Imagine you had four kids and they all looked the same.
Now imagine how mortifying it would be if you couldn't tell them apart.
A mother of quadruplets has been faced with that very scenario, and she's come up with a hair-raising solution that's proven incredibly effective.
(Photo credit: AFP PHOTOSTR/AFP/GettyImages)
According to Chinese news website NOW News, Tan Chaoyun from Shenzhen, China, has shaved numbers into the heads of her 6-year-old sons to help teachers differentiate them.
Tan said that when she had registered her kids for elementary school, the boys' future teachers had worriedly informed her that they would likely have difficulty telling them apart.
So in an attempt to avert potential mayhem, Tan decided that the boys -- who are reportedly identical save for differences in the shape of their eyelids -- needed to be adorned with a more distinguishing trait that would set them apart from each other.
"My sons are identical, even to me," said Tan, according to MSN. "I could only tell the difference between them by having different ankle tags on them before they turned 18 months old."
"Even now, their father can't tell which one is which. Sometimes, he punishes the second one for something the third one has done."
Tan told reporters that the new hairstyles have been a huge success, NOW News notes.
Though perhaps not the most subtle of hairdos, the boys' new identity markers have ensured that they are easily differentiated.
"Teachers and classmates can't get confused with the big marks on their head," said Tan, according to MSN.