Mum’s the word, but we are not really two sisters at all!
DAUGHTER KEEPS HER MUM YOUNG AS THE PAIR ARE OFTEN MISTAKEN AS SIBLINGS WHEN ON A NIGHT OUT
THERE’S 21 years between them - but this mum and daughter look so alike they say they often get mistaken for sisters.
Sarah Niblock, 43, and Holly, 22, regularly turn heads when they hit the town together.
Events co-ordinator Sarah – also mum to students Milly, 20, and Harvey, 18 – admits her girls have influenced her appearance as they’ve grown up, started using make-up and following fashion.
“The girls love showing me off. They’ll show their friends pictures of me, and nobody can believe I’m their mum. We get people mistaking Holly and me for sisters all the time,” she said.
“A few times friends have said to me, ‘That’s a really nice picture of you on Facebook or Instagram,’ when it isn’t me at all – it’s Holly.”
And while she loves hitting the town with her daughters now they are older, Sarah says she has never encouraged them to grow up too soon.
“I tried to keep them as young as possible for as long as possible,” said Sarah, from Manchester. “I hate it when kids look older than their years.
“I only let them get into make-up when they were around 16-17, but watching them and having them teach me their tricks made me more interested, too.”
But having such a young-looking mum has not always made life easy for showjumping groom Holly, who was often ‘wound up’ as a teenager by boys her age – who told her how much they fancied Sarah.
On one occasion, when a date picked her up from her house – where he briefly met the rest of the family – he then spent most of the evening asking about Sarah.
“Back when I was younger, it would wind me up. Boys of my age would go on about mum,” said Holly.
And while Sarah, who has never had plastic surgery but has had Botox injections every six months for the past four years, enjoys socialising with her girls, she is keen to stress that she still maintains firm mother-daughter boundaries.
“It’s not like we go clubbing every weekend. They’d never get me in a club,” she said. “We just go to nice bars for cocktails, or dinners together.
“We are all very close, but at the end of the day, I know I’m their mum first, not their mate. “In the past, I have tried to tone down my look, but I just felt frumpy, and not myself. Deep down, I think I am uncomfortable with ageing, but getting a bit of Botox now and then is no more than other women my age are doing.” And Holly says she loves going out as a family. She added: “My friends will ask, ‘What you up to this weekend?’ and laugh when I tell them I’m heading out with my mum and sister.
“I’m sure Harvey will join us too, one day – though he’s a lot more sensible than us three.
“I love the way she is, and I hope if I ever have a daughter we have a relationship like mine and mum’s.”
I hope if I have a daughter we have a relationship like mine and mum’s Holly Niblock