Sunday, December 7, 2008

Sister, twin, heterosexual life partner?

I feel weird calling my sister "my twin" and calling my twin "my sister." I feel like neither of them are just right.

When I use "my sister" to people who don't know about Baby A, I usually get a weird look, sometimes followed up by a question. Like "You have a sister in the same grade as you?" or "Why do you live with your sister still/work with her/practically share a bank account?"

But I feel like calling her "my twin" makes me sound... I don't know. Like I am bragging maybe. Or like I want everyone to know how *special* I am because I have a twin. Which is not the case, I just don't want confusion sometimes.

So I walk a fine line between feeling like I advertise my twin-ness and getting awkward looks and questions. I feel like most twins usually use "sister" or "brother," like I do, right?


Cheers,
Alison

2 comments:

Swistle said...

I've found something similar with two of my children, who are twins. I don't want to go around talking about their twinness all the time as if HELLO THEY ARE TWINS AND THAT IS WHAT IS IMPORTANT ABOUT THEM, but sometimes if I DON'T mention their twinness it leads to confusion. Like if someone asks how old my kids are, it makes more sense to say they're 10, 8, 3-year-old twins, and 18 months than to say 10, 8, 3, 3, 18 months. Or sometimes I'll say something about one of the 3-year-olds and then say "her twin brother" or "his twin sister" to refer to the other child.

Brittany said...

I would totally feel superior if I had a twin, and would never call her my sister, but rather, my twin, in a totaly braggy voice. You are so lucky!