I have two boys who are not twins, 4 and 6, and I switch them up all the time. They don’t even look the same. One looks exactly like me and the other looks like if my wife were a man.
I just get my wires crossed all the time. I do the same with my two dogs (ones stocky and brindle and ones leggy and tan…both about the same height/weight though).
That is fascinating! My dad always called me by my brother’s name and vice versa. He would start with the wrong name and end with the right name, so it would feel like we both had two names.
This is super common though. I mix up my kids’ names on a daily basis, it’s not because I don’t know who they are or can’t tell them apart. They do think it’s hilarious when I mix them up with the chickens.
The common factor is that I am usually saying the same mindless stuff to my kids (and chickens), like “get down from there” or “move out of the way please” or “stop making so much noise”.
My grandmother had this quirk where she’d start reaching for names of people she knew because she just couldn’t remember your name right then. I like to think her brain was buffering.
They’d usually be in the vicinity of each other, like my brother or father’s name, but sometimes she’d be way out there with a cousin or the neighbour.
I tell you though, it didn’t feel great when she looked right at me and called me by the family dogs’ names before she got to mine lol
