Last updated on May 1st, 2024 at 03:14 pm
Are you wondering how to make it through the pandemic at home? See 10 reasons why one mom says being a twin mom has helped her prepare for COVID.
It’s 2020 and we’re knees deep in a pandemic. Totally not where I saw life heading, but here we are. And do you know what I noticed? Being a twin mom has helped me prepare for COVID. It may sound crazy, but hear me out. We have trained for this and didn’t even know! So here are the top 10 ways being a twin mom helped me unknowingly prepare for COVID:
Are you pregnant with twins or do you know someone who is? Sign up for our Twiniversity Expecting Twins Class live or on-demand online today!
1. We’re Used to Being Quarantined
I don’t know about y’all, but we spent the first four-ish months just like we are now. Our own little self-quarantine. Going hardly anywhere and only seeing select people. So, we’re used to this. And honestly, it ain’t half bad.
If your kids were preemies, born during cold/flu season, or you just didn’t want a lot of people around when they were born, then you’ve self quarantined before.
2. We Know How to Survive and Thrive in Chaos
I’m pretty sure that if the world ended, the only thing left besides the cockroaches, would be parents of multiples. Tell me I’m wrong. From the second you find out there’s two, you’re living and breathing chaos. My twins are two and a half and I STILL feel like we’re in survival mode!
Parents of multiples have survived on little to no sleep, just pure exhaustion. You know, that tiredness that no caffeine seems to be able to touch. That kind of exhaustion makes you feel crazy. I’m still traumatized, but mentally stronger for it.
We also know how to go with the flow. With twins, there’s a 90% chance things won’t go as planned. So, you deal with it. You have to be flexible raising twins. You also have to be flexible during a pandemic. Things are ever-changing and you have to be able to keep up. If you don’t keep up, you’ll just go insane a lot quicker.
See how parenting multiples might have helped you to prepare for COVID in your house, too?
3. Germy Toddlers = Good Immune Systems
Guess what, friends? Those snot-nosed, share with everyone, eat anything from anywhere toddlers have toughened up our immune systems. At least I’d like to believe they did. I’m in auditing, so don’t come to me for medical advice. Something good has to come out of all the gag-worthy things my toddlers have done. Right?
4. We’re Used to WHINING
Have you ever heard as much whining as we have during COVID? I have never in my life heard grown people whine so much. But, I’ve got two two-and-a-half-year-old toddlers and nothing can compete with them. Who knew that whinny toddlers would help us to prepare for COVID?
Word on the street is, toddlerhood is the most gangster of hoods. And I believe it. Toddlers are TOUGH. About 85% of toddlerhood feels like it’s filled with whining. So we’re used to it. We’re good at rolling our eyes, tuning it out, and moving on to the next thing.
Need more Twiniversity in your life? Check out our membership program now!
5. We’re Used to Hearing Advice From People Who Don’t Have a Clue
Remember when you were pregnant and singleton parents gave you advice? Or, what about when someone with two kids close in age tells you they know what it’s like to have twins?
If you’re on social media, you know by now how everybody has an opinion. And they all vary. But no matter what, the opinion holder feels very strongly about it. Dealing with other people’s opinions is a skill we had to perfect early on as twin parents. We can call on that skill to help us prepare for COVID now.
We should treat this the same as when we get advice from non-multiples parents. Some of it makes sense and some of it sounds insane. At the end of the day, it’s up to us to wade through it all and make the best decisions for our families.
6. We Know WHAT to Stockpile to Prepare for COVID
Boy, do we! We didn’t have to buy diapers or wipes for our own twins until their first birthday. You want to know why? Because my whole family stockpiled every single diaper and wipe they could while I was pregnant.
We know what we need to stockpile and what to leave alone. Diapers and wipes? Better stock up. Not because we’re afraid of a shortage, we just use a lot of them! Chicken nuggets and mini muffins? Better get a whole pallet of those too!
But we don’t need to spend a week’s pay on toilet paper and water. We have a little more chill than that (and a glove box full of napkins).
Did you know Twiniversity has TWO podcasts you can download for FREE? Check them out today to hear some funny, relatable twin parenting stories now!
7. We’ve Learned How Quickly AND Slowly Time Goes
So, I live in North Carolina. Our state went into phase one of lockdown at the end of March. Y’all, it’s only the middle of August, and I feel like I’ve aged a million years!
Yet, when I look at pictures and videos of my kids from March, they’ve changed so much. Where did their little baby faces go? How can so much change happen in just a few months?
It’s like the really hard periods of parenting multiples. When you’re in the moment, it feels like there’s no end in sight. But then that hard period passes (like a kidney stone), and you’re sitting there wondering how your kids grew up so fast.
8. Having a High Tolerance for Stress Helped Me Prepare for COVID
You’ve probably read the articles about postpartum depression, or how hard multiples can be on a marriage. It’s stressful having multiples! And we have to find ways to cope with it. After a while, you get to where you’re like “well, what’s one more fire?” That’s how I feel about COVID. Yes, it sucks, but I’ve been through worse. We’re going to get through it, just like everything else, and we’re going to learn from it.
9. We Aren’t as Afraid of the Unknown
I feel like I never know what’s going on from one minute to the next. Everything the professionals tell us is always changing. And that’s how it is being a parent of multiples. You go into this journey having no idea what to expect.
We stepped into this huge unknown and now look at us! Graying hair, tired eyes, and mom buns. And with all that comes confidence. We aren’t as scared as we were at the beginning. Because we know that parenting multiples is one huge unknown, just like COVID. And I bet COVID has brought on a lot of gray hair, tired eyes, and mom buns too.
Which brings me to this…
If you’re pregnant and haven’t read “What to do When You’re Having Two” by Twiniversity founder Natalie Diaz, you NEED to! Buy it here today.
10. We Know That Everything Will Be Okay
It will. It always is. No matter how scary, or stressful, a situation seems, it will always be okay in the end.
When you become a parent of multiples, you have to give up some level of control. It’s really hard to accept at times, but you do. You have to be able to let go and trust that things will work themselves out. Because they usually do. As it turns out, being a twin parent was great practice to learn to let it go and prepare for COVID.
We have, somehow, found ourselves in uncharted waters. Just like we did the day we found out there was more than one baby coming. And it’s scary, but being a twin mom has prepared me for this in ways I never realized. All the hard moments of parenting have given me a few tools to make it to the other side of this thing. We’re going to make it through, and we’re going to be okay. We’re parents of multiples, we can make it through anything.
Jessie Ballard is the sassy southern mama of two year old boy/girl twins, and author of Mom Buns and Moscato. Born and raised in the great state of North Carolina, Jessie works in Accounting and blogs as a way to keep her sanity. She speaks fluent sarcasm and lives her life full of humor, always trying to make someone laugh. Check her out on Facebook!
