My Therapist Told Me Recently That People Dont Inherit Traits From Their Uncles Or Aunts Only

Can a person inherit personality traits from their parents in their very genes and not through their childhood?

Sure, look at your aunts and uncles, especially if they are over 50. Now compare them to another unrelated family. You will find there are things common in one family that are not common in another here are just a few: level of aggression, dominance, introversion/ extroversion, intelligence.I went to a wedding reception when my mother was about 50. She and her five sisters were standing at the bar with their back to me. At first I could not tell which one was my mother! Took a minute to figure it out. But note they all were standing at the bar, they all had a beer in front of them and they all had similar hairdos, though they live from 50 - 100 miles away from each other. The older we get the more we become like our parents, even though they are long gone.As I remember it I often found it curious that my aunts all had the same ways about them. Sure some were based on their generation’s way of doing things but there were many personal things that were common across all of them. At the time I was studying about heritability coefficients. This particular wedding reception drove home for me the influence of genetics. Heck they were all about the same height, they were all about 10 - 15 pounds overweight, and they all talked on top of each other. There were other things but you need to do this exercise for yourself to see that we get lots of things from our parents aside from socialization.

My fiance and I both have a learning disability. Will our children inherit what we have?

That depends. Has either of you been told a reason for your learning disability? Do either of you have parents or siblings with the same disability? It's possible that your difficulties are heritable, but LDs are also associated with other factors that are not heritable. Was either of you a premature baby? LDs are seen in a higher percentage of premature babies than in non-premature babies, and also in babies who were not premature, but were very small for gestational age-- in other words, full-term babies who weighed less than 5.5lbs. Did either of your mothers smoke or drink while pregnant? those are also factors that are associated with learning disabilities (don't blame your mothers, though, because if you are old enough to marry now, the chances are that your mothers did not know the risks of these things when they were pregnant).Whether or not you have siblings, aunts or uncles, cousins, or other relatives you know of with learning disabilities is the most telling, though. If they do not seem to be present in any other people in your family, then the chances are that they are not genetic. However-- even if they are, they are not absolutely genetic: for example, a smoking mother could cause low-for-gestational-weight followed by LDs in all her children. Therefore, there could be a familial connection that is not genetic.Of course, some genetic syndromes are spontaneous mutations that have never shown up in a family before, but can still be passed down to children. They usually produce more obvious symptoms than a single LD, though.There are genetic counselors you can visit who can advise you on your individual situation better than someone on the internet, and can even do tests to finds out whether either of you has a known genetic syndrome with variable expression, and maybe has a mild version, but a child could have a more serious version. That is the main thing you need to worry about. Even then, it is still your decision whether to have a child. No one knows your lives better than you do and what it is like growing up with your particular disability.

I found out that my father is my grandmother's brother. How do I continue to live?

Hi. So this kind of marriage is a typical example of what is known as a consanguineous marriage.Consanguinity is quite rampant in South India particularly the uncle-niece marriages.The main concern with consanguineous marriages is that, the offspring have a slightly higher than normal risk to develop autosomal recessive genetic disorders. Because both your parents belong to the same family, the probability of them carrying the same genetic traits including genetic errors is high.So in your situation currently if,You are healthy and you do not have any disorders, particularly geneticYour parents brought you up lovingly and provided for your needs and provided a secure family environment as you grew upThen you do not have to worry at all!!!Your parents have provided you with a good quality of life! They just happen to be related before marriage..I get that their relationship may sound very weird to you but there is nothing you can do about it right now except you don't marry in a similar fashion (that is, since you don't find it all that great).I am Indian and when I was a student, I would discourage (A LOT) my close friends from marrying their uncles/nieces. I have many friends who have done either (married their uncles and married their nieces). I was then a trainee genetic counselor and would try to convince them that it is just not right to put your offspring at risk for a genetic disorder. I was like an activist convincing and cajoling them into marrying into different families. After one such episode, one of my mentors took me aside and told me to think about it from the angle of love. Many girls in India are told that they would be one day marrying their uncles once they grow up. So these girls and their uncles end up falling in love with each other at a very young age and continue to do so till they marry. To separate them on the context of consanguinity is cruel.So this is another thing you need to consider.3. Do your parents love each other?Basically, if points 1–3 are true, then you are in a good place and you don't have anything to worry about. Focus on the relationship you have with them!Hope this helps.