Poll in a moment. Smart-aleckry encouraged.
You discover that you were switched at birth, and thus no genetic relation to your family. Reaction?
It would not be a big deal to me. My parents are the ones who raised me, fed me, clothed me, housed me, changed my diapers, put up with my crying fits, and generally did extraordinary things in order to allow me to reach adulthood in one piece. So they’re my parents, genes or not.
That said, it would be extremely surprising given how my hair and the shape of my nose are clearly inherited from my father.
I would be astonished, because we’re mistaken for each other all the time.
That being said, even if it were proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, I don’t care. My Mum and Dad, my brother, my sisters are the ones who put up with me all those years, not some biological strangers.
I wouldn’t care. Wouldn’t change my life at all.
Wouldn’t change much; my nuclear family’s all dead, anyway, and I love what I have left. I’d be curious to know the details of my actual heritage, though, and that would be quite an endeavor, I’m sure.
I’ve known I was adopted pretty much my entire life. Out there are bioparents, but I was raised by my mom and dad, and that’s all that matters.
Yes, I have been curious about my heritage and made a few stabs at searching, but when it comes down to it - who cares?
And, FWIW, despite towering over / outweighing / looking nothing like my Mom, we’re often told we resembe each other.
I would simply not believe it. My brother and I look and sound too similar. And my youngest niece (sister’s daughter) is so similar to me that it’s scary. (She’s way prettier, though.) Even if all that were not so, they’re still my family and I love them to death and nothing’s going to change that.
It would explain a lot, but I love the ones I’ve got no matter what. However, I would want to know more about my bio parents then.
Like others have said, it wouldn’t matter to me. Connection by blood isn’t as close as the connections developed over a life time.
There’s no appropriate response. My family would still be my family, but it would be a real relief not to have the 50% cancer rate and 40% diabetes rate that my (present) family has. My mother was one of eleven, of those, 6 have had cancer - she had it twice before dying of a massive stroke. My father one of 6, he was a non-smoker who died of lung cancer. His mother died of pancreatic cancer. He and all his siblings were diabetic.
StG
I’d find that nearly impossible to believe. What are the odds of another baby girl over 8lbs with my mom’s red hair and hereditary dental problems being born at the same small hospital the same day? But anyway, if it were true, it wouldn’t change much.
Because I’m biracial and from a small town, there’s 0 chance this could have happened, so I’m having a really hard time even imagining what I’d do in the situation. I don’t think I’ll vote because of it, but I am curious as to what other people say.
Other than the fact that my father swears he was there when I was born and that my mother did indeed give birth to me I would swear I had no relationship to anyone from my maternal ancestors.
If you told me I wasn’t my fathers child I would laugh in your face. My father, my brother and my son in pictures at the same age could be triplets. Dad and I are very much alike personality wise as well.
“Well, that explains that.”
Considering that I look exactly like my father and my temperament and medical/dental history are pretty much perfect a amalgam of my parents’, it would take a lot to believe I was switched at birth.
So beyond the extra need for proof, it wouldn’t change anything, other than me investigating who my bio-parents were in order to figure out where in the freaking hell my nose could have come from if it wasn’t from my dad.
There’s an interesting This American Life called “Family Physics” that covers this situation. A guy grew up in a family insisting his dark skin came from the recessive genes provided by really dark Italian relatives. How the story played out is pretty interesting.
There’s too much family resemblance so I’d want some solid proof. Other than that, I’d track down the other family for medical information, but wouldn’t change anything else, and would be a little put out if the real Omega came around and started trying to reclaim ‘their’ family.
I put that I “wouldn’t give a flip”. You could tell me right now that I’m not related to my mother and somehow prove it to be true and I wouldn’t have much of a reaction at all.
Eh - wouldn’t care much, though I’d like a medical history of my bio-parents if it could be obtained without too much hassle. Not because I’d care about them as people, but because these things can be useful.
I’m sorry but unless it was just a mad coincidence I just look too much like the rest of my family not to be related to them by blood.