Twins have always fascinated the rest of us – their similarities, their connection, their parents’ ability to keep their sanity – and yeah, we love stories about one pretending to be the other. Or getting mistaken for the other, or both.
I think it might an unintended effect of watching The Parent Trap as kids (either version, really).
Parents of Identical Twins, what was your “Honey, I switched the kids.” moment?
byu/flowerpeachtrees inAskReddit
Twins are cool, and these 16 twins prove that fact beyond the shadow of a doubt.
16. They’re definitely using their powers right.
So with very few answers, I’ll answer this with a summer camp story.
We were playing capture the flag, but the teams got to hide their flag. Well each team in my game had a twin on each team, and the one on my team walked over to the other teams side and asked to be reminded where their flag was. He grabbed it and ran back before anyone noticed it was the wrong one
15. This would drive me batty!
Mom of identicals here.
Not really one moment –yet– but I had them by c-section and for some reason it’s always bothered me that I may have gotten them mixed up when we finally took the hospital bracelets off. They had no real differences as infants so I think about that at least 5 times a day. They’re 4 now.
14. Can’t believe his brother didn’t sound the alarm.
Identical twin here. When I was 4, we were at Disney World with all my cousins who are around the same age. I wandered off for just a minute, and my family took that time to move on to go somewhere else. When my mom was doing a head count, my brother moved and she counted him twice, so it took them a few minutes to realize I was lost.
Some nice strangers saw I was crying and noticed I was lost, and helped look for my family. My dad eventually spotted me, and hopped over a 7 foot fence to come get me. Security didn’t like that very much and they almost kicked him out. But everything worked out in the end.
13. Oh, that poor little sweetie.
I babysat for a pair of twins for a long time and when they were little his mom would tell them apart by “B is the one with the bigger head” lol, but you couldn’t tell if they weren’t looking directly at you, so when I got them mixed up I’d wrap my hands on both of their heads to tell the difference LMAO
12. I love that she laughed at you.
My mom is an identical twin (mirror twins), her twin lives across the country but when they get together they find it hilarious to get the same haircut, dress the same and even record voicemails for each other (her twin has a slightly stronger accent). There was nothing more frustrating as a teenager than coming home and lamenting to my mom and suddenly she goes “I’m not your mom HAHAHAHA”.
When they were kids, they often swapped dates with each other and my mom even tricked her twin’s date into buying her chocolate, teddy bear and flowers on Valentine’s Day. They also took tests for each other. Growing up, my grandmother would get confused because as infants and toddlers they’d always somehow end up in the same crib or bed and she would confuse who was who. To this day, they still have their own language from childhood and get “feelings” when the other is in emotional turmoil.
11. He passed the test!
I had a classmate that has a twin sister.
One day we – me, her twin, her and her boyfriend – went from school by train. Classmate sat with her boyfriend and I sat with her sister. Boyfriend had to use the toilet and when he was gone, they got an idea – apparently they never tried to switch to see if he would notice. So, they quickly switched some clothes (they were dressed similarly), changed their hair styles and switched the seats. When he came back, he looked at one, confused, then at the other, repeated the action several more times, then looked at his girlfriend and was like “Really?” while he started laughing.
10. When you don’t know there are two of them.
Adding my own summer camp story.
I was a volunteer at a summer camp for 14 year old when I was 18 or so. Im horri le with names, so I only knew the names the ones I talked the most with, and who was in my group. End of the camp one of the girls I didn’t talk that much to came to say bye to me. Then her twin sister came up as well. I had no idea they where twins, or that it was two of them up until that moment.
9. That’s one savvy teacher right there.
Once in my very large high school, I had a teacher stop mid lecture, and stated “you’re not Twin A, go switch back”.
When Twin A came back to classroom he was really embarrassed at getting caught and asked how she knew. She didn’t have an answer, but apparently they had switched on at least two other occasions.
Most people in the class didn’t even know he was a twin!
8. When you love someone you just know.
My dad has an identical twin.
Until I was about four years old they’d sometimes pretend to be the other to mess with me. After that age I could pretty easily tell them apart, but I couldn’t (and still can’t) really articulate how to do it to other people. It was just like “it’s easy, my uncle has a softer face.” They have identical-looking noses, cheekbones, jawlines, facial hair, etc. Neither is really noticeably fatter than the other or anything. Looking at them side by side there’s not really anything that actually looks softer on my uncle’s face than on my dad’s face. But if I’m pressed to describe how to tell them apart that’s the only way I can come up with to describe it. My mom and brother and sister and aunt and cousins all agree with that too. But if you try to objectively find what about his face is softer you can’t do it.
7. That would definitely fool the DMV.
Haha my grandfather and his twin brother were like this.
They actually wrote and published a book with a chapter in it detailing all the debauchery they got into. My favorite story was that they had to renew their drivers licenses and one of them couldn’t make the appointment. So one of them just went twice – and just put on a hat the second time lmao.
6. I hope the second one got dunked eventually. Otherwise…
My grandmother baptized the same kid twice.
5. Mother always knows.
My cousin has 2 sets of twins. They are 21 months apart. She can tell them all apart. They are all teen boys now and damned if anybody else can. Not even their dad.The younger ones look like the older ones too, so that complicates things even more.
(It’s like she and her spouse are running an illegal cloning operation out of their home.)
Good kids all of them ,they take advantage of their situations to hilarious levels. They love cosplaying storm troopers at conventions. And pull pranks at school a lot.
I’ve asked my cousin how she knows, she says it’s little details. A tiny freckle on one, shallower chin dimple on the other. Slight change in voices. Different clothing styles. Ect. I’m glad she can keep it all straight. I could never.
4. This would just be the hardest thing.
I’m not a parent but two of my brothers are twins.
Unfortunately, twin 1 passed away about a year ago. During the wake we had TONS of pictures of him, like way more than even I expected. And one thing my mom would do with them whenever we were somewhere or doing something photo-worthy is take three pictures – one of each twin and then both together.
About halfway through the wake my family realized my mom had accidentally chosen one picture of twin 2 (every other picture but that one was of twin 1). Nobody else at the wake noticed, even the extended family couldn’t tell them apart.
Weirdly, it was actually a lighthearted moment. My whole family found it funny that just the one detail slipped through the cracks, we joked that even now both twins were still doing something together. I think we just needed something to laugh at during that time
3. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to know your pelvis is why you can tell them apart.
Mine are only 16 months old, but to us they look different. They have different head shapes.
Normally a baby will “settle” in the pelvic bone leading up to birth. Well, they both can’t do that so one has a more round head while the other’s is more oval. So while they have the same features, their head shapes gives them each their own appearance. One has a faint birth mark on his left arm, so I will know if they ever try any tom-foolery or bamboozlement.
I will say I verbally get them tossed around. Baby B has been climbing things and getting into mischief lately. Then all of the sudden Baby A decided to do the exact same thing, so my default instinct was “Baby B don’t… Baby A….. You, stop that!”
2. This is hilariously cute.
Am father of identical twin toddler boys and a 9 month old so think I feel qualified to answer this one.
Since my wife feels its soooooo cute to dress them the same (“until they will tell us they dont want to”) this happens a lot more than one may think acceptable. There are some very small tells that I can find on each, like one has a slightly different head shape and another has a vein on his forehead in a more distinct pattern from the other. Still hard to tell in dim light.
For the most part now I usually try to get them to turn themselves in, almost like a jedi mind trick. For instance, when one gets in trouble and is looking guilty (pretty obvious for a 2 yo), I ask who did it and he inevitably names first the baby, then the dogs, then his brother’s name first, conveniently leaving out his own.
1. That would have freaked me out!
During a well baby check up when our twin boys were about 6 months old, they had to get two shots each.
Due to lack of communication in the clinic, our oldest son got all four shots.
Luckily nothing bad happened.
I definitely am not sorry I didn’t have twins, but also…I’m kind of sorry I didn’t have twins.
Do you have twins? Are you a twin? Share your own stories like this in the comments!