I’m always really surprised when people ask me how ‘the twins’ are. I always have to stop for a second and think about who they are referring to. As I am a mum of twins this probably sounds absolutely bonkers but I hardly ever refer to them by this collective term.
To me, they are ‘the girls’, ‘the babies’, ‘the children’ or one of a host of nicknames. I rarely call them their actual names either but that’s just me. I think it goes back to being rather militant while I was pregnant about the whole twin/individuality thing. I was (and still am, but try to be less angry about it) obsessed with the fact that R and G should be treated as individuals, not a collective. They are two babies who just happen to have been born at the same time, at the same place, to the same person.
Our family and friends (some with some ‘gentle’ nudging) have gradually adjusted to this little eccentricity of mine but I really should conduct a poll of my twin mum friends to get their views on this subject. I’ll write something about the results.