Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Parents Of Twins Share Tips For Not Mixing Up Their Babies

How do people tell their baby twins apart? Parents have many strategies. Some of them are pretty funny.


laughingjackals98 asked: Parents of twins, how did you make sure you didn't mix your kids up when they were babies and if you did how did you figure out which was which?

Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.

ID bracelets.

Giphy

My parents made a little purple bracelet that said my name on it and a pink one for my sister until they could tell the difference without it. Sometimes I wonder if the bracelets ever got switched by mistake though...

tmsdnr

This just made me realize that humans can't be identified like a car or anything with a serial number. People don't have bar codes and stuff.

I think I may be really dumb

etheran123

DNA, fingerprints?

MiFengNoMai

Identical twins have identical DNA. Also I can't imagine parents taking fingerprints from their babies when they're born, so I doubt that would work in these scenarios.

sleepyseaslug

Size matters, but so does personality.

When my identical Daughters where still in hospital they wore hospital tags. When we finally got them out of ICU, we were carefully monitoring their weight by weighing them daily. they had a 200g difference in weight consistently for the first many months, (which is fairly significant when you arent much over 1kg) so we always knew.

After the first few months we just knew them, and it has never been hard for my wife or myself to tell them apart, despite being able to confuse most people with ease. The most obvious physical difference we know of is that the one's earlobe is shaped slightly differently, but their personalities are very distinct.

Kyratic

I know of several twins who have anxiety about the possibility of being 'the fat twin'. Now I kind of hope they never read this someday, and realize that you could mainly tell them apart in their infancy because one of them was definitely 'the fat twin.'

garbagecompressor

This should be obvious.

Giphy

My friend has boy/girl twins. She still gets asked how she tells them apart. Ummmmm.....

marythelpc

"Well this one has a small freckle near her ear, and this one has a penis."

robhawt

"This one will have breasts in about 15 years"

MysteriousPlatypus

"And so will the other."

"You gotta stop feeding them junk food, Fran."

stratosfearinggas

Sometimes mothers always know... or do they?

I'm a preschool teacher. One year, I had 3 pairs of twins in the same class, but only one pair was identical. One of the boys was named Drew, so his mother usually dressed him in blue. "Drew wears blue." His twin wore any other color, but most often red. I was grateful as I could not tell them apart otherwise.

I asked their mother how she told them apart. "They just look different to me."

Mysid

This would take one heck of a steady hand. They're tiny!

My boss had twins, and when they were born, she painted their toenails different colors so she could tell them apart.

carly-rae_sremmurd

Baby toenails are f*cking tiny. I'm impressed she could even do that successfully.

to_the_tenth_power

When everything is identical, even the clothes, it gets confusing.

Giphy

Aunt of twins here. Babysat them once when they were newborns. My sister brings them over and I had to ask her which twin was which. Keeping Baby A on the left of the living area and Baby B on the right, I had to figure out how to tell them apart because my sister dressed them the exact same, packed the exact same blankets, extra clothes, socks, burp clothes, etc. (evil witch)...I immediately went into panic mode. BUT then I realized I did have a way to tell them apart. I used nail polish to mark X's on their socks. Blue for Baby A and Orange for Baby B (then I wrote it down in case I forgot LOL).

redink85

I feel like parents of multiples are playing on hard anyway, but why do so many whack the difficulty up to insane by putting the infants in matching clothes?

It's cute, but surely it causes some headaches? It's probably easier once they can talk properly though

ChrissiTea

Ohhhkay then.

My parents circumcised me, but not my twin.

Toggafasi

Do you have strong opinions about that now?

Merry_Pippins

A bit jealous of my twin. I wouldn't have chosen to be circumcised given the option, but my parents did their best..

My personal belief is the decision shouldn't have been made for me without medical necessity. Like I shower once or twice a day so it's no benefit because to be circumcised all it would have been is an additional thing to wash.

Toggafasi

What birthmark?

My brothers are identical twins but one of them had the consideration to be born with a bright red, circular birthmark in the middle of his forehead. Very handy.

But I could always tell them apart anyway, even when the mark was covered. They look different to me and always did. Mom used to get me to tell her which was which in pictures where you couldn't see the birthmark.

Katt7594

This parent avoided the problem entirely.

Giphy

I gave them both the same name so it never mattered.

kirkyesshatnerno

This guy twins.

workedSilly

Why not?

My parents just said whomever started responding to the name they said, that was the kid whose name it was. Hell I could have originally been my brothers name.

Therahl1

That's so chill. Love it.

wheresmypurplekitten

More from Trending

Screenshot of Seth Moulton; Donald Trump
MS Now; Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images

Dem Rep. Offers Brutally Accurate Reason For Why He Can't Understand 'The Mind Of Donald Trump'

Massachusetts Democratic Representative Seth Moulton made a fitting observation about President Donald Trump's mind after Trump gave a 20-minute address to the nation about his war in Iran on Wednesday evening.

Trump claimed “core strategic objectives are nearing completion” in the Iran war and vowed to strike Iran "extremely hard" over the next two to three weeks. He said that he would finish the job "very fast," without setting any timeline for ending the war. He pledged to "bring them [Iranians] back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Solicitor General Sparks Alarm After Telling Supreme Court He's 'Not Sure' If Native Americans Are Birthright Citizens

Solicitor General Sparks Alarm After Telling Supreme Court He's 'Not Sure' If Native Americans Are Birthright Citizens

The relationship between Indigenous American nations and the colonizers and later settlers who arrived and established the United States is complicated.

Indigenous peoples were integral parts of the survival and success of early colonizers. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy's Great Law of Peace offered a blueprint for the United States Constitution and the structure of the federal government including the three independent branches offering checks and balances, ideally.

Keep ReadingShow less
Iraqi soccer fans hold a banner at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport as a man in an orange jacket confronts them and tears it down.
@hussein_pepe96/Instagram

Racist Guy Caught On Video Tearing Through Iraqi Soccer Fans' Banner At Dallas Airport: 'Don't Come To America'

With the United States set to host the 2026 World Cup, a video out of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is drawing attention for a very different reason: showing a man ripping apart an Iraqi soccer fan’s banner and telling them, “Don’t come to America.”

The video, posted on Instagram, shows a group of Iraqi sports fans standing in an airport holding a banner with Arabic and Spanish writing. The fans were there to support Iraq during their World Cup qualifier against Bolivia, which resulted in a 2-1 upset victory earlier that day.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @themouselets' TikTok video
@themouselets/TikTok

TikToker Edits Dad's Disney Vacation Into Horror Movie After It Keeps Getting Interrupted By 'Work Emergency'

Sometimes you can only realize how bad a situation has gotten when you see it in a photo or video.

TikToker @themouselets works in civil engineering and is a part-time Disney content creator, making frequent trips to the park, but it's still a rare occurrence for her to be able to go with her entire family.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @tts_tiktok22's TikTok video
@tts_tiktok22/TikTok

Videos Of Squirrels Trying To 'Vape' Are Going Viral—And We Don't Know Whether To Laugh Or Cry

Some viral videos come along that leave us unsure whether we should laugh or cry. In the case of squirrels trying to vape, crying is unfortunately the more likely outcome.

E-cigarettes have dramatically increased in popularity in recent years and are often even portrayed as a cool accessory on social media. Unfortunately, disposable, one-time-use e-cigarettes have been made affordable and easily accessible, and instead of properly disposing of them, people often leave them on the ground like cigarette butts.

Keep ReadingShow less