As if it is not hard enough to get out of the house with more than one baby in tow, (not to mention their three older siblings) when you have multiples it is especially difficult to make any progress towards your goal. We didn’t know this. We were prepared for sleep deprivation–which we had. We were prepared for preemies–which we did not have. We, however, never prepared for the traffic jam that a set of twins causes when you are out in public!
For some reason, everyone loves twins. I’m not really sure why, but twins have a way of making people comfortable. They feel comfortable to talk to you while you’re changing diapers. They feel comfortable to touch the babies. They feel comfortable to interrupt your dinner if you‘re in a restaurant or at the food court. They even feel comfortable enough to ask personal questions like, “Oh, do you double ovulate or did you use drugs?” It is truly amazing how twins lower the inhibitions of what I would assume are otherwise well behaved people. I don’t know how–but they do.
In addition to lowering people’s inhibitions, twins have a way of causing people to remember long lost relatives who were somehow related to, or were themselves another set of twins. You would be surprised how many second-cousins-of-one’s-sister-in-law-who-married-a-man-who-was-a-twin (or something like it) there are out there. I guess the theory of “six degrees of separation” is really true!
Finally, (and this is a little known ‘natural law’) twins have a way of attracting people in the medical profession. I have to assume this is so for a few reasons. First of all, everyone is ‘qualified’ to tell us that our girls are identical. Even though we thought they were fraternal, and the test showed they were fraternal, we have met numerous experts who “know” they are identical. Secondly, I have to assume these are medical people because no other type of normal person would be so curious about the mechanisms we used to get pregnant with twins, or how exactly (and I do mean exactly) I came to give birth to twins.
On the rare occasion, we do actually run into another family with multiples when we are out. Maybe, if we’re stuck in line together, we will chat about twin things. Otherwise, we just give a knowing glance to the other. A glance that acknowledges the other but recognizes that if we don’t keep moving there will be a traffic jam. I can only imagine what people would stop to say if they saw two sets of twins. . .