Double Duty : The Parents' Guide to Raising Twins, from Pregnancy Through the School Years

by Christina Baglivi Tinglof

What lies ahead for expectant parents of twins? Immeasurable joy, plus many sleepless nights. Parenting twins is unlike parenting siblings of different ages. From infancy through the teen years, twins require a bit more energy and diplomacy, plus lots of clever ideas. Double The Parents' Guide to Raising Twins, from Pregnancy Through the School Years offers plenty of reassuring advice and practical strategies for coping with the challenges that lie ahead. Featuring a wealth of tips from couples with twins who've lived to tell about it, Double Duty covers everything from managing a multiple pregnancy to the first days of school. Whether you're concerned about bonding with two babies at once, getting them on the same schedule, or separating your inseparable duo for a day, Double Duty suggests many comforting solutions. It covers such twin-specific issues

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1998

About the author

As a freelance journalist for more than 20 years, Christina started her career as a travel writer. Her travel features have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Herald, and Westways magazine. Her first travel guide, Northern Italy: A Taste of Trattoria, now out of print, was the inspiration for her new travel series, Chow Italy.

With the birth of her fraternal twin sons and subsequent single-born son, her writing focus naturally turned to parenting and family travel. Her parenting features have appeared in Twins magazine, LA Parent, and Parents magazine. She's the author of four books on parenting and twinning including Double Duty: The Parents' Guide to Raising Twins, and Parenting School-Age Twins and Multiples.

In 2004, she started Talk About Twins, a website devoted to twins, twin relationships, parenting twins and their siblings.

Reviews

[Stephanie]

I really enjoyed this book! It was full of helpful tips and I feel like I really learned a lot from it. I am not a parent of twins, however, I have recently taken a job as a nanny of 4.5 month old fraternal twin boys. I feel that this book was still extremely beneficial for me as a full time (40 hours/week) caregiver for twins.

[Holly]

Second edition. I have searched high and low for decently researched twin publications and most of the content I can find is a bunch of obvious garbage. Of course it will be exhausting, JoAnne. This was a refreshing dose of “no kidding, me too!” with a very long list of resources and actual studies to boot. Super helpful advice on language development and school-age milestones.

[Marie Hew]

Don't really need to finish this book right now since it talks about school years. My twins are still on the inside.

[Jon]

I'm going to review the 1998 1st edition, rather than the 2009 2nd edition because, well, that's what I got from the library. I assume the second edition is fairly similar, but with fewer references to VCRs.



At first this book intrigued me. Most books that we've been looking at focus on pregnancy and the first year. While this makes sense for us now, it seemed like it would be neat to "peek ahead" with a book that had a little less about pregnancy, a little more about the first year, and a couple of chapters about life beyond that.



Unfortunately, my interest did not last long. Flipping through the book, I found the advice,

Try not to refer to your children as "the twins".

Really? Most parents I know talk about "the kids", "the boys", "the girls", etc. More to the point, why not? After some discussion, Christina (my wife, not Ms. Baglivi Tinglof) and I decided that it was reasonable to refer to them as "the twins" in the third person -- as in, "We just dropped off the twins with their grandparents, and we're headed for Vegas." It did, however, seem inappropriate to address them as such. ("Twins, get in here!") If we're going to be accused of causing lasting psychological damage to our kids, I'd at least like to know why.



Reading the introduction, I see how the book was constructed. The author interviewed a bunch of parents of twins, and a pediatrician, and compiled the advice she got. The result, unfortunately, is a mix of good and bad advice, with little way to distinguish between the two.



In the first chapter, she tells us,

African races have the highest incidence of twinning (about 20 percent more likely than Caucasian women), followed by Europeans, then Mexicans. Asians have the lowest incidence.

Reading this paragraph aloud provoked a lecture on Mexican racial identity from the Mexican-American in bed next to me. (Summary: It makes about as much sense to call Mexicans a race as it does to refer to the "United States race".)



The author provides numerous Top Five lists. The "Top Five Comebacks to Annoying Questions and Comments" caught our eye, since we're planning to institute a similar feature here at twinpanic.com. (Preview: "Are they twins?" "No, they're triplets...oh, crap, one's missing again.") We were brought up short by #4:

Question: "Twins? How do you tell them apart?"

Answer: "We had only one twin circumcised."

OK, at least we laughed at that one, but it seemed a little inappropriate.



In short, I can't recommend this book; there are too many other, more carefully written books about twins out there. Even those which are also collections of advice are more explicit about the source of and reasoning behind that advice.

[Tamara Taylor]

I wasn't blown away by this book. For starters, the "pool" of knowledge came from the author's personal experience and 39 written surveys. This may be the scientist in me talking, but compiling stats in premature birth, NICU stays, birthweight etc based on the experience of 40 families is not much of a solid basis for making sweeping generalizations. It was a fairly quick read and not a lot of new or earth shattering info was revealed. I did appreciate the section detailing what you need and what you can live without. For the most part I felt this book fell short and any/all of the info contained in this book could be gleaned online. For free.

[Shelby | Double Up Books]

This is a bestselling book and was recently updated in May 2009. In addition to Christina offering advice and practical strategies for coping with the challenges that with pregnant with and raising twins that parents of twins face, she has also include some wonderful tips from other couples with twins

[Purposely]

I think this would be a valuable book for those expecting twins or with very young twins. Though the book does go through the school years, it really just touches upon the first school years (and does have helpful advice for those, like whether twins should be placed in the same class or not), but wasn't really helpfully to me with middle school aged twins.

[Elaine]

It may be updated, but there were still some very outdated things in this book. Also, this was just the very basics about raising twins, and a lot could be applied to raising one child. Nothing really stood out in this one, but a good basic book to start with.

[Karin]

Although the author endorses some parenting philosophies I don't agree with, over-all I found it helpful.

[Gina]

Some good advice, not a must read, though.

[Amy]

some good advice, but after two books I think I am learning that MOST of what I learn will be on the job :>)

[Janelle Leigh]

a practical what you need to know/ what to expect kinds book

[Kaye]

This book contained great information about what you do and don't need with twins, and offered alternative viewpoints on how to handle future sticky situations with your multiples.

[Sarah]

A good overview of what to come.

[irfan]

A good book for new parents of twins. Although written with an American perspective, some elements are universal in nature.