How much are you like your mother?

[rainbowtrout]

I''m a pretty even blend of both of my parents appearance-wise, and ironically my personality is most like my adopted grandmother with my mother''s/adopted grandfather''s sense of humor


Mom is--
classy, very manners minded, proper, loves shopping, hates cooking, loves spending money, hates saving, likes clothes more than jewelry, cries at policemen, is incredibly emotionally "sensitive".

I am--
polite but not as concerned with what is "proper," hate shopping, love cooking, hate spending money, like jewelry more than clothes, and could never bring myself to cry at *anyone* on purpose, and am so overly practical my FI has been known to refer to me jokingly as the "ruthless hard***".


We get on quite well most of the time, I think because we have the same underlying values in terms of how you should treat people, etc.

 

[AmberGretchen]

Wow - what a fun thread! Perfect for Sunday morning over breakfast

Let's see...I look almost nothing like anyone in my family (especially my parents), and we always joked that maybe I was switched at birth, except that a) it would have been hard to find another 5.5 lb baby with red curls (which I no longer have), and b) my personality so clearly comes from my parents in a big way.

Both my parents are very smart and very intellectual, big on academic achievement and education, and I deifnitely got that. We are all very type A, high energy, high anxiety, and in my mom's and my case at least, plenty of self-consciousness to go with it. All three of us also have a big problem with being patient, although its something I'm trying to work on being better at (being patient). We're also all very physically active, as well as mentally curious - we all read voraciously (my DH teases me about the stacks of books I go through) although my dad tends to read more about the latest physics and cosmology stuff, whereas my mom and I are more into historical fiction and non-fiction. We all have similar political views, and we all have trouble sitting still for very long. We're all workaholics.

My mom and I are more alike than me and my dad though, in that we're much more compassionate and empathetic to others, and much more insecure (one of many reasons she divorced him and I barely speak to him any more). My mom and I both tend to be very judgmental (bad) and have very sharp wit (sometimes good...well, funny at least

) and we're VERY sarcastic.

Mom and I also both LOVE to shop, although I tend to hold out any buy higher-quality, more expensive items, whereas she has a serious itch for anything on sale. But we do spend A LOT of time shopping together. We also both love animals, especially dogs.

 

[KimberlyH]

My husband would say (in fact he has said many times!) that I am the worst mix of my parents that I possibly could be...I am a perfectionist (like my father) who lacks self confidence (like my mother). How frustrating that he is right! ha ha ha

I am really a combination of both my parents (with some traits that are uniquely mine thrown in the mix).

I am a helper like my mom, if we''re at a party you''ll find us both in the kitchen cooking, cleaning, etc. We both enjoy being social, love family functions and being around people. We''re both extremely stubborn; but I have no problem saying "I''m sorry" when I''m wrong and letting go, for her it''s like pulling teeth. We both love kids. I''ve picked up her awful habit of talking to random people in stores and such (this embarrassed me to no end as a child and now I find myself doing it...AGH!). We both like consistency, but I''m much more adventurous than she is, I love to travel, see, do and try new things and she''d rather not. We share many of the same values but she is less critical of people than I am. We have the same sense of humor (silly); we laugh a lot, especially when we''re together. We love listening to music...almost always have it on (but our tastes are a bit different, she thinks Barry Manilow is classic rock, no joke!).

I am a go-getter like my father, always pushing myself to do better and try harder. I am also anxious like he is. We both love good wine. We both love a good debate. I''ve adopted his ability to deal with change (even if I don''t like it, I handle it well). We listen to a lot of the same music. We both hate crowds and have a fear of heights. Our moral compasses point the same direction. We''re both deep thinkers and analyze everthing. He has taught me to find the positive in every situation and that overreacting is a waste of time.

 

[sumbride]

I look a lot like my mother, but according to my mom, I am exactly like my father... which makes her CRAZY! My parents have been married for 43 years and together for 50 years, so they have so many habits and traits that are similar, it''s really hard to know what came from whom. They can be at separate tables in the same restaurant and still order the same thing... M and I are getting like that too, but we''re just about at 5 years, not 50!

 

[phoenixgirl]

My dad always tells my mother, "You cloned yourself dear" in reference to me.

Our personality''s are quite similar -- INTJ for me, ISTJ for Mom. We are both no frills, not girly, stoic. We''re both very stubborn (apparently potty training me was an epic battle of wills). We both lace our fingers together and use that to hold up our heads. We look alike. We are/were both high school English teachers.

Difference wise, I think she''s more stoic and I''m more emotional (though generally stoic). She needs more privacy and I''m more outgoing, although still an introvert. She likes to read fiction and I like to read nonfiction. I''m more of an "all or nothing" person who is either gung-ho about something or doesn''t do it. She likes to do crossword puzzles and garden (so does my husband) but I don''t get these things. I like clothes a bit more and jewelry a whole lot more than she does. She was visiting when I received my studs, and she said she wished she had a hobby that made her as happy as my earrings made me.

I''m not a parent yet, but I hope I''m like my mother. I never saw her and my father fight except once when the whole fight consisted of my father doing something annoying that I can''t remember, my mother declaring that she''d had enough and refusing to go to the movies, and my father groveling until my mother acquiesed. And I never saw her cry except when I was crying because my high school boyfriend broke up with me, as I walked down the aisle at my wedding, and during Jane Austen movies. She was a very stable presence.

I think my mom and her mother were pretty much opposites.

 

[diamondfan]

I am a lot like her, and as I have grown I am proud to say so.

She is elegant, loves nice things, loves to read and meet people, is very friendly, bright, has a bit of a temper (gets her Irish up!) and back in the day loved to shop, loved antiques, clothes, jewelry, art, furniture...(now she is older and travels less and so does not care as much about clothes or jewels, she is happy with what she has, but loves when I get something new and great). We share those traits, the exception being travel, since I like being somewhere but hate to fly. She is not afraid to, and was a bit more adventurous in her selections when she used to go on trips...exotic and slightly scary places that I might not go to be she went readily and enjoyed herself.

We both do not love to cook but she also eats weirdly and so that is one thing we do not share.

She is also a worrier and can be anxious too, but she hides it way better than I do.

I also look most like her, I have more of her coloring and her features. We talk similarly, use our hands when we speak, and like to laugh. When someone says I resemble her or remind them of her, I take it as a huge compliment.

 

[Julianna]

Date: 7/1/2007 1:05:51 PM
Author: KimberlyH
My husband would say (in fact he has said many times!) that I am the worst mix of my parents that I possibly could be...I am a perfectionist (like my father) who lacks self confidence (like my mother). How frustrating that he is right! ha ha ha

I am really a combination of both my parents (with some traits that are uniquely mine thrown in the mix).

I am a helper like my mom, if we''re at a party you''ll find us both in the kitchen cooking, cleaning, etc. We both enjoy being social, love family functions and being around people. We''re both extremely stubborn; but I have no problem saying ''I''m sorry'' when I''m wrong and letting go, for her it''s like pulling teeth. We both love kids. I''ve picked up her awful habit of talking to random people in stores and such (this embarrassed me to no end as a child and now I find myself doing it...AGH!). We both like consistency, but I''m much more adventurous than she is, I love to travel, see, do and try new things and she''d rather not. We share many of the same values but she is less critical of people than I am. We have the same sense of humor (silly); we laugh a lot, especially when we''re together. We love listening to music...almost always have it on (but our tastes are a bit different, she thinks Barry Manilow is classic rock, no joke!).

I am a go-getter like my father, always pushing myself to do better and try harder. I am also anxious like he is. We both love good wine. We both love a good debate. I''ve adopted his ability to deal with change (even if I don''t like it, I handle it well). We listen to a lot of the same music. We both hate crowds and have a fear of heights. Our moral compasses point the same direction. We''re both deep thinkers and analyze everthing. He has taught me to find the positive in every situation and that overreacting is a waste of time.

This is the sagest advice I have seen in a long, long time. I hope I can improve myself in this way.

 

[KimberlyH]

Date: 7/2/2007 12:38:35 PM
Author: Julianna

Date: 7/1/2007 1:05:51 PM
Author: KimberlyH
My husband would say (in fact he has said many times!) that I am the worst mix of my parents that I possibly could be...I am a perfectionist (like my father) who lacks self confidence (like my mother). How frustrating that he is right! ha ha ha

I am really a combination of both my parents (with some traits that are uniquely mine thrown in the mix).

I am a helper like my mom, if we''re at a party you''ll find us both in the kitchen cooking, cleaning, etc. We both enjoy being social, love family functions and being around people. We''re both extremely stubborn; but I have no problem saying ''I''m sorry'' when I''m wrong and letting go, for her it''s like pulling teeth. We both love kids. I''ve picked up her awful habit of talking to random people in stores and such (this embarrassed me to no end as a child and now I find myself doing it...AGH!). We both like consistency, but I''m much more adventurous than she is, I love to travel, see, do and try new things and she''d rather not. We share many of the same values but she is less critical of people than I am. We have the same sense of humor (silly); we laugh a lot, especially when we''re together. We love listening to music...almost always have it on (but our tastes are a bit different, she thinks Barry Manilow is classic rock, no joke!).

I am a go-getter like my father, always pushing myself to do better and try harder. I am also anxious like he is. We both love good wine. We both love a good debate. I''ve adopted his ability to deal with change (even if I don''t like it, I handle it well). We listen to a lot of the same music. We both hate crowds and have a fear of heights. Our moral compasses point the same direction. We''re both deep thinkers and analyze everthing. He has taught me to find the positive in every situation and that overreacting is a waste of time.

This is the sagest advice I have seen in a long, long time. I hope I can improve myself in this way.

Julianna,

As a teen and into my early 20s every inconvenience was a tragedy. When I was 25 I went through a pretty terrible experience that would have caused most people, especially parents, to freak out. Instead my dad hugged me, said "We''ll get though this together. You have our [my mom and his] support." And they held my hand through a year long mess. I learned more from his reaction than I can even begin to tell you and am a changed person because of it.