[Wut??]

My favourite was when an elderly lady told me all about her grown up twins, and how lovely they were, and how lucky we'd both been to have twins.

I've always said that twins were one and a half times as hard as one baby.

[skylark]

Nothing I can contribute on the twin front, but I have to tell you that my son was just as much of a tourist attraction down at Bondi, back when he was a baby and toddler. It might have been the blonde curly hair, but we used to be surrounded by the madly photographing mobs from the tour buses too. I don't think that bit is unusual!

[fibilly]

OP I hear you. I remember going to the Botanical Gardens when the boys were about 10 months - they are identical with blonde hair and blue eyes, and we were stopped by 3 groups of tourists for photos.
There is an upside to all the attention - my boys are very well behaved when in public and they love smiling at everyone, I think because everyone always smiles at them.
The inane comments do get a bit tired, but I feel so lucky to have twins that I just let it wash over me.

Enjoy your babies!

[cattymeow]

Thank you for sharing Prue! I found out five weeks ago that I'm expecting identical twins and the response (even though I'm not expecting their arrival until June 2012) has been much the same. If it's not enough for a first-time mum to be anxious about her pregnancy, surely peoples' comments of "you're going to have your hands full" and "double trouble" MUST be put my mind at ease! I, like you, found that arming myself with retorts has helped. In particular, the comment of "you don't do things by halves" has been frequently heard. My response, "well, I halved an embryo to create these twins so if you want to get technical, I did this by halves"!

Admittedly, the last few weeks have been anxiety ridden, but I am comforted by the fact that I have a huge amount of support from my brother and SIL who had fraternal twin girls 11 weeks ago and, for the most part, family and friends have been rather sympathetic and excited for us, without the cliche comments. The other benefit I'm assured of is that, this being our first pregnancy, we've never known what it's like to have a singleton so, while it may be a shock to the system, we will be able to give our focus 100% to our twinnies, without having to chase another child/ren around on top of everything else! Having seen my bro and SIL raising their twins, all while trying to entertain their 4YO son, I feel rather privledged to be in my position. To the mothers and fathers of twins after singles, I take my hat off to you and think you are AMAZING!

[soontobegran]

You'll know once you have twins, especially if you are after 2 children and then end up with twins and a toddler!

At least you had a choice to how close your 2 children are, most twin parents don't have that choice.

A little bit snarky don't you think?
Why do people feel they have to compete? I don't know what it's like to have twins and don't presume anything about how it is to care for them but then many people don't know how it is to have multiple children a year apart.

There needs to be mutual respect and understanding that for some people having one child is difficult and others who have twins and triplets cope very well.

Prue--I would find the comments rather tedious but I love the fact that in this day and age people still want to engage with others and there is nothing like a couple of gorgeous babies to get the conversation going.

[G+2]

They attention dies down as they get older, or at least that's what I have found. Which in my opinion, is a relief.

I think the reason you're getting more attention from Chinese tourists is that the incidence of 'twinning' in most Asian cultures is much lower than in other parts of the world. Highest in Africa, if I recall correctly.

In addition, as a result of the one child policy in China, having twins is seen as VERY lucky, especially twin boys! Because then you beat the law

One of my daughters does the family PR, she loves the attention and recruits people for her fan club She has always been people orientated, she's been like that literally from birth. Her twin sister on the other hands squirms, scowls and would tell people to get out of her face, except less politely, if she had the words .

This post has been edited by G+2: 29/12/2011, 03:37 PM

[prue~c]

There is an upside to all the attention - my boys are very well behaved when in public and they love smiling at everyone, I think because everyone always smiles at them.

The inane comments do get a bit tired, but I feel so lucky to have twins that I just let it wash over me.

So true! My boys are so happy to interact with strangers and they smile so much. As for the comments, it only really gets to me when I am super tired and just want to go home. Despite what some regular readers may think, I am actually very polite and I am more than happy to chat with anyone, even the Double Troublers, but last week, my parking was about to expire and I had to ignore someone who was making a beeline towards the pram for a peek. I felt like a total cow, but Bondi is expensive!

STBG I love chatting to people about the boys. And if someone wants a cuddle or looks like they want one, nine times out of ten I will hand over a baby. I know some people don't like their babies being touched by strangers, but if it makes someone's (usually an elderly woman) day, why not? And the boys are totally fine with it.





STBG

[lizzy2073]

I have twin girls who are now 3 years old. We had the same thing happen to us and it gets old very fast, how did you know, did you have them naturally, ivf or natural, are they twins, double trouble, and much more. If I had money for all of these comments I would be rich or at least have more money.

I do agree that with twins it is hard to just go into shops and do anything quickly, you get stopped and it is just harder.

Although the girls are the delight of my husband and I and we feel very blessed to have been able to have the girls and that they are healthy, smart and happy little things.

Watching them develop from their own language to learning to speak and become more independent is just wonderful. The girls are so close and at times horrible sisters, but that is just part of being a sister.

I do understand what you are going through with the comments and the feeling of being on show, I thought in the early days that there might be some interest but never thought people would be that interested.

Have a wonderful new year and enjoy the time with the boys, congrats and I am sure that you will develop a way of getting into the shops in recored time and back to the car/house or wherever you need to be to maximise your time and keep away from silly comments. Some I admit are nice and some are just unwanted.

Have a good time and a great 2012.

[Livsh]

Oh I feel your annoyance!!

I now tell people the twins are three months apart just to get away from the neverending parade of innane, stupid and downright rude comments!! Luckily now that they are older it's pretty hard to tell they are twins so the comments have stopped. I'll never forget this one lady: I was in the park with the twins and their cousin, who is a week older. This lady came up to ask if they were triplets. I said, no they are twins, that one is their cousin...and I kid you not she said "oh my god, you gave birth to their cousin as well?"...I think she thought I was some sort of miracle surrogate or something!!

Having twins is an amazing experience, it's not double trouble at all! I love watching them play together, they are seriously best friends! In the mornings I can hear them laughing and singing together in their room and more often than not I go in to check on them before I go to bed and they are snuggled up together in DDs bed! My two were also sleeping through early (11 weeks) and we've never had any sleeping problems (we have been VERY lucky).

I also found that the people who were negative were people who don't have twins. But I think this is because when you have one baby you can't possibly imagine what it's like to have to look after two.

[joshuakalan]

I hear you about the Asian tourists! When our twins were 2 we spent a week in Hong Kong and we were continually mobbed.

Now that our twins are nearly 5, there are hardly any twin comments as they are very different in size and height. Enjoy the comments because in hindsight, it was only people sharing in my joy.