To think family members should be able to tell DTwins apart

[AceofAcid]

Name changed because this along with my usual crap is pretty identifying.

I have identical twin boys, 14, and although they look exactly and I do mean exactly alike they have massively different personalities, go to different schools, have different friends, have different interests.

Jacob (not his real name) is a big Rugby fan, he has rugby posters in his room, likes going to rugby games etc he's also a big history buff, likes watching documentaries about the past, real interest in WW2, has plane models that were used during the war in his room.

Lewis (also not his real name) loves to paint, he wants to be an artist when he's older and family members have actually asked if he'd paint things for them. He's also really into rock music.

Last week was their birthday and family members who should know them really well, mixed their presents up again.

Jacob received an acrylic paint set, new brushes and tickets to a rock band that he had no interest in

Lewis received a book on world war 2 and a DVD about the England rugby team.

All in all, 9 family members mixed up their interests, these aren't family members who never see them, they regularly see them and know them quite well.

DSis had to phone me to make sure that she didn't get their interests muddled up.

This happens every year, but I never say anything as I think they don't have to send gifts, it's a nice gesture and I shouldn't complain.

Tonight DTwins were writing up their thank you cards, they'd swapped the gifts around as they do every year but kept having to ask each other what exactly they should be thanking the person for ?

Lewis: "Did Aunt Ruth send me the world war 2 book or was it you"

Jacob "She sent it to you"

They didn't seem upset but I felt pretty bad that their own family members kept mixing them up, is it really unreasonable to think they should know who likes what after 14 years.

Should I inform family members so this doesn't happen again or would that be really rude?

I've tried to make their interests very obvious, near Christmas/birthdays, I repeatedly find myself saying to relatives "Oh Jacob loves Rugby and Lewis is a fab painter" but every year the same thing happens by different family members, only grandparents and DSis because she always asks have never mixed their interests up.

[AuntieStella]

Yes, they should remember which is which.

But as my DMum manages to call my DC by the wrong names (not twins, not all the same sex) I think you just have to accept that muddles happen.

Your role is to turn it into an affectionate family joke. But from what you say about what your DTs say about it, this has already happened.

[ImperialBlether]

Is this something even their grandparents do? If so, I would wonder what real interest they showed in you and your hobbies while you were growing up. I can't imagine getting two grandchildren confused in that way. I can't understand it with aunts/uncles, either, though!

[TheRealKimmySchmidt63]

Only positive is that it sounds like your sins handle it well.

It would annoy me too- I agree with pp turn it into a 'joke'.