Our parenting roles with our adult children and their families can at times be complicated and conflictual. The ever-present vestiges of sibling rivalry live long in most of us. Often I talk with my therapist about ongoing issues with my five children. She smiles sympathetically and replies, “Joan, you have too many children.” Thankfully, my clinical training has prepared me well for my lifelong occupation as the resident complaint department. I have developed and refined the art of empathic listening […]
Tag Archives: adult twins
Give Credit Where and When It’s Due
A friend of mine shared a story about her seven-year-old twin girls that highlights how important it is to enlighten people who work with twins about appropriate management of the twin connection. She told me that one of her daughters clearly excels in the gymnastics class that she attends with her twin sister. Mom is convinced that the gym teacher has not moved her daughter to the next level because her twin sister has not demonstrated the required skill to […]
A Beautiful Story
A few weeks ago, a producer from Iowa Public Radio asked me to participate in a show about adult twins. She was doing a feature about the pair of identical-twin brothers who won the most-identical-looking-twins contest for adults over 18 years old at the Iowa State Fair. The producer, a fraternal twin herself, interviewed the 32-year-old brothers about their twin experiences. Both men are teachers and coaches at the same high school. They live close to one another and both […]