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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be surprised by his colour?

102 replies

ifihadonlyknown · 12/12/2017 15:31

My DS 7months is a stunner. Small ,flat to his head ears, button nose, huge almond-shaped blue eyes, ...honestly, stick a ribbon in his hair and he'll be the cutest little girl. My father has delicate elfin features and so does DP despite being big, chunky guys so I fully expected him to be a looker. Anyway, My mum and dad both have brown-nearly black hair and eyes, as do all of my siblings. DP has dark hair and eyes with a dark dad and blondish mother. My little dude presents us with a shock of red hair. His skins a bit whiter than ours too. I'm delighted, don't get me wrong even our very diluted Mediterranean genes have produced generations of brunette, olivey kids and something different is very welcome. WTF though! How did that happen ? Anyone get surprise looking babies?

OP posts:

MyWhatICallNameChange · 12/12/2017 16:56

My kids are all exactly the same. Blue eyes, blonde hair turning mousey brown as they got older. Which is exactly the same as me and their dad. Some variation would have been nice. Ex-h's brother is dark with brown eyes, my mum had black hair, my dad was ginger. No, I made 5 clones!

Jux · 12/12/2017 16:59

Recessive genes are interesting things, aren’t they? No telling when they’ll meet their opposite number and show up in the phenotype!

nooka · 12/12/2017 17:02

My dd was blond and blue eyed for a long time and we used to laugh that she was a changeling as dh and I are both dark haired and eyed as is her brother and most of our families on both sides. She was also very like one of her cousins, who until then had been thought just to take after his father (my BIL) when clearly the coding for their looks sits somewhere in our family tree. Now she has dark green eyes and brown hair and everyone says she looks just like me.

Frederickvonhefferneffer · 12/12/2017 17:03

Myself and DP are both dark haired, dark eyed, olive skinned, firstborn also.
But my second is bright neon ginger with the palest complexion and sky blue eyes!
I always get asked if my postman is a red head.

Standingcat · 12/12/2017 17:06

my DNiece was born with beautiful red hair, no one else in the family has her colouring including her younger sibling.

Sapiosexual · 12/12/2017 17:06

If we are gonna start comparing baby cuteness then my 'little dude' has you all beat

Pansiesandredrosesandmarigolds · 12/12/2017 17:08

longreads.com/2017/12/04/the-joys-and-sorrows-of-watching-my-own-birth/

I promise it’s relevant!

Coyoacan · 12/12/2017 17:14

My dgd has the blood from three continents in her viens, so it was quite exciting waiting to see what she would look like when she was born. She could have been anything from blond to black.

JacquelineChan · 12/12/2017 17:17

i'm italian, DP is jewish , both of us are dark - DS is blond ! but he has the darkest eyes almost black .....

MrsU88 · 12/12/2017 17:23

I have dark brown hair. Dh has black hair...out popped ds with blonde hair. I used to joke that it's a good job we don't have a milkman.

the boys on my side start with blonde hair but turns darker as they age. (Late teens)

Mrsdraper1 · 12/12/2017 17:35

My husband's auntie is nicknamed the gypsy because the rest of the family are pale with blonde hair and she is dark haired and really quite dark skinned. Complete contrast to the rest of the family.

BrizzleDrizzle · 12/12/2017 17:36

I come from a family where everybody is black haired with very pale skin and all burn rather than tan.

I, and my DCs, are all red heads with blue eyes who tan easily. Genes are very, very strange things.

RaspberryRipple63 · 12/12/2017 17:41

I'm always amazed at the fact that my older brother and I have blond hair,despite neither of our parents being blond. I had practically black hair when I was born,like my DDad,but I had turned very light blond by the age of 6 months,and my Dbrother was the same. People always said to my DMum 'They won't stay blond,they'll get darker as they get older' but neither of us did. I'm now 54 and my hair is the same colour it was when I was 10. My Dbrother is nearly 60,and what hair he has left is still blond. When I asked my DMum how we ended up blond when she and my DDad had very dark brown hair she said it must be a throwback to our great grandfather who apparently was very blond. Genes are strange things.

Fruitbat1980 · 12/12/2017 17:44

I come from 'average' white Caucasian stock. Mostly blonde hair and hazel or blue eyes on both sides of the family. Yet I have crazy beautiful wild curly jet black hair. Seriously it's bonkers. Not even a curl in sight in the rest of the family. No one could understand it. Till someone doing family tree unearthed the fact several generations back a wealthy man of mixed African origin used to visit my great great great grandmother and possibly fathered a few of her kids... Still don't know if it's true but fascinating! I love genetics!

HildaZelda · 12/12/2017 17:44

I have dark brown hair now but was a redhead as a baby. It's popped up in in one first cousin and a second cousin too. It's along the generations somewhere and appears every so often. Probably something similar in your family OP.

Ollivander84 · 12/12/2017 17:47

My mum is dark olive skin, brown eyes, nearly black hair. Mediterranean type colouring, as is 99% of the family
I stand next to her with my two male cousins and she gets "oh what lovely sons"
They're the spitting image of each other. Meanwhile I'm pale blue , green eyes and red hair

Llamacorn · 12/12/2017 17:54

My 3 girls all have different colouring, dd1 has very dark hair and eyes, tall and slender. dd2 is pale with dark hair and bright blue eyes, very petite and dd3 is tanned, blonde, has green eyes and very slender and tall. They all look really alike though which I find v odd too.

Everyone has rose tinted specs when it comes to their dc though, everyone thinks their kids are the most gorgeous

Avonandice · 12/12/2017 17:59

I was blonde to the point of white as a child, show me a picture of the sun and I turned into a lobster
DH was brown haired, slight olivey skin tone and tans if you show him the sun.
DD1 was blonde but has darkened and now has a natural white complextion to the stage where she get tested for anemia reguarly
DD2 came out dark haired, tanned and has lightened to look like she spends her life on the beach in california
DS came out looking like an orangutan. Although a cute orangutan and has now turned more like his dad.

Nicecuppatea21 · 12/12/2017 18:20

I am from a country where red hair is common. My dad and two of my brothers have red hair and all my 4 sisters and lots of aunties, uncles and cousins have auburn/brown hair and pretty much all of them have pale skin.

We never called it ginger and never got bullied for it. I only learned about 25 years ago that red haired people were bullied for their hair colour.

I was delighted to see Prince Harry looking so handsome and a great role model for anyone being bullied. I don't have red hair but I imagine that he is a great ad for red hair and totally handsome.

How will Harry & Meghan's babies look? Can't wait!!

Nicecuppatea21 · 12/12/2017 18:27

Dust it's really damaging for a parent to comment negatively on their offspring's looks. It happened to me too and it was extremely damaging. Warning to parents - Don't ever do that.

Bambamber · 12/12/2017 18:37

My daughter has Inherited her red hair from her paternal great grandmother. Everyone was waiting to see when the red head gene would show again. We were all absolutely delighted when our little red head was born, and she has the most beautiful porcelain skin. She also has beautiful long, dark eyelashes, which I am rather envious of! She really does look like a beautiful little doll, But then of course I would think she was the most beautiful thing in the world

She doesn't get it from me though, I looked like a right hairy gremlin when I was born!

ForgivenessIsDivine · 12/12/2017 18:38

I also have a funny photo with my best friend, she and I had babies at the same time.. it was like we had swapped babies.. DS had similar skin and hair colouring to her and her DD was more similar to me....

VioletDaze · 12/12/2017 18:48

DH is mixed race - white mother and Asian father. He looks obviously non-white, his sister is blonde and blue eyed. It can be very random!

Kraggle · 12/12/2017 18:54

This gorgeous hair came as a shock to us. Both dh and I have straight dark brown hair, dh is quite olive skinned I’m pale and freckly.

Dd1 has beautiful tones in her hair, it looks like we’ve had it highlighted. The pic is after she let me blow dry it straight normally it is a curly ringlety birds nest!

Poor dd2 has so far inherited our straight brown hair but I can’t tell what colour her eyes are yet. Dh has brown eyes mine are blue. Dd2s are grey/green/brown/not quite sure so I can’t wait to see what colour they end up.

Sullabylullaby · 12/12/2017 19:37

My Dad has blue eyes, my Mum brown. All three of us siblings have brown eyes. My children at times can look both like me and their father at different times.

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