My twin sons always attract a lot of attention when we’re running errands. One day at the grocery store, a woman rolled her cart up to mine and exclaimed, “What beautiful little boys!”
“Oh, thank you!” I gushed at her compliment.
“I have twins at home, too,” she continued. “What are your sons’ names?”
“Caleb and Austen,” I answered, and then added recklessly, “Don’t you just hate it when people give their twins cute sound-alike names like ‘Brandon’ and ‘Brandi’ or ‘Marlene’ and ‘Charlene’?”
Strangely, the woman gave a little half-smile, but offered no response. Awkwardly, I blurted out, “So…what are your twins’ names?”
“Jimmy and Jamie,” she stiffly replied.
Needless to say, I wanted to crawl under the grocery cart!
Susan M. Heim
Web site: www.SusanHeim.com
Susan is now collecting inspirational stories and poems for her upcoming book, Chicken Soup for the Soul of Twins! Send your stories or questions to chickensoup@twinstalk.com.
LOL! Actually, I’m a twin, and we are Krissi and Kathi. Does that qualify as cutsie twin names? Don’t feel bad, sounds exactly like something I’d say!
Hey Susan,
Chances are this women has put her foot in her mouth (as we all have) more than once and understands. Also, coming from a mom who has twins Joe and Jack , I don’t take offense. Everyone likes different things, that’s what makes us unique. I’m sure there is an equal number of people who don’t like kids with the names that you chose for your children, but, you didn’t care when choosing them so stop worrying, it was a simple moment of foot in mouth disease! Good luck with those boys~Whitney
Thank you, Whitney and Kristine. You made me feel better! It really helps to be able to laugh at our mistakes. You’re right in that it wouldn’t bother me a bit if someone didn’t like my children’s names, so hopefully I didn’t do too much damage to this woman’s self-esteem!
Twins are a wonderful gift from God.Their existance makes me ever grateful to God for such a wonder.To God be the glory.