A mum was shocked when her children were born with red hair despite both parents being brunette - and says people joke the postman must be their dad. Jessica Enslow, 48, is mum to seven kids and the youngest three - who are her current husband's - have glowing red locks.
Jessica revealed people can't believe she and her brown-haired husband, Rob, 44, a technology management consultant, are their parents. She said she constantly gets jokes that flame-haired Lincoln, 13, Alexis, 11, and Eli, nine, must actually be the postman's.
Jessica and Rob say they get comments made multiple times a day both in person and online. But the parents are so used to it that they no longer even notice.
Jessica said: "When our little boy was born with red hair it took us by surprise. Neither of us expected to have a red-haired child - never mind three.
"I didn't understand how it worked - what are the chances of it happening three times? We are always getting comments the children are the mailman's. If it's not the mailman it's the FedEx guy, the milkman, or... Ed Sheeran."
Jessica, a social media content creator, had son Lincoln in 2010 - her first child with Rob. She recalled their shock at seeing their child had bright red hair - despite neither of them being redheads.
But they discovered that earlier generations of both Jessica and Rob's families had been flame-haired - which explained the surprise. But because the feature is genetically recessive, the chances of the parents having not one, but three redheaded kids was very rare - just a 1.6% chance. As a result, the family often receive comments from strangers who can't believe the children are Rob's.
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She said: "When it first started happening, I was a bit defensive, but now it's just funny to me. It's always a joke because everyone always says they have Rob's face."
Jessica - who posts on TikTok as @jessicaenslow - claims the comments don't bother the family at all, and they find it funny. Their children have never been bullied or put down because of their unique hair colour, she said.
Jessica, from Salt Lake City, Utah, US, added: "If you did a little research into biology and genetics you would realise it can happen. I'm sure there are some people out there that think I actually cheated but most people just make the comment because they think they're hilarious."
Dad Rob added: "It's something we've always had a little fun with, the mailman thing has always been a joke. My kids look just like me, so it's difficult to think otherwise!
"We're done having kids but we're curious if we kept going, how many more redheads we'd have. There's a bit of a stigma around red hair so I make sure to always tell them how incredible it is, and how gorgeous they are."
