Twins

Lady is a tramp · 05-06-2017 12:43PM #1

We have twins staying in our house at the moment (of the female teenage variety) and I'm a bit fascinated by them. They're not like a normal pair of siblings, they actually like each other and spend all their time together and get on well together. Why is it so unusual for regular siblings close in age to get on well, but common for twins?

They're not even identical but I haven't bothered asking which one is which because they're just always there together, and they have all the same interests and the same mannerisms etc. I do know their names, but they always seem to just be referred to as "the twins" by everyone, no one ever seems to call either one of them by name. They come as a package.

Got me to thinking that actually, it's similar with any sets of twins I've ever known growing up. They always seem to have the same group of friends and end up mostly living together, travelling together, etc. I guess there comes a point when all that ends and they settle down and get married etc, and their lives become separate, but I wonder is that special twin bond always there? Or does the connection wear off with time?

Are you a twin? (Or even a triplet or quad etc?) What's your experience with them? Any freaky supernatural psychic twin stories? Anyone else have the same mild fascination with all things twinny, or is it just me?

Persephone kindness · 05-06-2017 12:45PM

I always wanted a twin.

No though I am not. And no i have never known any. I would love to hear stories though

I keeping of the sweet valley twins

myshirt · 05-06-2017 12:47PM

If you review the literature you'll find that twins typically don't like each other in fact.

Persephone kindness · 05-06-2017 12:49PM

I always thought they would get on.

Persephone kindness · 05-06-2017 12:53PM

This is really cool

Shenshen · 05-06-2017 12:53PM

I'm married to a twin. He doesn't have a lot of contact with his brother these days, and has told me that he spent a good part of his youth actively trying to be a different as possible. They're identical twins, and he always resented being perceived as just one half of the whole by everyone else.

I only got to meet his brother after we'd been married for a few years, and I don't mind telling you that it was a somewhat surreal experience. Despite all my OH's efforts, he still has the same mannerisms as his brother, the same sense of humour, the same inflections when speaking. And while you wouldn't mistake one for the other any more (they're in their late 40s now, and I think the similarities in appearance tend to disappear as they get older), you can tell that they are way more than just siblings.

The most hilarious thing to my mind is that his brother married someone who is uncannily similar to me. But my OH cannot stand her for some reason...

micar · 05-06-2017 01:01PM

I'm a guy and have a twin sister.

We get on great but have completely different personalities.

In the company I work for, there are many people who have a twin, have twins siblings or have children who are twins. One if the guys is a triplet and also have twin siblings. The whole thing is mad.

OU812 · 05-06-2017 01:03PM

I have twins, they're a whole lot of fun, but...

There's certain things that go on with twins that everyone else has to just "get on with".

Typical examples include playing individually & one saying something like "remember when" and the other laughing & agreeing, as if the end of the sentence was telepathic.

One of my twins told us her other mother died over a hundred years ago, she was bitten by a spider in the desert, she knows where she's buried but will never go there again.

The other is afraid of water because she "almost drowned once and was asleep (unconscious) for a very long time".

Another time one of them just came out & hugged me & said, "I love you, you're so much nicer than my other dad was" & then walked away & then the there one said that "the other dad wasn't *her* dad but she'd met him in "the other place" & didn't like him & that why they were twins this time"

Then we were having a different family conversation & their mom said something that had happened before they were born & one said to the other, "I was around then, but you weren't, I hadn't met you yet"

They're perfectly in tune with one another, very defensive of each other & like *mostly* the same stuff. They're identical, but We've no problem telling them apart. They're totally different in personality, appearance & humour as far as we're concerned, they also don't look identical to us.

They love each other unbelievably and are incredibly in tune with each other, one time I had one while mom had another & the one I had told me that she had to get sweets because her sister did & it wasn't fair. I checked & her mom had bought them right that minute.

Shenshen · 05-06-2017 01:05PM

micar wrote: »

I'm a guy and have a twin sister.

We get on great but have completely different personalities.

In the company I work for, there are many people who have a twin, have twins siblings or have children who are twins. One if the guys is a triplet and also have twin siblings. The whole thing is mad.

I don't know what the current received scientific opinion is, at one time they were denying that there is any hereditability to the likelihood of having twins. But there has been at least one pair of non-identical twins in my family for the last 4 generations at least, so I do think that there's something making some people more pre-disposed to it than others.

Canard · 05-06-2017 01:06PM

I have a twin sister (I'm a guy), we get on great

People either see a striking similarity between us or they don't (I do think we look similar), and sometimes those who don't assume we're a couple :eek:

We both did French as part of our degrees and one of my favourite stories was that we had the same teacher, but were in different classes. I tended to speak a lot in mine and my sister didn't as much, and one day the teacher saw her name and picked it at random, and when my sister responded to say like "hey, thats me" my teacher said she could only see me and my mannerisms and was like :eek: :eek: :eek: and was mad that I hadn't told her I had a twin! Crazy how similar mannerisms can be without you even realizing :P

Persephone kindness · 05-06-2017 01:07PM

Canard wrote: »

I have a twin sister (I'm a guy), we get on great People either see a striking similarity between us or they don't (I do think we look similar), and sometimes those who don't assume we're a couple :eek:

We both did French as part of our degrees and one of my favourite stories was that we had the same teacher, but were in different classes. I tended to speak a lot in mine and my sister didn't as much, and one day the teacher saw her name and picked it at random, and when my sister responded to say like "hey, thats me" my teacher said she could only see me and my mannerisms and was like :eek: :eek: :eek: and was mad I hadn't told her I had a twin! Crazy how similar mannerisms can be without you even realizing :P

Ever have any psychic experiences ..like knowing what the other is thinking or something?

Canard · 05-06-2017 01:09PM

Persephone kindness wrote: »

Ever have any psychic experiences ..like knowing what the other is thinking or something?

Haha nothing as crazy as some tales you can read about, but we did use to refer to "twinning", when we would both have the exact same thought / reaction to something at the same time

I think thats normal with twins though - if you've had so many similar experiences, it's normal to think of them in similar circumstances, but the psychic label is cool too :cool:

Persephone kindness · 05-06-2017 01:11PM

I shall call it 'twinning' from now on

micar · 05-06-2017 01:20PM

Something I just read in a different thread

stimpson wrote: »

If identical twin brothers marry identical twin sisters then the offspring of both couples are genetically siblings, although legally they are first cousins.

Surreptitious · 05-06-2017 01:32PM

My Dad and his sister are twins. They look nothing alike and they are not close. I thought they would have some kind of connection but no.

_Whimsical_ · 05-06-2017 01:42PM

I know 2 sets of female identical twins and they really don't get on. One set do not speak to each other and haven't in years. The other set are constantly fighting and constantly upset by each other. I've known since the start of secondary school and their relationships have always been the same.

They were a disappointing eye opener as I'd always wanted a twin.

I know male identical twins too who were inseparable all their lives, the ultimate friendship package deal, until their mid-twenties when life and love took them in opposite directions. I'd say it must have cut deeply to have found one had another person in their lives suddenly that they were willing to move away for and be more important. There's always been a sense of it in the air since things changed though they're still close friends they're not now peas in a pod.

neonsofa · 05-06-2017 01:43PM

Not exactly related to the OP but it blew my mind that the olsen twins apparently aren't identical twins. They are fraternal twins, which basically means they are siblings who shared the same womb, rather than siblings that share the same DNA- from the fertilised egg splitting into two. It's the latter that makes twins identical because their DNA is identical. Fraternal twins that look the same are apparently just very similar looking siblings. Fascinating stuff.

There are a few sets of twins in the family.

05-06-2017 01:47PM

My mate is a twin, yet he has never met him, as one twin was put up for adoption. He knows he lives in England thats about it. Always found that strange, knowing you have a twin libing out there and you've never met them

Fart · 05-06-2017 02:01PM

OU812 wrote: »

I have twins, they're a whole lot of fun, but...

There's certain things that go on with twins that everyone else has to just "get on with".

Typical examples include playing individually & one saying something like "remember when" and the other laughing & agreeing, as if the end of the sentence was telepathic.

One of my twins told us her other mother died over a hundred years ago, she was bitten by a spider in the desert, she knows where she's buried but will never go there again.

The other is afraid of water because she "almost drowned once and was asleep (unconscious) for a very long time".

Another time one of them just came out & hugged me & said, "I love you, you're so much nicer than my other dad was" & then walked away & then the there one said that "the other dad wasn't *her* dad but she'd met him in "the other place" & didn't like him & that why they were twins this time"

Then we were having a different family conversation & their mom said something that had happened before they were born & one said to the other, "I was around then, but you weren't, I hadn't met you yet"

They're perfectly in tune with one another, very defensive of each other & like *mostly* the same stuff. They're identical, but We've no problem telling them apart. They're totally different in personality, appearance & humour as far as we're concerned, they also don't look identical to us.

They love each other unbelievably and are incredibly in tune with each other, one time I had one while mom had another & the one I had told me that she had to get sweets because her sister did & it wasn't fair. I checked & her mom had bought them right that minute.

Dafuq did I just read?

Tigger · 05-06-2017 02:03PM

micar wrote: »

Something I just read in a different thread

Yeah it's twin cousins

Radiant Cool Crazy Nightmare · 05-06-2017 02:07PM

Sirsok wrote: »

My mate is a twin, yet he has never met him, as one twin was put up for adoption. He knows he lives in England thats about it. Always found that strange, knowing you have a twin libing out there and you've never met them

Thats really sad.

Teyla Emmagan · 05-06-2017 02:15PM

neonsofa wrote:

Not exactly related to the OP but it blew my mind that the olsen twins apparently aren't identical twins. They are fraternal twins, which basically means they are siblings who shared the same womb, rather than siblings that share the same DNA- from the fertilised egg splitting into two. It's the latter that makes twins identical because their DNA is identical. Fraternal twins that look the same are apparently just very similar looking siblings. Fascinating stuff.

No the Olsens apparently are 'semi fraternal' I think it's called. So the unfertilised egg split and was fertilised by two different sperm so they have shared genes on one side but not on the other. So they're somewhere between fraternal and identical. That's why they are more alike than fraternal twins but still not identical.

I read this a long time ago and am probably not relating the details on a scientifically correct manner.

faceman · 05-06-2017 02:21PM

Shenshen wrote: »

I'm married to a twin. He doesn't have a lot of contact with his brother these days, and has told me that he spent a good part of his youth actively trying to be a different as possible. They're identical twins, and he always resented being perceived as just one half of the whole by everyone else.

I only got to meet his brother after we'd been married for a few years, and I don't mind telling you that it was a somewhat surreal experience. Despite all my OH's efforts, he still has the same mannerisms as his brother, the same sense of humour, the same inflections when speaking. And while you wouldn't mistake one for the other any more (they're in their late 40s now, and I think the similarities in appearance tend to disappear as they get older), you can tell that they are way more than just siblings.

The most hilarious thing to my mind is that his brother married someone who is uncannily similar to me. But my OH cannot stand her for some reason...

I promise I'm not trolling with this. Did you find yourself attracted to your brother in law? In that kind of "wait what who?!" way?

wexdevil · 05-06-2017 02:45PM

Never have/had any issues with my (identical) twin.

Shenshen · 05-06-2017 02:47PM

faceman wrote: »

I promise I'm not trolling with this. Did you find yourself attracted to your brother in law? In that kind of "wait what who?!" way?

To be perfectly honest, yes. Not exactly the same way I'm attracted to my husband, but in a similar way.
And at the same time my brain went "You find one a bit of a handful, and now there's two of them?!" It was very confusing initially to say the least.

On the upside, I got on with him like a house on fire

Permabear · 05-06-2017 02:53PM

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FizzleSticks · 05-06-2017 02:58PM

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corner of hells · 05-06-2017 03:01PM

FizzleSticks wrote: »

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That means you're going to have octuplets, octomon.

corner of hells · 05-06-2017 03:06PM

My niece is a twin in her twenties now who lost her sister in childbirth. Until she was about five years old her parents regularly noticed her seemingly playing by herself but as if she was with someone, often smiling and giggling as if with a playmate.

Paddy Cow · 05-06-2017 03:17PM

I don't have any kids but if I had twins I would treat them as individuals, rather than a pair. It really bugs me when I twins who are dressed the same and have the same haircuts. Maybe they're the twins who don't get on as adults because they were forced to be the same? My sister is four and a have years younger than me and my mother used to make us wear the same dresses. It drove me mental.

neonsofa · 05-06-2017 03:18PM

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

No the Olsens apparently are 'semi fraternal' I think it's called. So the unfertilised egg split and was fertilised by two different sperm so they have shared genes on one side but not on the other. So they're somewhere between fraternal and identical. That's why they are more alike than fraternal twins but still not identical.

I read this a long time ago and am probably not relating the details on a scientifically correct manner.

Nah as far as i know they are fraternal. You're correct re the definition of semi-identical twins, but this is extremely rare.

Twins

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