Let’s face it; very few kids are spitting images of their parents — unless you are Reese Witherspoon’s son and daughter, of course! But, celebrity spawns aside, we all tend to be blends of our mothers and our fathers. In our case, we have our dad’s eyes, nose, and shy disposition but our mom’s hair and stubbornness. Yep, we sure are our mother’s daughter — and our father’s daughter, too!

Now, whether you identify more with your ma or your pa is something that’s unique to you, but have you ever stopped and wondered why you take after one over the other in specific ways? It’s a mystifying question and one that might have even changed since you first learned about genetics in high school Bio class.

You see, as scientists become more and more sophisticated in terms of analyzing human DNA, they’re learning that inherited traits from mother and father aren’t necessarily a 50/50 split. In fact, quite the opposite — we have a higher probability of taking after our mothers than our fathers.

For instance, when it comes to unique vision problems, like color blindness, they often fall on the shoulders of our mother’s genetic makeup. Even though way more men than women are affected by this visual impairment, it’s a defect that is found on the X chromosome.

Now, color blindness isn’t the only thing that you may have inherited from your good, old mom — her side is also likely, or at least partly, responsible for male-pattern baldness, mood disorders (especially in female offspring), type 2 diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease.

Like color blindness, these diseases and traits are often carried by the X chromosome, which your lovely mother has TWO of! This, of course, ups the odds of her being the one passing traits down to YOU.

When it comes to your dad, his puny Y chromosome just doesn’t have as much influence as your mom’s double XXs. Having said that, there is a higher likelihood that you ended up with his unique facial bone structure. Just think about it– do your eyes, cheekbones, and jawline resemble your dad’s? We told you so…

Fun fact: children that resemble their fathers end up maintaining closer relationships with their dads than those who look more like their mothers. Random–and sad!–but true.

Of course, your traits, especially the ones that you see when you look in the mirror, can also be shaped and molded by your environment. Yep, nurture most definitely IS stronger than nature in some cases.

Confused yet? If so, no worries– the concept is a lot easier to grasp when you have some handy visuals to go along with it! Watch the video below for even more fascinating details on why you inherited certain features from your mom and why you inherited certain features from your dad. It sure is fascinating stuff!

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject. Do you take after your mother or your father? In which ways? Do you notice these trends in your own child?