Twinning: ‘Mommy And Me’ Classes Are A Bust

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.

Once you become a mom, a lot of people will tell you it’s important to get out of the house and meet other moms. Taking a class with your baby will accomplish both. It’s good advice, but it’s a bit harder to follow if you’re a mom with infant twins.

First of all, don’t be disappointed if you’re not allowed to sign up. Sad as it sounds, many classes such as baby gym classes (like Gymboree) and swimming lessons have a one adult to one baby requirement. This works out for the stay-at-home-mom with a live-in nanny, women with partners who can take time off, or women with agreeable relatives living nearby. But it’s not such a great deal for the rest of us.

One of my friends hired a babysitter to come to baby-gym classes with her, but personally if I’m paying for a babysitter, I’m going shopping or out to dinner.

While I completely understand that 1:1 is obviously mandatory for swimming lessons, I do think twin moms should at least be allowed to try out other classes in non-life threatening situations like baby gyms or music rooms.

Many of my twin-mom friends who experienced the 1:1 ratio shut-out were pretty pissed off about it. They thought it was unfair and felt sorry for their twins because they weren’t getting the same experiences a single baby would. As mothers of twins, we spend our days and nights taking care of two babies, so to have a baby gym tell us “No, you can’t provide adequate care for your two children” is an insult.

While it’s frustrating to spend time looking into a program only to find out the door is shut in your face, I wasn’t sad for too long. I usually take The Path of Least Exertion in all situations, so I wasn’t too upset that I didn’t have to schlep two infants around a germ-filled, padded room, or that I didn’t have to wear a bathing suit in front of other adults only months after giving birth. I had a fleeting moment of disappointment, and then I moved on.

I did want to try a class with my twins though, so I decided to bring them to Story Time at our local library. It’s a free program, so I figured if it didn’t work out, I just wouldn’t go again.

And it didn’t work out. At all.

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