Alison Lee's Blog, page 12
March 3, 2017
Post-Twin Stress Disorder
I was crossing a parking lot from the grocery store to the natural foods store, grasping one small hand in each of mine—the twins had gotten big enough that they could walk a fair distance on their own and sometimes it was easier to let them walk than hoist the 40-pound stroller in and out […]
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February 28, 2017
Love is Infinite
“And you had ANOTHER one?!” This is a question I often get, particularly from other parents of twins, when they realize that I had a baby after having multiples my first time around. Many of these parents have twins under the age four and are still in the throes of infancy and toddlerhood – another […]
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February 24, 2017
The Difference Between Equal and Fair
If you have more than one child, you know that the struggle of dividing things equally is real. Who hasn’t counted out the M&Ms in a bag to make sure that each of your adorable children gets no more and no fewer than their beloved siblings? (Obviously, the extra goes to Mommy.) And who hasn’t […]
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February 21, 2017
Puberty Squared
Raising multiples is challenging on so many levels. In the newborn stage, parents must reach superhuman status to keep up with the feedings, diaper changes, and laundry. During the toddler years, many moms and dads of twins and triplets envy octopuses with their eight arms, because it always seems like you are pulling one child […]
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February 17, 2017
The Power of Suggestion
“I don’t know how you do it,” comments Lorraine, my mother-in-law, on her first visit to her triplet granddaughters: Deirdre, Maeve, and Kiera, born in December 1987. The following June, she has flown from southeastern Wisconsin all the way to Montreal for this visit. Now she’s standing in the kitchen doorway watching me spoon spinach mush, […]
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February 14, 2017
You are All My Favorites
Lately, I have been reading the story titled You’re All My Favorites by Sam McBratney (author of Guess How Much I Love You) to my twins. The tender love and the soothing watercolors wrap us round in comfort. This gentle tale portrays the story of three small bears who each begin to question their […]
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February 10, 2017
Two of Everything
Back in my sanctimonious parent days, the ones before my twins were actually born, I made a ton of promises to myself. Most of them were about how great of a parent I would be. You know, the promises we all make before kids, about how well-behaved they will be. How I wouldn’t be my […]
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February 7, 2017
What We Really Celebrate on the First Birthday
Before I had my own kids, I was, like most people without children, an expert on parenting. I knew how I would limit screen time, facilitate sharing, and instill a genuine preference for wheat bread over white. And I knew I didn’t want an overblown bash for the first birthday. “When parents go crazy on […]
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February 3, 2017
Sick Day
For three weeks, my twins suffered from what can only be called Pompeii Plague. The children erupted, oozed, and sprayed. I tended, soothed, wiped, and winced, trapped under layers of laundry and phlegm. Ever trying to assert their individuality, they refused to be sick at the same time or with exactly the same disease, […]
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January 31, 2017
Separation Anxiety
Psychology Today defines separation anxiety as “a developmental stage in which a child experiences anxiety due to separation from the primary caregiver.” Fair enough. But what is it called when it’s the mother who experiences anxiety when her twins are separated from one another? I’m going to call it “Multiple-Mama Separation Syndrome” (“MMSS”). My fraternal […]
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