A post to r/inlaws on Oct. 24, 2026, asks why some mothers-in-law credit grandchildren’s looks to anyone but the mother. The poster says her own mother-in-law has done this since her daughter was born.
The thread has gathered more than 956 upvotes and 301 comments at the time of publication.
The woman wrote that her in-laws are nice people. “They love my daughter, help us out with her, and I [...] appreciate that,” she said. Her mother-in-law is “one of those people who seemingly cannot go five minutes without offering an unsolicited opinion or making a comment about something,” she added, and she usually lets it pass. The poster said her daughter is “my absolute twin,” and that strangers “constantly comment on how much she looks like me.”
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On one trip, her mother-in-law remarked that the girl looked like someone in the poster’s family. The poster believes it was her sister. Her husband replied, “No, she looks exactly like [the poster].” The mother-in-law insisted that the child resembled the poster’s sister instead and has kept commenting on her daughter’s appearance ever since she was a newborn. The Redditor asked what makes some grandmothers credit a child’s features to anyone but the mother.
One commenter gave examples of relatives crediting a baby’s food preferences to a single family. They wrote, “The baby likes ice cream!!?? Well, they are obviously a Smith!” They added, “The baby likes bananas??!! Obviously they are a Smith, only Smiths like bananas.”
They called the habit “exhausting” and said, “I hope I’m not doomed to say this ridiculousness about my grandkids (if I ever have any).” They said they avoid telling their own children where traits come from, writing, “My kids are their own people.” “Yes they have DNA from their parents & grandparents, but it’s all combined & mixed up into a brand new person,” they added.
A separate reply offered a theory tied to grandmothers’ expectations of their sons as fathers. They wrote, “I once saw a grandmother insist she could see the resemblance in the 3D ultrasound pics.”
In their view, grandmothers are “old and wise enough on some level to know there’s a pretty good chance their son will find some excuse” to avoid being an involved parent. “So they feel compelled to convince him to feel like he should love and take responsibility for his child,” they wrote.
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Another commenter described a mother-in-law whose relationship with her son they found uncomfortable. They wrote, “Some MIL treat their sons like husbands & it’s [...] weird.” They said their mother-in-law has four children, adding, “My MIL has 4 kids…the eldest boy, my husband, then 2 girls.”
They said part of them thinks the attention stems from their husband marrying and having a baby first. “She acts like i [sic] stole a limb from her,” they wrote. They also referred to the Bible, writing, “In the Bible it tells men to ‘leave & cleave’…meaning for men to put their wife & kids before his parents. She’s religious but ig she just ignores that part of the Bible."
The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the account described in this post. The details above reflect the poster’s account as shared on r/inlaws. The identities of the poster, her mother-in-law, her family members and the commenters have not been confirmed.
