Are they twins? Question/Answer

Are they twins? - Comments by Erin Crews, mom of twin boys

The top ten most annoying questions asked by strangers to parents of twin infants.

Parents of twins and multiples have a lot of things in common. One of them is that perfect strangers come up to us on the street and ask some really stupid questions. Here are the top ten as voted by our online support group.

"Are they twins?" – No, we just had a double stroller, two car seats, two high chairs and two cribs laying around so we thought we better have two in a row! Maybe the next time someone asks if we have twins we should say, "No, one is from an affair that I had with a coworker...isn't my husband a trooper?"

"Two for the price of one!" – This one makes me want to scream. As if my two babies require the same amount of formula, diapers, clothes, etc. as a singleton! Two for the price of TWO!

"Wow you must have your hands full!" – This one seems ok on the surface, but the person saying it rarely does so out of sympathy. Usually you can tell that what they mean is "wow you must have your hands full and I'm glad I'm not you!"

"Do twins run in your family?" – Do annoying strangers that bother obviously overstressed mothers at the mall run in yours?

"Did you take fertility drugs?" – Ok. Seriously. Where do people get off?

"Which one is the cute one?" – Which eye do you want blackened?

"Oh I had my kids 11 months apart, so I know what it’s like to raise twins" – This isn't a question, but it is quite possibly the most annoying comment anyone can say to a mother of twins. Really? I doubt you know what it was like. When our twins were 2 months old, in our spare time all we did was sleep not try to make another baby.

"Are they identical?" Uh one is a boy and one is a girl. You do the math. If they are identical you might go over the one placenta, possible fusing, and DNA testing story once or twice before just rolling your eyes at the next person to ask.

"How do you tell them apart?" – Oh darn their name tags fell off again. It's back to the hospital for another DNA test.

"How do you do it?" Ummmm...I don't, I hide one in the closet and just pretend to only have one baby.

"So are you going to have more kids?" How about you let me settle into this gig a bit and then we'll talk!

"Wow! Double Trouble!" Give me a break...that is so cheesy...if anyone was ever close enough when they made that comment I would probably slap them.

After seeing one twin and then seeing the other they say "Oh, there's two of you!" No, there's one of him and one of him. They are not the same person!

"I'm glad it's you and not me!" Yes, they're twins and I'm glad they're mine and not yours too!

**Don't get us wrong, Aaron and I are very blessed and happy that we have twins. We would take all these silly comments that come along with having twins over not having twins any day! We just thought this spoke so true to our everyday that we had to share, just for a laugh!** --- I agree Erin!!!

http://www.twinparents.com/articles/twin-infancy/are-they-twins.html

http://www.erinandaaron.com/2009/03/are-they-twins.html