Twinning: 10 Reasons It’s Easier To Have Twins Than Singletons
Having twins can be the most amazing experience of your life. It can also cause you to wake up in the morning wishing you were someone else. Twinning offers an honest depiction of life with twins from a mom who tries to keep things somewhere in the middle.
If you’re a mother of twins, phrases such as ”You’ve got your hands full!” and ”Double trouble!” become as annoyingly common as ”Hot enough for ya?” becomes in summer. As a rule, people think having twins is very difficult, and I don’t plan on telling them any different. It can be hard of course, but it also has plenty of advantages.
1. One pregnancy, two children
You are the queen of reproductive efficiency, skipping past the 10 months of morning sickness, bodily changes, maternity wear, and sobriety it will take your friends to create two babies.
(photo: Photoge-Nic)
2. Built-in playdates
Every day is a playdate for your twins, which means less actual play dates you will have to organize.
(photo: m00n.mullins)
3. Every effort is more impressive with twins
This doesn’t always happen, but more often than not, you’ll get props for any ”effort” you undertake with twins. I remember walking into Bloomingdales with my twins in their double stroller and the woman behind the makeup counter gave me a free tote bag that she stuffed with free travel-sized cosmetics, because she ”couldn’t imagine how hard it must be to get any shopping done with twins in tow.” Umm, about as hard as getting any shopping done with a husband in tow, but I’ll never say ”no” to free makeup.
4. You don’t turn into a kiddie chauffeur
As long as you can enroll your twins in the same activities, you don’t have to race all over town, dropping kids off here and there, trying to remember schedules and appointments and work that in with your toddler’s naptime. Two kids + one drop-off = ahhh.
(photo: Bugsy Sailor)
5. Losing your ”baby weight” is seen as a major accomplishment
Even though I gained less weight with twins than some of my friends did with their singletons, and didn’t do a thing to lose the weight once my twins were born, wearing my pre-baby clothes three months after they were born was hailed as some kind of story worthy of the cover of People. The praise was unwarranted, but nobody loves a compliment like a new mom of twins, so I happily basked in it.
6. Twin moms always have an excuse
Having a messy house, not getting stuff done, being stressed, forgetting appointments”¦you name it, it can almost always be explained with ”I have twins”¦” Don’t ask me why, just take it and use it.
(photo: SHAG (Philadelphia))
7. Two kids, one birthday party
Birthday parties are half as expensive when they’re thrown for twins. This is especially true if you rent a place for the party. Having thrown two separate parties this year at a karate studio and a ballet center, my wallet truly misses the days of combined twin parties.
(photo: Sugar Dreams by Marvic)
8. Kids who know how to share
Sharing comes easy to twins. Come time for preschool, you’ll be surprised by kids who have never even heard of sharing. Your twins will be the sharing stars, having been forced to share since they were born.
(photo: bztraining)
9. The Buddy System. For life
The buddy system takes some of the parental worry load off your back. You know that there’s someone looking out for your child””their twin.
(photo: Mirror Image Gallery)
10. Once it’s over, it’s over
If you don’t have any more children besides your twins, you only have to go through the teething/diapers/terrible twos stages once. When your friends complain the second time around about any of these, you can say, ”Oh I hardly remember those days!”
(photo: garbagebabe42)