In what ways are you like your mother?

I look in the mirror and am reminded of my mother, though I am not really her double.
I have her resilience, her positivity, her strength of character, but also her feeling that her way is the best way of doing things. I wish I were half as loving and generous as she was (both with her time and what little she had).
She found it hard to spend money on herself, as for most of her life she struggled to make ends meet, and gave away what extra she had eg her £10 Christmas bonus. She was a great recycler, long before it became popular, but also a hoarder, a trait which to some extent I have inherited

I sometimes feel my face making the same expressions as my Mother does. I am also quite a practical person with a view that you can conquer anything if you put your mind to it which I definitely get from her. Without my medication I can also be as temperamental as her but whereas she thinks it is ok to be like that and others should just put up with it, I don't. There are so many ways I try not to be like her and I would never have beaten my children or given them such a turbulent life like she did.

My mother was a lovely parent and a lovely person; she had the knack of making her friends feel like better versions of themselves and more than 300 people turned up at her funeral. She was also extremely intelligent, a real Renaissance woman, worked throughout her adult life as a professionally qualified engineer, wrote poetry, volunteered as a Church Recorder for NADFAS, supported several charities, and was generally wonderful.

I am but a pale imitation - but I do try!

My mum was a lovely lady, always good tempered, generous, and loved a good laugh. We loved having in-jokes and recycled funny stories. I also love fun and laughter, but I have had higher expectations in life which she may have had in private but never showed. She never seemed dissatisfied or envied anyone though. I was very lucky with my Mum and Dad, I wish they were still here.

Unfortunately I am nothing like my mother who was a good cook and seamstress and well liked by everybody. I am the opposite. Her name was Milly hence my Gransnet name, although it is my middle name so some excuse. However my poor daughter has twice been mistaken for me!! There is 21 years between us. Fortunately we get on well.

I am the world's most inappropriate giggler having inherited that trait from her.

When I was little Mummy was the most wonderful person in the world, in her old age she became a sad, bitter , bigoted woman, so I have tried to keep the traits that I loved as a child and teenager and not develop the ones that made the latter 20 years of my mother's life very trying for us all - herself included.

I love cooking, children, cats, music, theatre - all traits that I share with her. I am open-minded, as she was both as a young and a mature woman, and I still have no idea what changed her in later life.

And yes, sometimes when I look in the mirror I see her, or my maternal grandmother looking back at me!

My Mum has always been brilliant with practical hands on assistance ..... however, it was used as a means to control, i.e. you need me so please do as you are told. So opinionated and controlling and it took me years to become assertive and say no. So now I’m evidently a difficult daughter who won’t conform ! In turn, I gave my 3 my advice, then stood back and let them make their own decisions, they are who they want to be and I couldn’t be any closer to any of them. They talk to me about anything as they know I won’t judge them as I was judged. Mum did, and still does her best, it’s just who she is, my Dad was nagged constantly and Mum even told her own Mum what she should and shouldn’t be doing. When we lose her, if the world does not change drastically, it will be proof to me that God does not exist, because once she gets “up there” God won’t stand a chance !!

I suspect I'm like her in some ways - I once asked her which parent I took after and she said 'neither - you are completely different.
We both 'go with the flow' and are laid back. Neither of us have an interest in housework beyond doing the necessary.

I would be proud to be like my mum. Funny kind loved her family. The only way I'm like her that I don't like is I'm a worrier. I definitely sound like her.

I Like gardening, cooking and baking just like Mum. My hair is greying in exactly the same way. She was funny and my sons tell me I am funny also.

Reading that back I should have put a comma after the word 'out,' as that would read as I meant it.

As I have become older I can see my mother in the mirror but I am now a good ten years older than she was when she died so it will be interesting to see how she would have aged as I do so myself. DH says I am like her in my ways too and if I am even half way like her I would be pleased. She has been gone for more than half of my life and I still miss her terribly and think of her a great deal. I wish I could have been a better daughter to her than I think I was but it was me she waited for in her last illness and when I had arrived home and we had talked everything out she went.

All I know was that I loved my mother very much. She was modern in her views compared to the mothers of my friends at school. She'd had a rotten life with a mean father who knocked her about but was able to start fresh with us and be a kind patient understanding mother.
I have just followed her method of bringing up children and am always presentable regarding clothes -just like she always was. I've also been told that I have her gift of making light pastry.
She was an avid reader and I am as well.
I missed her terribly when she died.

I'm just like mum, physically and mentally, horrifies me but brilliant role model,so,won't complain.

Ii would disagree. I am my father's child, whether I like it or not.

My mother liked housework.I most certainly do not.I think I am more like my MiL.Perhaps that's why DH married me !

I think that is true. As a child I was probably far more like my father than my mother, but I think as we become older, most of us get closer to, and more similar to our same sex parent.

After Mum died, I started to organise the funeral (I am the oldest sibling) and my young sister said "you're doing what Mum would have done.

I can see my OH getting more like his Dad, who was a lovely old man.

Mothers - do we become who we are because of them or despite them?
Either way, for me the main thing is to “pay it on” to our daughters’ generation, the frequent worries and fears maybe even the high expectations, but most of all the unconditional love.

My mother was very independent-minded as well as being family-orientated.
I hear of other women who were born in the early 1900s who voted exactly as their husbands told them - not my DM! Not that she wasted time arguing with DF, she just got on and decided for herself over a lot of issues.
I hope I'm the same.

Like M0nica, my mum was a feminist without knowing the word. Still sometimes I hear 'oh women weren't brought up to be sporty'. Well no-one told my mother or 2 of my aunts, who swam, cycled and ran competitively.
Mainly my mother, and her female relatives valued education, and plain speaking. I remember a friend telling my mum she was embarrassed to go to the doctor about something. My mum said that had led to a lot of women suffering and dying - we should not be embarrassed about our bodies, we should get proper advice about taking care of ourselves. She taught me about sex in a very straightforward way.
Some years after she died, in my nursing capacity I examined a young woman who had a very serious perineal infection - so bad I was urgently worried. She had been embarrassed to see any doctor, and was now refusing to see a male one. I felt that it was so urgent that we had no choice- and it was beyond my capacity to deal with. She had no close female relative available, so I sat beside her, held her hand, and said ' If I was in your situation, my mother would have told me to see any qualified person who could help me get better'. It worked and we got her treated.
I felt angry & sad that she hadn't had a mother who could speak plainly to her

My sister who's a lot younger then me used to refer to me as a second Mum. I do resemble our mother somewhat.

She was an excellent money manager, as am I (I hope) and she never interfered in the lives of her adult children unless asked. Both my parents were sociable and friendly and had a large and varied social circle. I think DH and I do the same.

Nowadays though, I see from photographs that in fact I resemble my grandmother and occasionally I see both grandmothers in photos of me.

My mother was kind and loving. She was into gardening, sewing, knitting and cookery which are also my favourite pastimes. On the other hand she let my Father treat her like a doormat and frequently belittle her. Unfortunately I took after her and let my husband control and emotionally abuse me for many years. I wish she'd had the courage to stand up to him and set me (as a child) a better example.

I am like my mother in build, looks and many other ways. We both like a glass (or 2) of prossecco. Love our children and Grandchildren (and in my Mothers case GGC also) unconditionally. She was loved and admired by all who met her. She died 12 days after Mothering Sunday last year. Our hearts are still grieving for her, and it was a privilege to have her live with us for the last 5 months of her life. She was my sisters and mine dearest friend ????

I look exactly like her and there the resemblance ends. I think that she is part of the reason I became the best mother and grandmother I could be instead of being like her