Two kids should equal double the amount of work, right? The true answer is summed up by this parent of fraternal twins who says “I had always dreamt of having twins, and when we found out that we were having them, I was ecstatic! My head was in the clouds about the actual work that would be involved...[it is] really 24/7!” Doing everything in twos means that parents of twins have double the laundry and double the amount of cooking, not to mention double-duty running kids back and forth to various athletic practices and birthday party. And for parents of twin toddlers who are toilet training, you can only imagine what that means. --Sarah Winter, Toronto, ON

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The synergy between twins is second to none. Not only are you dealing with two children, but you’re dealing with that unspoken energy that exists between them. Often, the result is chaos – and added stress for the parents. Many twins seem to spur each other on, raising the chaos to a fever pitch:

“If one wakes up before the other, the other goes into the room to wake the other up,” says one frazzled mother of identical twin boys. “If one wants to throw a Lego across the room, it becomes a competition of who can throw the most. It's just constant damage control in my house!” --Natalie Hinkel, West Sacramento, California

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Twin parenting provides even more incentive – and pressure – for moms to be “perfect” in every way possible. After all, you have two lives that you’re responsible for, right? Add to this the additional scrutiny of strangers who seem to be waiting to see how one mom can efficiently take care of two babies. A mother of twin girls states: “Looking back, I think I listened way too much to others in the early days. Trying to be the perfect mom…[I] did not trust my own instincts enough. Once I stopped that and realized that I know my girls best, things got so much better.” Parenting two of the same age seems to put things in perspective and make moms realize that perfection is not always possible – or realistic. --Sarah Winter, Toronto, ON

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Having twins requires extra assistance, especially in the early baby stages. After all, two babies need to be fed, bathed, walked and otherwise. Parents who had other children before they had twins might have felt that they knew the score, then were shocked into the reality that having twins was a whole different ballgame. Some of the logistics of having two babies is sorting out sleeping schedules – not only of the babies but of the parents as well. “With two children, one is often always awake – meaning that someone is always on duty, night and day,” says one mom, in hindsight. “I wish I'd known that I would need more than my husband as back-up support during the first three months. I would have enlisted an outside helper. With one baby, parents can sleep when the baby is sleeping, but when there are two they tend to ‘tag-team’ (when one goes to sleep the other wakes up).” --Jill Vanasek Shinn, San Francisco Bay Area (@jvshinn)

PHOTO: MASTERFILE