Here are the things that twins hate to hear. While twins do share a strong bond, it isn’t exactly a metaphysical phenomenon. Some twins do report experiencing unusual physical sensations in response to their twin’s condition. For example, a twin sister reported feeling abdominal pain when her sister was delivering a baby. However, most twins don’t ever encounter such a situation. If they do, they’ll tell you about it. No need to inquire. They don’t like to be compared—favorably or unfavorably. Like them for who they are, not for how they stack up against each other. Twins probably don’t like the question because it is usually accompanied by a lot of staring and scrutiny and precedes further annoying dialogue which often includes many of the other annoying questions and statements on this list. In the case of some twins, they don’t know or care who is older. And if they do know, having to repeat it often brings up sensitive or irrelevant stereotypes. People are fascinated with the idea of twins, but the reality of being a twin is often much more complicated than you’d imagine. Although there are plenty of incidences—and coincidences—where twins seem to know what the others are thinking, there is little scientific proof to support that twins have superior telepathic powers. In general, they just know each other very well and tend to have similar thought patterns, just like any two people who spend a lot of time together. When it comes time to issue invitations or make selections, they choose to forsake both twins rather than single out just one. It’s insulting to twins when people refuse to acknowledge them as individuals and assume that they only exist as a pair. Rather than saying, “Which one are you?”, a preferable alternative would be to say, “Forgive my ignorance. I get confused because you look so much alike. Are you (insert name here) or (insert name here)?” In reality, the answer is something along the lines of … that it is how they were born, sometimes they love it, sometimes they hate it, and they really don’t give it that much thought.
