"The woman that was with you..."

[akiross]

There have been a few times when my mother (full Asian) and I have been out together in public. As I've came across people, they have often asked me just who was "that woman that was with you?"

I've simply said, "oh, that was my mum."

"That was your mum?!!" they exclaim, followed by a long pause.

I knew what they were thinking. Then they look at me, a bit closer this time. For a while, we all fall silent.

Come on. Is it too hard to believe that this tall, large-boned, Anglo-looking girl came out of that tiny little oriental woman over there? Is she not my own mother but the "woman that was with me"?

Has anybody else been through a similar experience?

[betahat]

I think pretty much every EA experiences something like that in their life. I've actually gotten it on both sides since although I'm fairly "white" looking I still look nothing like my blond haired blue eyed mother. But then I've also had people react shocked when I told them I was half-Chinese (what, you couldn't figure it out by having one of the five most common Chinese last names?), and I've had people ask whether I was twins with my 2-year 3 inch shorter younger brother and whether we were related at all. A lot of people aren't very perceptive.

[penguinopolipitese]

me too. my mom's blond haired and green eyed so everyone asked whose babies those were... ...I was that baby. It's still much more apparent that I'm my dad's son rather than my mother's son.

[toyomansi]

White people usually assume that we are mother and daughter when they see us. Non-white people can often see the mother-daughter reseblence but sometimes they have to ask, and then they seem surprised and comment that I'm fair skinned compared to her (she's brown). Sometimes she says feels a bit ugly compared to me, because she is dark and has a big, flat nose (in her own words, lol... I think she is cute the way she is). ^^'

[FreckleFoot]

My brother and I have had that all our lives because, while we do not look 100% East Asian, we still look obviously Asian and people often thought my white mother had adopted us.

[Deleted]

People sometimes ask my Asian mother "is she your daughter?" (usually Asians) I think non Asians usually just assume I am her child. If someone doesn't think I'm her kid I think it's because my mother is very young looking and they have a hard time believing she is old enough to have a daughter my age.