Most twins experts will tell you that you should always dress your twins differently. You want people to treat them as individuals, and you should encourage your twins to develop their own tastes and style. I used to agree with this, although I would still dress my boys in identical outfits if they were on sale (after all, parents of multiples need all the bargains they can get!) or if they were given as a gift (some people just can’t resist dressing twins alike!). My preference was to buy “same but similar” outfits. For instance, both kids would get an animal shirt, but one would have a lion and one an elephant. Or one shirt would be blue, while the other would be green. This worked well for several years . . . until my boys hit their threes. Now, all my theories about encouraging their individuality are being thrown out the window! The truth is, they almost always desire the same outfit and reject the other, so every day we’ve got one of them throwing a tantrum when he doesn’t get the favored apparel! Even if I let them pick out their own outfits at the store, they’ll still decide once we get home that one is “better” than the other. So, for now (at least until we get out of these quarrelsome threes), I’m throwing the parenting theories out the window and buying my twins exactly the same outfits! No more fighting and screaming when it’s time to get dressed. If my boys want to look alike, then I’m fine with it. And next year, when they enter a new “phase” and insist on being different, I’ll be fine with that, too!
About Susan Heim
Personally I think differently, though I can understand how much easier it would be to dress them alike, particularly when very young. There is nothing more cute than seeing a set of twins dressed in same clothing. Though arguing against my thoughts, we all like to dress similar by following fashions, so maybe we make a mountain out of a molehill. Interesting thought though.