Everyone knows that boy/girl twins can’t identical right? Wrong!

[Tincytot]

Here is my Friday night rant as a mum of twins teenagers who still gets asked if they are identical when the girl/boy twins are standing right in front of them, looking not one bit alike let alone identical. Plus they’re different sexes!

typical conversation-
“oh you have twins, what are they?”
”a boy and a girl”
“lovely, are they identical?”
”no they’re a boy and a girl”
”yeah but are they identical?”

🙄🙄

Nothing shocks me with twins..The amount of random strangers in the supermarket who asked me if my twins were "natural" was insane... As obviously I wanted to discuss their conception I the wine aisle at Sainsbury's

I agree OP, but its better than being asked if the twins have the same father

I have b/g twins. I was asked by a midwife in the hospital if they were identical.

Err well no, there’s one little but important difference…

I didn't know this until I was way in to my 30s. Why would everyone know this? It's not taught in schools and it's not the kind of information people would go seeking out for themselves unless they had an interest in twins, which most people don't unless they have twins in the family.

No, they can't!

Hmmmm….would you like to ask them what is different 🤷‍♀️🫣

I’ll give you a clue, one stands up to pee

Because everyone knows the difference in genitals and chromosomes between boys and girls

@JLou08 , because identical twins are two babies from one fertilised egg.
Twin - Wikipedia

What if they were both genetically male but one identified as female? 🤔

😆 Identical twins are when one sperm fertilises one egg, which then splits into two. Tell me how that egg can split into one baby who is XX and one baby who is XY. Explain it to me like I’m 5.

@CherryKerry Then they would still both be male, but one would be identifying as something they are not.

One has a penis the other doesn't so not identical.

We learned about XX and XY fertilisation, etc in biology. It is most definitely taught in schools.

Oh no…you’ve sent out the bat signal 🫣

No they can't, they may look alike but they are not identical, biology sees to that.

You thought a male and female child could be identical until you were way into your 30s? You don't have to have an interest in twins to know that a penis and a vagina are not identical.

Depends. If they were an XY fertilised egg that split in two—they are still genetically identical twins. If they are two separate eggs that were fertilised by two separate sperm, they are fraternal twins who have never been genetically identical. Body modifications after birth do not change the fact that you were (or weren’t) born with identical genes. Same way you’re still an identical twin even if you get a tattoo, but your sibling doesn’t.

I have 8 year old boy girl twins and I have been asked this so many times. By health professionals too. And my DH once got asked by someone who is a twin!

I mean this is one of the problems I had with Topsy and Tim when I was aged about 6.

This. Many fraternal twins look similar, the same way that other siblings sometimes look very similar.

According to the internet, it could happen in extremely rare genetic circumstances, one example being:

‘a single male or female zygote splits, but one twin loses a sex chromosome (an X or Y) during division, resulting in a female twin with Turner syndrome (one X chromosome)’

But in general, yes, it’s a bit of a silly question to ask.

I have a DS and a DD who are 2.5 years apart but looked incredibly alike as small children. People often asked me if they were twins, which I found a bit odd, because B/G twins (who are obviously non-identical) don’t necessarily look more alike than any brother and sister. B/G twins are genetically no different to any other sibling pair, they were just born at the same time.

I did have this conversation/argument with my mother who insisted that there was another (unspecified) meaning to "identical" other than genetically identical, and therefore boy/girl twins could be "identical" 😵‍💫

The daftest question I have been asked was by someone in the Dr's carpark whilst I was putting my 5 month old twins in the car

Q; What is the age difference?

Me (puzzled because this is a new one) .... 5 minutes 🤷‍♀️

Q; Oh, are they twins!!

It is a bit daft, but I think what happens is that someone tells you something (anything) about their children and you're stuck for something positive to say.

Omg OP I hope you are not the person I did this to last week.

As soon as she said ‘twins’ my brain went off on a tangent thinking about identical twins, then by the time I had asked if they were, I realised she’d already told me they’re a boy and a girl. I did confess to being a huge wally immediately but the damage is done.

If you are, then thank you for being so nice about it, if not then thank goodness there are other people so equally clueless around. 🙈

I had this conversation with my husband the other day. Not only did he think identical twins could be different sexes but that conjoined twins could be as well. He was telling our son. Even when I pointed out that identical twins have the same DNA, he said "so?".

There's plenty of stuff I'm dull as shit about so fair enough, but it still gave me pause.