That was the question Spice asked me Thursday night as I was sorting their laundry. I was in the process of hanging a shirt that the twins' grandma gifted them from Nigeria. The shirt was originally meant for my niece so grandma had just one shirt made. Both girls saw the shirt and asked simultaneously "who's shirt is that?".
I replied that it was for both of them and they would have to share. That's when Spice asked that very impactful question above. I was a little taken aback and thankful that reading Emotionally Healthy Twins had made me alert to the girls' requests for more individuality. I asked Spice "Don't you like to share your clothes with your sister?" and she replied "No".
Twenty minutes later, after the girls had finished with their bath, I asked Spice the same question again and she still replied no. I needed to be sure so I asked her the following (Friday) night and she once more replied "No". She definitely wanted HER own clothes.
Luckily for us, when we redesigned the closet in the girls' room, we did it with the expectation that sooner or later they would want to have individual sides. So I got all their play clothes out of the closet and two by two, we sorted them into Sugar's side and Spice's side. The girls were very proud to do the hanging all by themselves and this morning, they got to go to their side of the closet and pick out what they wanted to wear.
Even though I still manage to forget to not buy them the same outfits, (don't y'all love a nicely complicated almost double negative?!) the girls are rarely dressed alike because they always choose different outfits daily and even bargain and trade clothes with each other. If they continue this way, that's one less battle I won't have to mediate when the teen years come.
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| The sorting and hanging process |
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| Sugar's side <--- ---> Spice's Side |
Yay for independence and individuality!
Twin Parenting Lesson 3: They don't have to share everything!
