First, obviously, I would treat the people that raised me as my parents.
Second, I would try to make contact with them. If they go for it, maybe it’ll be a nice family story. If not, I’ll see what I can do in terms of legally extorting them for money, because ultra-wealthy shouldn’t exist and I barely get by, and I won’t really feel bad about that.
If I get a lot of money by either means (more than I need to buy a house and cover the basics), I would share with charities and people.
Hey step mom… how did you get stuck
I guess for inheritance reasons, it would make sense to correct my birth certificate to my biological parents. In that sense, I would feel happy, because I’d have a massive inheritance coming my way at some point. Other than that though, it wouldn’t make any difference to me, I’d still feel like the parents I grew up with were the “real” ones.
Is that even how inheritance works? Wouldn’t they almost certainly have a will that doesn’t mention you?
How inheritance works depends on the country. In my country (Germany), there is a mandatory portion of your wealth that each child will get as inheritance, no matter what the will says. Fully disinheriting your own children is only possible under some very narrow circumstances, such as the child being convicted with a felony serving more than a year of prison time.
Is that even how inheritance works?
Depends on the laws of your country.
Immediately order a DNA test and/or a second opinion. There’s no way I’m not my parents’ child.
I look and sound too much like my father, so I’d have to be the product of an affair of his, and my mother would have left him and cut off contact with whichever relative was actually my mother if he’d done that. She absolutely would not have adopted me and raised me as her own.
I mean, I like the idea that I’m actually the beneficiary of an extremely wealthy family, but it’s simply not the case.
Edit: beneficiary, not benefactor
I’d have a lot of questions about why I look and sound exactly like my dad. What were you getting up to pop?
I really wouldn’t give a shit.
My biological parents were both worthless parents.
The guy who raised me wasn’t my biological father.
I adopted my son.
The only “issue” with not knowing your biological parents is the lack of family medical history, but that really is not big deal.
Knowing the medical history of you biological family is absolutely a big deal. A lot of risk factors that you might not be screening for early or frequently enough without knowing the history.
In no way does your family history replace the need for those screenings. Just because there is no history of Colon Cancer doesn’t mean you don’t need to get you colon checked out.
Your family’s history is just an indicator and can be addressed by many other means.
With certain family history they start screening earlier and can catch things at earlier stages both of which equate to better outcomes.
Genetic sequencing is a near replacement nowadays but generally is not covered and can cost a few hundred.
The frequency of recommended screenings can change based on family history. A heart scan and arterial ultrasound may not be recommended if you have no family history of heart disease and you have no indicators for it yourself. And with our shit health insurance industry you may not be able to get certain screenings paid for if your doctor isn’t able to convince of their necessity, which having family history can help them do.
“Dodged a bullet there. They wanna pay my rent?”
I could have but did not invest in crypto. It would have changed my life, but it would have probably stunted my brain at “nice guy” level. Win some, lose some, you know?
Make contact, get medical history, and dip out.
I don’t view family as a paycheck. My family is who raised me. That being said, they owe me medical history. I feel like visiting with them could end very badly very quickly, like a step parent insisting you call them mom or dad. Depending on my mental state, I may not bother. It would be a good opportunity to show gratitude for my parents as well. They divorced and probably feel like more mistakes were made than really mattered but were both great parents.
Be deeply confused as I have an identical twin and we look alike. Did we both get switched? I can’t imagine that. The hospitals we were in were small, we were likely the only twins in the nicu then.
There was a situation where there were two sets of identical twins born at the same hospital at the same time, and somehow one of each got swapped. Each mismatched pair grew up thinking they had a non-identical twin and only found out about the mix-up later in life.
Maybe they wouldn’t have found out at all if both were swapped. Food for thought.
Horrifying! I do think we’re my mothers children. We look quite like her! People comment.
Maybe it’s a ruse! Maybe she has normal not silly children somewhere. Hmmm…
I don’t think I’d want to change the life I’ve had so far as the sum of my experience is how I’m the way I am. Would probably meet the people and see how things went from there.
My current parents would continue to always be my parents in that scenario I think
I would turn up at one of their wealthy reunions just to see what it’s about. If they seem like nice people, I’d try to get to know them. That’s it.
I don’t wanna be where I’m not wanted
I’d mostly keep quiet, but try to position myself in a way that would likely net a significant inheritance at some point.
Other than that, it doesn’t really change much: My genetic origin may be different than what I thought, but my parents never changed.
If they want to meet, I’d be willing to do that. If that goes well, maybe we can have some sort of relationship, but who they are matters more than how much they have.
I don’t think I would initiate contact with my biological parents in this hypothetical situation regardless of their financial status, but I would be willing to meet with them if they requested it first. I can’t miss what I never had and I don’t want to possibly disrupt their lives because of my own curiosity. Nor do I feel entitled to their money.
