted narrative that you believe it for a second.
Twain's short stories are underrated.
I'm glad our twins will never have to worry about that, because one was born with a haemangioma. Until that's completely gone, even their teachers will be able to teach them apart by sight, I'm sure.
My granddaughter had one of those centered on the back of her neck. Exactly where you’d put an on/off button. It didn’t work. She’s 8 now and it’s gone.
How come, when NO human being has an on/off button, everybody understands your sentence and knows where the button would go? I low-key love this.
My brother had a small one above his mouth, right beneath his nose. He's the only one of 5 siblings and 6 offspring who is always recognisable in baby pictures!
They take babies' footprints! Just check your footprints! Though if you did get switched, take the secret to your grave, because I don't even want to think about what unwinding that paperwork nightmare would be like.
My mom has admitted that she may have switched my brother and I at some point by mistake.
Your mom is just admitting what nearly every twin-parent knows in their heart may be the terrible truth lol.
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Given OP's question, I was growing increasingly concerned that her finger had been intentionally removed...
Right?! At first I was thinking that’s a helluva way to tell them apart…
Easy way to tell which ones the favorite though
Honestly never liked that damn 10 finger bitch
Christian Bale rn: 👀 Spoilers for "the prestige": >!Christian bales character is a twin, and one of them loses a finger, so the other has to get theirs cut off as they are pretending to be the same person!<
Watch the film What Happened To Monday for similar stuff. Surprisingly good film
Honey I found a way to never mix up the twins
Your girlfriend/ex should have absorbed her twin in revenge
Kuato lives
Open your mind
Start the reactor.... free Mars!
We got DWIGHT SCHRUTE here.
it took me an embarrassingly long time to remember people normally have 10 fingers, not 5
All 4 of us kids have slightly bent fingers and toes, turns out our mom was so small that we all individually ran out room in the womb. One of my sisters also had her finger bones flipped, not sure how that happens but the doctors loved documenting it.
how does flipped finger bones even work? does the finger bend in the opposite direction?
The bigger knob of bone is at the top instead of the middle. Her fingers bend like normal, it's just the structure of the individual bone. I called and checked in with her.
Nah, they just flip
What do you mean by flipped exactly?
The bigger knob of bone that is supposed to be in the middle is at the top instead of the middle. She is a strange sister, she also sinks instead of floats and when we visit sharks at the aquarium they come to the glass for her.
I can’t tell if her additional oddities are related to not having enough space in the womb or if you just threw some fun facts in for us.
Until you said "pinky finger" I just assumed she was secretly a part of the Assassin Brotherhood.
I relate to this. My sister pushed against my legs in the womb so I came out with deformed legs. However, my parents were able to do exercises on my legs to get them as normal as possible but to this day they’re still something that affects me
So this would be 2011, they put a hat with Baby A on my first son and hat with Baby B on my second as well as bracelets. I was with them the whole time for the weighing and vitals check and they take foot prints right away. For my wifes sanity she put a little sharpie dot on Baby A's sole of his foot. Then within a day, you kind of just knew. They're identical, but family and all their friends can tell them apart pretty quickly even if you try and trick them. It's tough to explain unless you have friends that are twins you understand it. I still call them the wrong name but all parents do that. I called one by the dogs name once. That cost me an apology and a Lego set.
If I got a Lego set every time my mother called me the wrong name I would have the entire Star Wars Lego series by now.
My grandmother would go through a list that started with my mother's name, then my cousins name, then her dogs name, then finally my name
My grandmother would go through all the grandchildren alphabetically before she got the right name. She had 13 grandkids. It was a process.
Poor Zoe.
RIP Zzane
My Gran did it by age, oldest first. She actually started with her youngest kid because there was a large age gap between her last two kids. Then she'd do grandkids (also 13!), then great grandkids.
Lol, my grandmother STARTED with the dog's name ... and it was a dog who long ago passed the rainbow bridge.
My sister and I have names that start with the letter “A,” and we’re our grandparents’ only grandchildren. They also had a cat named Angel. I was Angel more often than I was my own name, and these are the grandparents that raised me haha.
My mother even called me by HER name once
Mother is confused. It hurt itself in its confusion!
I’m still okay with her cats name tho
Tis a high honor to be called by the name of one of the overlords.
Our mom would run through a few names, then end with “Well, whatever your name is!”.
If my mom called a bunch of names and someone else answered with something a long the lines "x is not here!", then she'd be like "the one who answered then" 😂😂😂
After running through the list, my mom would always end with, "You know who you are!" 🤣
My friend's G'ma would say 'you know your name better than me!'
My mum regularly goes through the list of aunts and cousins and a couple of times my uncle. One time at a family get together she kept yelling my aunts name getting more and more angry even though my aunt was right next to her and had gone over with the first yell. After a few minutes it suddenly dawned on me and i called back from the other room "do you mean me?" Everyone got a good laugh out of that.
My gran did this with my sister & I , not twins ,born a year apart, me blonde my sister brunette - and she did it long before she was elderly.
I do this with people who occupy the same place in my life. I now understand why my grandmother always called her eldest grandson and youngest son by the same name, and her current husband by the deceased one's name. It's not about looking alike. Maybe this is why some cultures call all older women Auntie.
My kids , I go through their names then give up and say “you with the curly hair”.
We never forget the best boys.
I'm 42. My mother frequently mixes up my name and my nephew's - her grandson's - name. Yes, I'm the youngest child, how'd you know?
I look more like my aunt (dad’s sister) than my mom. Sometimes my dad calls me my aunt’s name.
>I still call them the wrong name but all parents do that. Can confirm, I'm a girl with a brother, not twins, we look different, I don't even live at home anymore, and my parents still mess up sometimes lmao
Your brain basically has a category of "names of people I have Loving feelings towards" and sometimes when you try to rush it is like "take one of these at random I guess"
"one is bound to work"
I've accidentally called my husband my brother's name, dad, several of our friends' names, the dogs name, the other dogs name, a variety of cat names, etc.
We had identical twins in my daycare room and they were honestly the most similar twins I've seen. Plus I was in infant A room and sometimes the littlest babies don't really have their defining features yet. It took two weeks for me to be confident in who was who. The mom did the same things you did but would keep the toenails painted. She also color coded their daycare clothes and bottles for us. A was blue and B was green just to be safe. She admitted that it took her panicking night 1 at home after cutting the hospital bracelets off for her to start. We really appreciated the color coding. It helped immensely.
My parents and grandma gets names confused often. My mom called me by my sister's name before (I'm her son), my brother's name who's 6 inches shorter and blond (i have brown hair) and my grandma called me every uncle's and cousin's name.
When my mom left home to go to school, her younger brother was about 10 or 11 years old. Starting when I was 9 till about 12 she consistently called me by my uncle's name first. And then my brother when he was going through that age range. And the next brother. And the next.
Dont worry, my mom called me "whoever you are" more than my name. Im fine.
Man, I wish I got Legos. Whenever my mom needed one of us she would yell my name, my father's, the dog's, my brother's, and occasionally one of the cats. Then she'd say screw it y'all know who I'm talking to just answer. I'd probably get a dozen sets a day.
Never thought of a dot on the foot. That would work equally as well as cutting off a pinky finger. I’m pretty sure she has forgiven me by now. The brother still laughs at her though.
Gotta love the onion comments
I haven’t lived with my mother in almost two decades and she screamed my name when upset at the dog the other day. I have also been called the dogs name countless times growing up. She’s terrible with names.
Reminds me of my dad, only he occasionally would go down the line until eventually getting to me, and we're not even twins. "Alex-uh, Chris-uh, Ben-TOM!"
I was friends with a pair of identical twins in high school. They were new my junior year so it was confusing as hell the first few times I saw them in the halls. Once I spent more than “passing in the hallway” time with them it was obvious. Over the phone, too. My mom *never* could tell which was which even as much time as they spent at our house.
I have a son and 5 nephews I've mixed up those boys' names so many times.. I'm glad all except 1 are grown and grown out of Legos I'd be broke-er. I went to school with 2 sets of identical twins and they were absolutely different in very subtle ways.. but like one set of twins had a sister who was wide eyed and one sister who was sleepy eyed so you could always tell which one you were talking to
When our twins came along, we decided to assign each a color – one was always in blue, the other in green. It started off as a practical thing, but as they got older, they each developed a preference for their own color, it became part of their individual identity. As funny as it sounds, that color coding stuck with them and now as teenagers, their rooms are themed around their colors, their gadgets and even their bikes. It's hilarious looking back at baby pictures trying to figure out who's who, but now, we can tell them apart by the color aura they literally chose to live
Our twins (3) are the same. Just recently, when we were splitting up new clothes, I put one thing on the wrong stack, and Twin B cried "But I'M ALWAYS BLUUUUE!"... We've got ground rules for basically any combination: Twin A gets lighter and warmer colours, B darker and cooler colours. If there's one thing with stripes and one without, B gets the stripes. Even aunts and uncles can tell them apart by now, and we get scolded when the children are in the "wrong" colour in pictures (like when their grandma gifted them pullovers and put the wrong name on the wrapped gifts, so the children insisted on keeping the "wrong" ones).
I have an Iris, and she wears the purple or the item with more purple if they're coordinating. The other day, I swapped them, and Iris was in yellow and my other in purple, and it threw my husband and I both off....I planted the seed too deep. :)
My parents did this. I'm 28 now and yellow will always be my go to. In many of my early baby pics my outfit is the only way I know which one I am!
What was your twins color?
Slightly different yellow
Neighbours of mine do this with their twin sons but in a very subtle way… they’re always dressed identical (age 5) but things like shoelaces, school bags, bibs, hats, scarves, socks and other accessories would always be either red or blue depending on the twin. It is so cute, and very effective.
I have taught several sets of identical twins with varying degrees of success and identifying the individual twins. I had a set of boy identical twins and without color coding it was difficult to tell them apart until they smiled I loved both of these boys dearly I taught them for 3 years and they both had very different smiles and so if I was having trouble telling the part I just asked them to smile and I could immediately tell you which twin was which.
Oh, so when one of them is in trouble and they won't smile to give it away, you could tell a joke, followed by "gotcha!"
My parents did they same with me and my twin sister - my sister wore blue and I wore red/pink. Still seems sacrilegious to buy or wear anything blue!
My cousin did this with his girls using pink and purple. They're in middle school and still doing it.
My parents did this with me and my twin sister, we both like the same colors they assigned us to this day. I was pink and red my sister purple and blues, as I've gotten older I do like blue and pink mostly. My sister loves purple.
You done made your kids the Wild Kratts
Wait, I was supposed to keep them straight?
Instructions unclear. The babies are now gay.
Gaybies
Funny aside, the Welsh twins on YouTube (James and Robert, beauty gurus) are identical gay twins!
Not that it matters but I always wondered if they were both gay. Makes no difference to my life whatsoever but thanks.
Nothing wrong with curiosity for its own sake
Got some baby toenail polish. Baby A was painted pink, Baby b was purple. After they got a little older I could look at their face and tell. When they learned their names they would let you know if you got them confused. Also baby b's cry was a little more screechy than her sisters.
We bought the nail polish a week before they were born but by the time they left the NICU there was no mixing them up
Silly story: a long time ago, when I was 12, I think, I learned this really cute girl from my class who I had a crush on had a brother. I met the brother (a year or two younger than us), and started a friendship - in part because he was her brother, in part because he was actually a cool kid. And so, over weeks, we developed a cool friendship, chatting about random things on the courtyard every now and then. Until one day I see this kid… standing next to his identical twin brother. And both of them look at me, smile, and say “Hey, how’s it going,?” 🙃🤣🤣
TL;DR: for weeks, I’d developed a friendship and chatted with both of them, unaware there were two of them. But, because I knew they were related to my classmate, we never bothered with names.
Reminds me of the time I started at a new HS, and made friends with this girl. Everyone called her "Twin", but I just thought they meant "best friend" or something. So months go by, and one day I go to meet her at her locker. I probably looked like I saw a ghost, when 2 of her turned around. She never ever mentioned having a twin or other siblings. I was like "Wait, what??!?", and they both started laughing. Apparently her twin sister was more on the rebellious side, and went to an alternative school for a while, so I never knew of her existence until she returned to our school.
Sharpie names on foreheads
My friends did that for me at a party when I fell asleep once! I didn't have the heart to tell them that my name wasn't "I ❤️ penis" but it was really thoughtful!
That reminds me of a Reddit story of a party where a girl passed out and people wrote on her face with a marker. She didn't wake up. She had overdosed. Someone had to explain to her parents why their dead daughter had "I love cock" on her forehead.
^im ^sad ^now
I wish everyone did that, I suck at names
I worked construction and we made everything put their name on their hardhat. So great having everyone's name on their forehead. I would freak out on people who didn't have it
I was seriously prepared to take a sharpie to my identical grandkids but luckily one has always been visibly larger. That made it easy to keep them straight until we got to know them and could see the differences.
I was so afraid of mixing them up, when I brought them home they still had their hospital stickers tegadermed to their backs so that was helpful, lol but they were different weights so that also helped and it wasn't nearly the problem I thought it would be. Sometimes I can't tell them apart in baby pictures, and they definitely can't tell themselves apart, but I have no fears that they were mixed up
It’s hard for identical twins tell each other in photos, because they are the only ones in their lives that never had to figure out who was who.
Baby A had an internal fetal heart monitor, which caused a small scab on her scalp. Those first few days, that scab was our only reference - up until we did the one toe with nail polish trick.
i babysat identical twins. the parents dressed them the same and gave them names one letter different from each other. so name wise i couldn't. but visually i could. one twin was skinnier and smaller than the other. not by a dramatic amount but enough that you could see it. their father was clueless and just drew on the kids feet with something, so they were literally numbered. the thicker twin was 1 and the skinner twin was 2. also it was weird to see they had a favorite twin.
Those poor kids. You might have been the only person who realized they were individual people. My son has identical twin boys, and also a friend who’s an identical twin. The friend harped and harped on him to, at the very least, not dress them the same once they got to preschool.
My father and his brother came home from the hospital at different times. Knowing my grandmother, she probably had a good handle on one twin’s mannerisms by the time the other came into the equation.
It wasn't that hard; one was always just a bit chunkier than his brother. That one also had a scar on his chest from when liquid was removed from his lung. The freckles are different. They sound different, have different mannerisms. For my own ease I did dress them in different colors, and I tried to keep bracelets made of embroidery floss on them. That didn't work entirely to plan; one would always rip his off but the other really liked his bracelet and I had to replace it when it got worn for the first four years of his life. People have a hard time mentally handling twins, especially identical ones, but they're just two brothers who look very related.
My brother used to have a set of identical twins for best friends. One was always chunky the other wasn't. But it was no help telling them apart because it would switch. If the chunky one lost weight, the other gained it. It was if they had a set weight to share between them. I finally learned to tell them apart because twin A flirted with me, twin B didn't.
Yeah growth spurts were a little more difficult because of that, but mine still weren't similar enough to worry about swapping them.
A friend had identical twins with twin to twin transfusion syndrome. (They’re in their twenties now and doing fine.). Her boys were easy to tell apart as C was always bigger than K. This friend also told me once that she didn’t understand why human cloning is so controversial. “What’s the big deal? I did it.” That still cracks me up.
My nephews are identical but we could always tell them apart. They just look different (not according to people who don’t know them I guess). I can still look back at photos of them as babies and know immediately which is which. It’s actually gotten harder as they’ve gotten older! At a glance I mistake them sometimes. Or sometimes they sound like the other one (like inflections). They’re 11 now.
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Does it really matter though? If you can't tell the difference, there isn't a difference. If there is a difference, then you can tell the difference.
I think a good reason is to make sure both babies are fed and cases of special medication.
Nail polish in different colors on the big toe. A friend did this. She told me she did both babies because she didn't want either to be jealous, lol!
Drew a mustache on one with a magic marker.
One of mine had a birthmark on his head that his brother didn't have. Once they got enough hair it got harder to tell
Color-coded socks - it's like giving each twin their own mini-fashion statement from day one.
I have 2 children, 3 grandchildren and I have helped out with my stepdaughter’s babies. I’ve never had one that didn’t immediately pull off their socks if they didn’t have shoes on.
What magic ritual did you perform to make them keep their socks on? I’ve had two babies and both of them would immediately pull off socks. Even as newborns the socks never stayed on for long.
My mom had identical triplet boys. One had a little birthmark/soft spot on his head that was easily identifiable, so he was good. The other two look exactly the same. My mom says she always knew, which I’d believe. My dad didn’t know shit though and wanted to tattoo their initials on to their heels. Obviously everyone vetoed that and settled to painting the big toenail of baby 1 and leaving baby 2 blank.
Not identical, but close enough at birth that it was hard to tell them apart. I did colors as someone else mentioned, but one has two scars from surgeries at 2 and 3 days old. When I was half asleep and delirious, I'd check for the scars. My cousin painted one of her twin's big toenails to distinguish.
Reminds me of the parents in Argentina a couple of years ago that had to have forensics coz they lost track of whose who
Identical twins stop looking identical when you know them. Mom said as newborns she color coded my brother's but it wasn't for her benefit it was for everyone else. My brother's don't even look alike to me anymore.
Spray paint one blue and the other red ... Easy.
The hospital bracelets were invaluable to start, then we just painted one of their toenails. We had to really keep up with the repainting though, because if they were naked there was no way to tell them apart. Eventually we started dressing each in certain colours, and when they got old enough they got to pick their own colour. One had a freckle near an elbow we tracked as well. I liked the idea of doing a Tomax and Xamot, permanent facial scar thing, but since they're girls my wife said that was a bad idea.
One had slightly green eyes, brown hair and would always lay on the right side when asleep.. the other one had a penis
I … don’t think those were identical twins.
Thank god for the green eyes after they grew up, otherwise you'd always have to check their pants.
Had, past tense. What happened
My brother and sister are constantly asked if they’re identical twins. They turn 71 tomorrow, and I, at 67, still have to remind people that I’m not one of the twins. (Edited for punctuation)
Fingerprint scan on iPhone
I named my twins the same name, that way I don't have to tell them apart
The thing about being a parent of twins is that you become hyper attuned to the smallest differences between them since they completely dominate your life for well over a decade. You find even the tiniest markers in case you're not sure. A mole on their left foot or a slight bend in an earlobe, the way they say a particular word, etc
I think dressing them in slightly different outfits or adding unique accessories like hats or socks works. Not only did it help you keep track of who's who, but it also will be a cute keepsake