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Study Suggests Women Start Turning Into Their Mothers At Age 33

Updated September 8, 2021

Have you ever caught yourself doing or saying something that makes you stop dead in your tracks and think, "Oh my gosh, I'm turning into my mother"?

I've actually found that the older I get, the more frequently this happens to me, to the point where I'm pretty sure I'm knee-deep into the transition phase and it's only a matter of time before I emerge as my mom 2.0.

Although you may think you've cleverly managed to avoid the same fate, one new study might have some bad news for you, particularly if you're coming up on your 33rd birthday.

As it turns out, there might actually be an age when we start turning into our mothers, and all you soon-to-be 33-year-olds better brace yourselves.

Conducted by UK plastic surgeon Dr. Julian De Silva, the study suggests women can expect the maternal transformation to begin at age 33, whereas men start turning into their fathers at age 34.

Yes, that's right fellas, you're not exempt from this study either. We're all turning into our parents whether we like it or not.

In order to determine these very specific ages, De Silva surveyed 2,000 men and women.

After speaking with everyone, he found that more than half of the women surveyed claimed they noticed they were acting more and more like their mothers in their early 30s, effectively stopping rebelling against them and starting to mimic them instead.

De Silva also found that childbirth can have an effect on this maternal transition, as daughters are more likely to turn into their mothers after becoming a mother for the first time themselves.

So what exactly does it mean when these study participants say they're "turning into" their parents?

For women, that means they notice they've started watching the same TV shows as their mothers, enjoying the same hobbies, and even blurting out the same sayings.

Men, on the other hand, catch themselves turning off lights in empty rooms (after all, they aren't made of money!), and even adopting the same political views as their fathers.

The transformation process isn't all behavioral either — there's definitely a physical aspect, too.

In fact, people really begin to feel like they're becoming their parents when they notice they've started looking like them, too. And that largely happens with the onset of middle age.

"It is an inevitable part of ageing but a process lots of people want to put off for as long as possible," De Silva told Harpers Bazaar. "It is one of the reasons why the average age of first-time cosmetic surgery is coming down for both sexes [37 for women and 43 for men]."

Although we may shudder at the thought of our parents and try to prolong this process as much as possible, it can be pretty inevitable.

And as De Silva explained, it's also not such a bad thing after all.

"We all turn into our parents at some point in our lives," he said, "and that is something to be celebrated."

So if you're creeping into your 30s, it might be time to ditch the "I'm-not-like-you-mom!" attitude you adopted in your teens and start appreciating all the wonderful things that make you love your mother so much. Because before you know it, you'll be clipping coupons and recording old episodes of Shark Tank, just like mommy dearest.

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