Taking Care of Twins

Yesterday, I surfed the Net after not having done so for over a week; just came back from KL after visiting my son who is studying there.

And as usual, among the first sites I visited was Giuk.Net, our beloved 'From Sabah to the World' portal. The most popular post there yesterday was "How to take care (of) your twins in one shot!" by PapaJoneh. (papajoneh.com)

The title of his post spoke for itself. It's about how our local blogger friend, PapaJoneh, had to take care of his by now one-year-old twin boys. Normally, I wouldn't bother to read on by clicking on the heading. Not that I'm not your fan PapaJoneh or that I don't like kids, but it's simply that I try to read as many blogs as possible in one day, especially political ones and news portals and time therefore is the essence. I'm sure most of us are choosy of what we read because of time factor.

But something happened during my recent KL trip which made me want to read more about what PapaJoneh had to say yesterday. You see, while in KL my wife and I stayed with my niece (my brother's daughter) who is married to a West Malaysian Chinese. Their situation is just like PapaJoneh and his wife's. They also have a few-year-old elder son and a pair of younger twin boys! Except that their children are slightly older than PapaJoneh's.

Before the KL trip, my wife and I always took for granted the joy of having twins. We did not realise the real implications or the 'pains' or difficulties that parents of twins (what more triplets!) had to go through in bringing them up, especially the first few years. But after spending a few days with my niece (and her twins) we realised how hard it actually is in looking after twins.

For example, when one cries the other also cries. When one is ill somehow the other one also falls ill. And one is always jealous of the other and always competing with each other in vying for their mum's (not so much dad) attention. Even when my niece is driving, both twins want to sit on her lap! Luckily her car had automatic gear and luckily no traffic summons so far!

Now I know why there's a saying that "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Rules The World". But in PapaJoneh's case it's "The Foot That Rocks The Cradle Rules The World!" (See the picture below and you will know what I mean.) How ingenious! Memang kau boleh PapaJoneh!

Below is a picture of PapaJoneh's elder son, Josh, taking a closer look at his two younger brothers, about a year or so ago.

However, my niece said, despite all the 'sufferings', her 'pains' went away whenever she sees her twins playing happily together or whenever they say 'Mummy' or 'Papa'. Although the elder twin is more stingy, he is however protective of his younger brother. One incident that really made me laugh was when the the two-year-old older twin 'scolded' his four-year-old older brother for making the younger twin cry. Just imagine, a two-year-old yelling and finger-pointing at his four-year brother; and yet I didn't understand a single word he said!

My niece said sometimes she finds that all the 'sufferings' were worth-it. The following pictures perhaps explains why....

By the time we headed for home, I had a better understanding of the situation parents of twins are in and better appreciation of their problems, especially those in the lower-income group, with due respect. While at the airport waiting for the flight, I was thinking to myself, what more for parents with triplets! Just then, my wife brought to my attention a news item on the TV at the departure lounge - A woman in Eypyt gave birth to seven babies!!!