Kristie Moss / Scroll Photo Illustration

Starting to morph uncannily into mother

Amy Barrus BAR04050@BYUI.EDU News Asst. Editor

Have you ever had that dream where you look in the mirror and in the place where your face should be, it’s your mother’s?

Not that it’s a nightmare when students realize they are becoming their mothers, but it can be a bit unnerving for them to recognize which traits and habits they have picked up from that important woman in their lives.

And even more unsettling is the traits are shown in them exactly the same as they are shown in their moms. These similar traits vary from voices to handling stress to cleaning.

Jessica Hardy, a freshman from Clifton, Idaho, said she noticed she was becoming like her mother while she was preparing for clean checks last semester.

“[I’d say] ‘I have to do things just right,’ which was the exact way she does them,” Hardy said.

Laurie Summers, a sophomore from Jerome, Idaho, said she has argued with roommates about the proper way to clean.

“No, my mom does it this way,” Summers said she’d say to them.

Michelle Perroni, a freshman from League City, Texas, said she first realized she was becoming her mother her senior year of high school.

Perroni said both she and her mother are innovative and like to throw things together and be last minute, although this isn’t the only characteristic they share.

It was actually her little brother Max who pointed the similarity out to both of them when they were fighting with each other.

“He’d say, ‘You’re both annoying and fighting over the same thing!’” Perroni said.

It doesn’t bother Perroni that she is like her mother, for the most part. What does bother her is the likeness is not always a positive thing.

“I pick up my mom’s bad qualities and not necessarily her good ones,” Perroni said.

Perroni said her mother can’t watch singing or dancing without being really critical, and although Perroni gets after her mother for doing it, Perroni finds herself doing it too.

Summers agreed with Perroni.

“There are some things she does that I dislike, but see myself doing,” Summers said.

Summers said the negative habit she’s picked up from her mother is how she handles stress, and sometimes it bothers her a little bit.

Hardy also agreed and said every now and then it’s annoying to be like her mother.

Especially with a trait she promised herself she would never inherit; not paying close attention to people when they’re talking to her.

“I find I get distracted easily, just like my mom does,” Hardy said. “It drives me crazy.”

But although it annoys Hardy sometimes, she said she does things like her mother because she looks up to her.

“I do things like that because I really do idolize her, so it’s not a bad thing,” Hardy said.