Not Tough Enough To Be a Twin

It takes a special person to be a twin. No wimps need apply. You have to be willing and able to wait your turn from the get go. From the moment of your birth you are negotiating with your twin as to who goes first, who goes second. Sometimes you can do things together, but often one has to be in the lead.

This is not always the position to take, I might add. When I was nine I insisted on going down the sledding hill first and I ended up with two cracked wrists. To this day I think about how my life would have been different if I had let my twin go first. (She insists that my handwriting has never been as good since the accident. Because I broke both wrists, I didn't even benefit by becoming ambidextrous. It was a lousy decision I made that day.)

Well, back to the present... I was thinking about twinship recently when I was spending time with Bentley. I realized that he was not tough enough to be a twin. He's too impatient, he loathes sharing, and he insists on being first all the time. This is pretty much what you'd expect from a first born male. It is not behavior that works well for twins.

Jake and Viva are always waiting their turn. They know that even when they're first they will spend time waiting while number two is being helped. It's how life works for twins. Twins are models of patience. Just ask Jake's mom...well, ask Viva's mom. Jake, while a great twin, is still perfecting some of the twinly attributes. (Is learning to shriek loudly when you want to be first a necessary twin trait?)