My sister was born in Boston and loves the Red Sox. My father, a born-and-raised Illinoisan, is a die-hard White Sox fan. So every few years, they go on a father-daughter outing to a Red Sox-White Sox game.
This outing generally means that they both travel to Boston for the game. One year, my college-age sister and my father realized that they were getting odd looks from the hotel staff. Looks that turned into sighs of relief only when my father loudly announced that he was checking in with his
daughter.
The hotel staff thought my father and my sister were together. As in, sexually.
Objectively, this isn't horribly surprising. My father had my sister when he was 27. A 27-year age difference is uncommon, but it does exist. Also, my father is blonde and blue-eyed, while my sister takes after my Japanese mother. They don't look alike at all, so I can understand why the hotel staff would think what they did. Still, it's my father and my older sister, so um, ew.
This has happened to other people I know. My friend Jenny was taking care of her niece with her older brother. A woman commented, "What a beautiful family," much to Jenny's chagrin and insistence that he was her
brother, not her husband.
I've never had this happen with anyone I'm related to, thankfully. The only male relatives I have are my cousins, who I hardly ever see, and my father. And I look way whiter than my sister, so people tend to realize that my father and I are related.
Has this ever happened to you? How did you deal?Image Source
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People always thought that my brother was my boyfriend. That was always confusing to me since we look so much alike. It was the only downfall to hanging out with him.
LOL. People thought my brother was my boyfriend. We decided that we wouldn't want to date them since they lacked reasoning skills. My brother and I almost look like twins.
..I've never had someone think one of my family members was an SO, but I do remember taking walks with my baby sisters in a stroller when I was sixteen, and old ladies staring at me like I was the spawn of Satan.
(..because they thought I was a teen mom with two kids).
I took my little cousin to the movies before to watch the stuart little movie, and they probably thought she was my kid. bad idea to take a 5 year old to the movies, because I don't think she understood the movie or had the attention span to care about anything other than drinking the giant soda and then saying that she had to go to the bathroom, so then I missed out on parts of the movie, and then she couldn't sit in the seat, but she stood on the seat and got her foot stuck in the seat and she would keep talking because kids can't help it even when you told them many times to not talk. I had to see the movie again later on dvd to watch the entire thing. don't take kids to the movies and don't babysit ever again
I'd say a 27-year age difference between parent/child is very common! My dad is 20 years old than me and 21 years older than my sister. When she was in high school still they went on a camping trip together and this one idiot kept congratulating my dad on his younger score. My dad was pissed and was like that is my daughter and the guy was like, "Sure it is." Luckily, they weren't drinking as I'm quite sure my dad would have kicked that guy's ass.
My parents had my youngest sister when I was 13 so when I was 16 I'd take her to McDonald's or whatever and get bad stares and an occasional stupid comment. I was like, "For gawd's sake, you judgmental idiots it's my baby sister!"
About a year and a half ago, I was on a date with a guy I liked. We got asked several times if we were brother and sister. Which was both annoying (he's my DATE, dammit, not a blood relative!) and funny, because he's Latino and speaks Spanish as his native language and I'm about as Anglo-Saxon-looking as they come and speak Spanish with an obvious accent. Apparently, we both looked like we were from Brazil.
Someone I was working with asked if my brother was my boyfriend when he dropped me off at a shoot. I think I just cringed, chuckled, and corrected him. No big deal.
How do you figure that a 27 year age difference is uncommon? It's statistically the AVERAGE age for a man to have his first child (not including men that don't have children)
@Erika_Steele@xanga - My brother and I are 16 months apart and have been told we look like twins, unfortunately my first boyfriend looked similar to my brother so people assumed my brother was my boyfriend and my boyfriend was my twin. So I always had to say no this is my older brother and this is my bf, I am not a twin
some people can tell that my brother is my brother, some can't... I don't think that they've ever mistaken us before. my boyfriend is white, so... there is no way that we can be related
Three people so far have asked if my boyfriend was my dad... he's one year older than me. He might look a little older than he is, but I'd think the maximum possible age for him is 25.. and I'm 21. WTF?
xX Ame ~*~ Hana Xx
Although my mom is twice my age, my brother (only two years older than) and I always introduce her as our sister first to new friends (playing off that the Asian genes make you look young unti you hit 60). When they take the bait, we reveal that she's actually our mother. Though, no, no one has ever confused us as a couple.
omfg when i was in 9th grade i went with my guy friend and his dad to his (dad's) work to celebrate 4th of july with his co-workers... and this lady asks if i was his wife.....................
no, ma'am, i - a 15-year-old girl, am not married to this 50+ year-old-man.
SHE WAS SO DUMB.
Yes, it's happened to me. My brother (5 years younger than me) and I went out one day. Don't really remember what the specific reason for our outing was. Probably food. We usually go out for food together. Any way... We were in Japantown, randomly browsing the stores, and I had decided to purchase a bag. The sales lady had made some kind of comment about my "boyfriend" and looked at my brother, who was standing next to me. He got disgusted and left the store. I chuckled a bit to ease the tension and politely corrected the sales lady.
reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SopMtuZqxZg
It's happened to me and my dad, and also me and my brother... Also, people sometimes think one of my sisters are my daughter. She was born when I was 11 -_-
No-one's ever explicitly said anything, but when I'm somewhere alone with one of my brothers, I think some people aren't sure. There's resemblance between us, but I look somewhere half-way between my two oldest brothers.
When we were younger, my brother and I hung out a lot. Some people thought we were together. It's not a big deal though, people just assume that about males and females they see together.
I found it a little more irritating when I was a nanny and people thought that my charges were my children. Not terribly bad, because it was always in the form of a compliment- "Your son is so cute and polite!"- but I was a little young to have kids. But you can't expect strangers to know all the details of your life, so I just don't worry about it.My brother and I get that quite a lot especially when my family goes on vacation because in the evenings I spend time with him drinking, clubbing etc. (I'm 18 and he's 23). At this point we expect it and just laugh it off every time. I did get that with my dad once and it was sooo unexpected since my dad and I have a 30 year difference and we look A LOT alike. I think the lady was just dumb when she said "What a beautiful wife you have!" to him.
People think my brother & I are dating but I just laugh it off & politely correct them. After all, they don't mean to offend you. Humans are a "Call-em-as-you-see-em" kind of species.
When I go out with my dad I'm pretty sure people think we're together. We look super similar though so I think if people look at us long enough they realize it. It's just because I pick him up from bars on occasion and we go to Denny's at like 2 in the morning after and I'm assuming it just looks weird to have an older guy and younger girl in Denny's at 2 am.
I once had a boyfriend who spotted me walking into the grocery store with an unidentified male. He called me shortly after that and got on my case, thinking I was cheating on him. I was so confused because nobody had ever asked if I was dating my brother. And for the record, my brother and I don't really resemble each other: he's tall and I'm short, he's thin and athletic and I'm not a small girl, He has light hair and eyes and I have dark brown of both.
my brother and i grew up in the same grade, because we are only 11 months apart. so we'd get that A LOT, especially when we moved to a new school. everyone who didnt know us or only kinda knew one & not the other would assume we were a couple. and then after explaining to them that we are siblings, everyone then figured we were twins, although we're not quite twins either lol. i had actually gotten used to explaining all of that to people overtime. it doesn't help nowadays when we go out in public because he has a son (actually he has 3 but its a complicated story -_- ) and the mother has never been in the picture, so i kind of assumed the role as not just my nephew's aunt but so much more than that. that boy is my LIFE. <3 and if i have both of my nephews with me (my other brothers kid), ppl give me awkward stares because im a 22 year old who looks like a 15 year old wandering about caring for 2 kids lol.
Whoever left the anonymous comment, the author was talking about the age difference of 27 years for a couple dating, not a person having kids.