This happened to me too! A new neighbor (a man), my husband and I were chatting at a neighborhood picnic/barbecue. Then my kids came by, said hi and went away with other kids. He turned to me and asked if they were from different partners. I managed to stammer “Same dad”, gesturing to my husband.
Got a come back-Chis Tucker about Jackie Chan in Rush Hour 3 comedy- something like ‘he’s my brother from another mother’. You had to have seen the scene but it was a great come back. Of course they look nothing alike.
A childhood photo of me with my 3 siblings would show a strawberry/auburn haired girl, a blonde/light brown haired girl, a black-headed girl, and a white blond headed boy. Only the blonde/light brown girl tanned. Some of us freckled, others didn’t. The only physical characteristic we share is our father’s family nose. I was the spitting image of my mom, but otherwise we looked like a random group of kids pulled together to make an Olan Mills photography studio ad photo.
As we have aged, we seem to have started looking more like each other, and more like our parents.
I wanted children who looked like my husband, but I believe they look more like each other. Family members have said they do resemble us parents in various ways; sometimes the parents can’t see what others can.
Here’s a father/son pair that look absolutely NOTHING LIKE EACH OTHER…
My sons looked similar when they were younger, but less alike as they’ve grown. S1 is a combo of the 2 of us, probably favoring me, while S2 more closely resembles DH, except for eye color and my hair.
DH doesn’t resemble his brother and sister. They look like their father, while he looks like his mother. In fact, he more closely resembles his cousin, who looks like his mother. Both their mothers were twin sisters.
My husband and BIL are adopted, both shortly after birth. They are both over 6 feet all, have hazel eyes and brown hair. We went to BIL’s wedding an another state and everyone we met there said “I’d recognize you as his brother anywhere”. No, they are not bio sibs.
Both of my sisters have blonde hair and blue eyes. I have brown hair and hazel eyes. DD has brown/hazel, DS has brown hair and grey eyes. All of my nieces have blue eyes, one is blonde, one is brunette. one is a natural redhead. Genes are funny.
@GMTPlus7 You do realize that Mr. Ping is the adoptive father, right? Oh, and that it’s a cartoon? 
My kids look a lot alike, BUT, one looks like me, one like dad. So apart, and if you know both of us, you would say they don’t look alike. Otherwise, people on the streets ask if they are twins! Of course the younger one is 6 inches taller now, so that will stop!
For some reason, redheads are particularly prone to receive the mailman remark. So annoying.
In UK it’s the milk man, in US it’s the mailman, in CAlifornia it’s the landscaper. I do know of a wife of my brother’s friend who had multiple affairs during her marriage, husband and his family forgave her but what broke the marriage was the affair with a landscaper. She’s a dentist. Maybe the common part is the drilling.
Fraternal twins can look very dissimilar.
It is startling for a minute, especially when the parents have different ethnic backgrounds and one twin favors the dad & the other, the mom.
But the more you live with someone, you can pick up each others mannerisms & vocal patterns.
Couples who have been married for years start to look alike. Heck, some of even look like our pets!
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/11/science/long-married-couples-do-look-alike-study-finds.html
Our current dog is a boxer/beagle mix, who is gorgeous and athletic.
I cant say he really looks like me, but my youngest actually picked him out online, and that could describe her.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/why-you-look-like-your-dog/309526/
My two S’s don’t look alike in any way. S1 looks like me and S2 looks like DH.
S1 has dark hair/eyes and was always a skinny kid til he got into weight lifting in high school.
S2 was dark blonde until he was about 18. Now that’s he’s an adult his hair is darker but no where close to his brother’s dark head. S2 has blue eyes and has always been stocky and a little taller than S1.
None of my daughters look alike. Two share the same father , our youngest is my husband’s. Oldest has brown, naturally curly hair, blue eyes and fair skin. Her sister is blonde with green eyes and not fair.
Everyone thinks she looks like her father ( I think she looks like her aunt from that side ) My youngest is very fair skinned with light blonde hair. When she was a baby, I had more that one person ask me if she was an albino….some people just don’t think before the words spill out
I remember going out to eat in the late 60’s and a lady coming up to my mom to ask her if the three of us kids were all from the same father. My brother was platinum blonde/blue eyed, my sister copper red hair, redhead freckles and blue eyes, and me with brunette hair and green eyes. My mom replied back with —not that it’s any of your business, but they belong to the butcher, baker and my husband. The lady was flabbergasted and walked off.
We had the same parents but just turned out differently. Although, I looked like my mom and my brother looked like my dad, we used to tell our sister she was adopted since she didn’t look like anyone in the family! 
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My husband and BIL are adopted, both shortly after birth. They are both over 6 feet all, have hazel eyes and brown hair. We went to BIL’s wedding an another state and everyone we met there said “I’d recognize you as his brother anywhere”. No, they are not bio sibs.
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My brother and his wife have 3 bio kids. Their 4th child is adopted and mixed race (Black, Hispanic and White). She looks like her siblings. She was not selected based on her looks; she was taken sight unseen. No one ever thinks she’s adopted. She’s now 16 and if I were able to post a family pic here, you would agree.
My kids look nothing alike. S1 is blond, blue-eyed, 5’11" and skinny-skinny. S2 has dark brown hair, brown eyes, 6’4" and about 275. S2 has been taller than S1 since 1st grade. Noone ever takes them for sibs. S2 has pieces of both of us – we have pics taken when we went out just before S2 left for college – one with S2 and me at the table, one with S2 and DH. He looks like each of us in those shots. Generally speaking, I don’t think they look like me.
I am appalled at the insensitive people out there!
A few years ago, during the first days of school, one of her teachers asked the kids whether she had taught any of their siblings, trying to put a name to some of the faces. My daughter mentioned that her brother had been in the teacher’s class 2 years before.
“Ah, yes, you have his eyes” was the response.
Nose, hair, hands, smile, voice… any of those I would have bought.
But my son was adopted from Korea. My daughters are ours biologically, so they reflect their Irish/Italian gene pool.
My kids resemble one another enough to tell that they’re siblings. Both look a lot more like their father than me. My D, especially, favors her dad although her mannerisms are similar to mine. Interestingly, I have a niece (brother’s kid) who looks almost exactly like me as a child. Whenever we go out together people assume she is my daughter and that my daughter belongs to my brother and his wife.
A post upthread reminded me of an incident with my sister. I went to visit sis in Boston shortly after she gave birth to her first child. My sister is white and her H is Asian. Her D looks Asian. A lady in the park came up to admire the baby and asked my sis “where did you get her?” My sis responded quickly that she gave birth to her baby, but the woman’s comments stung a new mother. I think sis realized that it wouldn’t be last of such comments. People assume a lot and are often unintentionally rude.
My mother was a freckled redhead and always got that.
My husband and I and our two daughters all have brown eyes, but my son has the most beautiful blue eyes, so my MIL, God rest her soul, used that as another excuse for not being close to my kids. After all, you just can’t be sure about those daughters-in-law! Of course, it is my FIL and my own dad from whom his majesty gets the blue eyes, but, hey, why let genetics get in the way of a good excuse!