Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Twin Labeling: Why I hate it!

Who is the smart one, the stupid one, the fat one, the mean one, the bossy one, the good one, the quiet one, the happy one, the bad one? I could go on and on. For some reason people love to label twins. They like to assign a good twin and a bad twin. Twins are not Bizarro World come alive and this is not Man in the Iron Mask. Life is not black and white and neither are my girls. Yes, they have very different personalities but their moods change and evolve just like any child. If Peanut has a tantrum because the dog took her ball she should not be labeled the "temperamental twin". Some of my family members had labeled Cookie the good girl because someone put it in their head that she was easier going than her sister. They started calling whichever girl was crying Peanut because they assumed that the fussy one must be Peanut. In reality the girls take turns with their moods. People are being very unfair by labeling twins and could cause some serious complexes some day. If you label Peanut as the bad girl than maybe she'll start to believe that herself. Children take what adults say very seriously and words can hurt even if they were meant as a joke. 

Another problem I unfortunately came across was people labeling one twin as fat and sweet while the other was skinny and hyper. Cookie was born slightly larger than her sister and her head is shaped rounder which gives the illusion that she is bigger. Cookie is 0.3 lb heavier than Peanut but they are the same height and their heads measure the same circumference. 0.3 lbs does not make you the fat twin! I was shocked that adults would weight shame babies. They would squeal "chubby!" when they saw Cookie and chuckle "grumpy" when they saw Peanut. I put a stop to that right away and I don't care if I'm labeled "bitchy" because of it! Twins go through phases and moods just like any child. Some days Cookie is feeling hyper and sociable. Sometimes Peanut eats everything in sight and begs for more. Stop searching for a personality trait to label because one trait can not define a person. We should treat twins as individuals and not as two halves of a whole.


Horror Story: My mother showed a lady a picture of the girls playing on my computer tablet. The lady pointed to Cookie who was not interacting with the tablet in the picture and asked, "Is she the slow one?" Yes, just because the child in the picture happened to not be touching the computer screen at that very second she must be the dumb twin. Wonderful deduction skills lady. I bet you scored high on your SAT. People must think that when twins are conceived all the brains are given to one because there are only so much smarts to go around. 

Trait distribution chart based on other peoples opinions of my twins:
Weight 80% 20%
Brains 95% 5%
Beauty: 10% 90%
Height: 50% 50% 
Pretty Smile 30% 70%
Personality 30% 70%
Heart Breaker (???) 0% 100%

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