Call Off the Police Force

This must happen with all siblings, but with twins it's constant. Take a small child's need to be right, her desire to be good, splash in a good dose of competitiveness with her sister, and add a healthy dollop of identity confusion and you've got the tattler olympics going on. Every day.

"Mom, Lilly's sucking her finger again!"

"Mommy, Dulce put the sticker on the couch!"

"Mama, tell Lilly to get away from the TV."

"Dulce, you're breaking it! Mama, Dulce is breaking it!"

"HELP!"

They want to hear not only that they are good, but that their counterpart is bad. It's not enough for them to behave. They need their twin to behave or pay the price.

And this would be acceptable, or at least survivable, if it weren't for the other faction. It's not enough for the girls to tattle on each other to me; they choose to extend their dictatorship to my actions. It's cute in a way because they band together to fight the authority, but it's not that cute.

If Natalina doesn't move her feet fast enough to the door to kiss her father goodbye as he goes to work, we are treated to a freaking out Dulce. "Lilly needs a hug! Lilly needs a hug! HEY! Stop!" Crying, shouting, the whole bit. Dulce, you're not Natalina's personal police force. Let her take care of her own.

If Lilly has to use the bathroom and Dulce doesn't? All I hear from Natalina is "Dulce use potty, Dulce use potty, mommy. Dulce has to go shee shee." Which she doesn't. But trying convincing Lilly of that.

If I banish one from the kitchen because she's getting too close to the hot stove, you can bet the other one will come in and give me a piece of her mind. "No, she needs to be in the kitchen. She just wants to be in the kitchen. Mama, mama, let her in."

So that even if I convince the one in the wrong that she is wrong, I've got the other one backing her up, and I have to start the whole thing again. And then I convince the other one (which is harder, since the other one has done nothing wrong so feels like she has more of an argument to make) and the first one is back in the kitchen. Around and around.

Girls, girls, call off the dogs. Call off the police force. I can see what's going on with my own eyes, and your interpretation, as convincing as you think it is, is not forwarding your case.

I pray for the days when a perceived injury to a sister is not taken so personally by the other twin. You're not the same kid, you know.

Someday they'll be eight, I just know it.


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