Submitted by Carissa (to read more from Carissa, visit her site here)
Each child is different. What works for one child might not work well with another child.
As a parent of multiples this truth rings so true for me and it is so hard not to just say well it works for one so it should work for the other. Each of my children love different things – for example music will usually calm Little Princess and make her start dancing and smiling while it does NOTHING for Little Man but usually being held and cuddled works very well for Little Man when Little Princess will still cry then. Little Man loves to imitate people where Little Princess likes to take her time to learn things and ALWAYS in her time not on our plan. I am trying very hard to learn what each child LOVES and what works for each child as I hope when discipline starts to matter I can figure out what will work for each child and not just a single discipline plan.
Also in my case, it can be hard to remember that my children are different people. Not only Aaron and I but those around us are VERY guilty of just lumping them together and calling them “the twins” as if they are one unit and not two separate unique individuals. At Christmas time I was talking to another twin who has lived a very full life – he is retired and a close family friend of Aaron’s family. One of the things he remembered very well from his childhood was that everyone referred to him and his twin sister as “the twins” all the time. I would like to not have this be a prominent memory from Little Man and Little Princess – so I am going to make an effort to call them by their names (or Little Man and Little Princess on here) more often and not the twins -
Very true, twins have their own unique personalities, I think its even more important to treat them as separate individuals when they are identical. Because it is so easy for people because they look alike not take the time to notice they are different. At least in my experience. I usually always call my boys by their names and not twins, also.
Jenna @ Newlyweds’s last blog post..Featured on Experiencing Motherhood
[...] she may use a few posts on Experiencing Motherhood – the first one was posted today, it is titled Twins are Individuals Too – so head on over and check out both of her sites!!!! I am VERY excited about [...]