Spotting Anomalies

Every return trip in That's Not My Mom comes down to the same task: compare the house in front of you against the house you remember, and catch whatever doesn't match.

Missing Objects

The simplest anomaly type is absence — a painting, a vase, or a piece of furniture that was there on a previous visit and simply isn't anymore. These are usually the easiest anomalies to catch once you've built a solid mental map of the house during the first visit.

Duplicated Objects

The opposite of a missing object: something ordinary appears more than once in the same space, like a second identical chair or an extra copy of a picture frame. Duplication anomalies are easy to miss if you're only checking whether objects look right rather than counting how many of them there are.

Altered Pictures and Decorations

Framed pictures and wall decorations are a recurring target — a photo might contain a different face than it should, or a frame that was empty might suddenly hold an image. These anomalies reward a second, closer look rather than a quick glance from across the room.

Scale and Size Distortions

Some anomalies involve an everyday object becoming noticeably larger or smaller than it should be. Because the change is physical rather than purely visual, these tend to stand out once you're close enough to notice, but can be easy to miss from a distance.

Changes Involving the Mother

The mother is the one part of the house that doesn't just sit still waiting to be compared — her position, behavior, and even her physical form can shift from visit to visit. Because she behaves so differently from every other anomaly type, she gets her own full breakdown on The Mother's Many Forms.

A Reliable Way to Search

A consistent route reduces how much you can miss. Most players settle into a routine along these lines:

  1. Start at the entrance and work through each room in the same order every visit.
  2. Compare object counts, not just appearance — duplication is one of the most common anomaly types.
  3. Check the mother last, once the rest of the house has already been confirmed.
  4. Treat anything unusually large, small, or simply gone as worth a second look before moving on.

Checking rooms in a different order each visit makes it much easier to miss something — the comparison only works if your search pattern stays consistent.

None of That's Not My Mom's anomaly types are individually difficult to understand — the challenge is holding all of them in mind at once while walking through a house that's trying very hard to look ordinary.