As identical twins, we always get asked a lot of questions about our unique sibling status. We always enjoy and are never annoyed by the questions since the attention always reminds us that we’re a little bit different and a whole lot special.
Over the years we’ve had a wide range of questions posed to us. We put our heads together and carefully selected the top seven twin questions – and included our typical answers. Here they are:
1) Are You Twins? It should come as no surprise that this is by far the top question we ever get about being twins. We even got asked this very question the other week when we entered a local running store for the Run 10 FEED 10 pre-race check in. As usual, we exchanged a sly look with each other and then said, “yes.” We’ve never been bothered by this question. We always like and take pride in it. And, in all honestly, it serves to remind us that we still look alike – and people take notice. But, when we were little, we had a little fun with it too and often responded with: “No. We’re triplets. We left the other one at home.” As you can imagine, the person asking the question was always shocked and we were always delighted. Such is the simple pleasures of elementary school-aged kids.
2) Do Aimee’s sons ever think Kim is their mom? This question totally surprised us at first since we never even thought it was could be a possibility. The answer we gave at the time Aimee’s son was born and still say to this very day is “no.” The little guys never confused us at all. Children are so perceptive and they always know their mom. But, boy do they love their aunt!
3) Do you feel pain if the other one gets hurt? For years we wished the answer to this question was yes, but sadly, it’s not. When Kim got a stress fracture in her leg, and then broke her finger and her toe, Aimee didn’t feel a thing. And, Kim never felt any pain when Aimee had her two sons – thank goodness! But, we still feel an acute sadness when one of us gets hurt – emotionally or physically – since we have a deep love and connection like any close siblings.
4) Can you tell what your twin is thinking? Again, we wish the answer to this question was yes, but we have no special twin mind powers. We cannot read the other twin’s mind – at all. But, as sisters and friends, we can more easily read simple expressions and gestures and interpret our twin’s true feelings at any given moment. In that way, we can usually sense an emotion in the other twin better than anyone else.
5) Did you ever switch classes or take a test for your twin? We always joke that we wish one of us was good at math so we could have switched classes and taken tests for each other. But, unfortunately for us, we both excel at language arts and struggle at math. So, we were stuck sitting in our own classes and taking our own tests since making a switch wouldn’t have done us any good. If only we really did have that triplet… Maybe then he/she would have been good at math!
6) Did you ever trick people into thinking one of you was the other one? Looking back, it seems like we went pretty easy on everyone. We never tried to confuse our parents, friends, teachers and boyfriends – for the most part. When Aimee was little she broke one of her front baby teeth and she had a gap in her mouth until her adult teeth grew in a few years later. During that time everyone was able to more easily tell us apart by who had all of her teeth and who didn’t. So, to make things fun, we’d sit though class with our mouths closed, refusing to talk, so no one knew who was who. Preschoolers can be so tricky!
7) How can we tell you apart? We are similar yet very different. (Are you starting to sense a theme?) So, we do get a lot of questions that center on understanding our differences. For the most part, the differences we share center on our appearance – our hairstyles (“bangs” vs. “forehead”), our beauty marks (as Kim refers to her mole), and our smiles (with or without front teeth). We sometimes try to convey our unique personality and style, but they tend to be harder to capture and define – especially for acquaintances. Regardless, we love talking about how our differences have become more apparent and evolved over time. But, after all that, we always get asked one more question… Which difference belongs to which twin?
So, what do you think… Are you surprised by our answers? What do you think we would have answered different? For twins or parents of twins, what questions do you and/or your children get asked the most? Anything different from those in our top seven?
Are there any other questions you always wanted to ask a twin or ask us? If so, fire away, we’re ready and waiting. And we promise to answer them in an upcoming post.
Cheers x 2!
Double Take Twins
xxoo
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