*If *either, of course. My mother’s people were hard-headed, self-centered survivors. My father’s were head-in-the-clouds idealists. I definitely fall on my mother’s side; my sister and I occasionally joke about it: “You are *really *sounding like Grandmom.”
Unfortunately my dad didn’t want me, so I have no idea what his family was like. But this question has popped up in my head many times. I mean, I have many things in common with my mother’s family, but so much that I don’t. No one is remotely interested in fantasy, or in math or sciences. Everyone is much darker skinned than me. (Hell, I don’t even really look Indian anymore).
Genetics is a fascinating thing.
It’s hard to say, really. I look like Mom’s family and my brother and I laugh about inheriting the Scottish cheap bone from them. Otoh, my sense of humor is all Daddy’s side, and our whole generation snickers about our familial Rightness Gene. (We may be incorrect, but we are never wrong. Never. Just ask us and we’ll tell you about it. Frequently, and at great length.) The pure-d mulishness came from both families.
My mom’s side is a bunch of loud, messy, poor, fat Catholics. They don’t give a shit about what others think of them.
My dad’s side is a bunch of quiet, tidy, poor, skinny Protestants. They are all scared of the outside world.
I’m pretty much like my dad’s side, I even look like them. EXCEPT I got the fat genes from my mom’s side. Bugger 
I’ve got child molesters on one side and fucking retards on the other so I’m hoping neither. :eek:
I was going to say my dad’s side of the family, but I guess I do have a fair bit in common with my mother and her sister. My maternal grandparents and uncle, OTOH, seem to be from a completely different planet (one where people are really loud and take FOX News seriously).
ALL of them are child molestors and fucking retards? :eek: Jeez, and I thought I had it bad, with my mother’s side full of drama llamas!
I think I have the worst traits of both parents… :rolleyes:
Your parents must have had a beautiful love story. Before jail, anyway.
Both, I think, except for my utter lack of any sense of direction, which neither side has. I’m impatient and hyperfocused on things like Dad’s side, but I have somewhat better personal skills, like Mom. I apparently tend to remind the family of my mother’s paternal grandmother, but she died before I was born so I have no idea if that’s true.
I’m not sure about temperament, but for physical appearance we all fall towards my dad’s side of the family. Even all of our kids. My brother’s kids look nothing like their mother and my sister’s kids look nothing like their father. In fact my siblings and I have all passed as our neice’s and nephew’s parents. My wife’s family get’s frustrated at times that our two little girls look so much like me…hair and eye color, especially. I guess my dad’s family just has very dominant genes that kick butt against other genes.
If people who only know my dad meet me they say I am just like him.
If people who only know my mom meet me they say I am just like her.
When people who know both of them meet me they can’t get over that even though my parents are very different I am like both of them.
When people who have known me for years meet my parents the reaction is that it explains a lot.
This is all in terms of temperment though. I look like neither of them. (Actually, I look like my mom’s side of the family. She just doesn’t look like any of them. We are all brown haired, pale and buxom. She is tiny, tanned and blonde.)
My father’s. I look just like him, I’m built like him, I have his temperament, and hopefully I’ll take after him in health and avoid the cancer that plagues my mother’s family.
People who meet me and my mother say we look so much alike, and both of us are totally puzzled by that claim. We look nothing alike! Every last feature on our faces is different (although I get my long eyelashes from her side, and my crooked fingers – that’s it).
I grew up in the US and my father’s family is in Italy, and it was such a treat when I got to visit with them as an adult for several weeks a few years ago. I don’t relate to my mother’s family at all, but my father’s family really felt like family to me. Similar personalities, similar interests…they just felt simpatico, you know? 
I was sorry we lived so far away.
Curly hair! Almost no one has curly hair on this side, and no one has my kind of curly hair. I wonder if ol’ Dad had curly hair?
ETA: gallowsfodder, your comment reminded me. When I went to visit my adopted dad’s family, I really didn’t fit in at all. It was odd, because I do resemble my adopted dad in some mannerisms, but his family were (and are) totally alien to me. Must be scent.
When I was younger, I looked a lot like my mom. As I’ve aged, I see more of my dad (or at least his sisters) in my, including the thinning, but non-graying hair. In temperament, I’m much more like my dad was, more analytical, more mechanically inclined, and less of a technophobe than my mom.
And unlike all of my sibs, I was the only one to move away from our hometown. Even now, I’m more than 2 hours from my mom, after living 900 miles away for a couple of decades.
Intellectually/emotionally, I take after my father’s side: secular Jews with a high priority on education and sarcastic wit. My mother’s side is one big religious Christian family of uncertain denomination (I think Lutheran).
Physically, I take after my mother’s side. Early onset male pattern baldness, a propensity for lots and lots of good Southern food and a tendency toward the spherical.
Well alright, I suppose there are only a handful of actual molesters, the rest are merely apologists who think we’re uptight for not wanting to associate with the convicted sex offenders.
I don’t think anyone in my family would molest a llama but that side does come from Montana so there’s really no telling.
I suppose I take after the 'tards, we’re all short and round. You can tell the folks who’ve married in as the literally stick up out of the crowd.
Definitely Dad’s side.
:eek: You people stay away from my family.
My father’s side are artists, but in an earthy, grounded way.
My mother’s side are academics and teachers, usually in mathematics and engineering.
I’m an academic. I’m often more like my father’s side in temperament, but truthfully, my mother’s side has given me a blueprint to work from.