Occasionally I have days where people just say weird/rude things today was one of those days. Despite being at my church for 4 months now, with 2 kids who are the exact same size, people are still discovering Eli & Emmy are twins.
I did a talk today about an initiative in my denomination that works to improve maternal health around the globe. As part of my talk I mentioned that I owe the health and life of my premature twins to my access to good medical care.
After church I had several people comment on the twin thing but a few comments were particularly odd.
1.) As I was receiving people a man came up to me and said, "One of my twins was premature." I wasn't quite sure what to make of his statement and said, "oh they have different birthdays" (I have heard of cases where one baby is delivered and the other isn't. Rare but not unheard of).
He then responded, "No they were born 3 minutes apart." Um... say what. How do you have twins born 3 minutes apart and only one was premature? At some point I might go ask more questions because this story makes no sense and these are typically smart people.
2.) Another woman told me that she delivered her twins 2 weeks early (aka full-term, but whatever...) she told me they were 7 and 8lbs which is wonderful and I told her such.
Then the dreaded question I hate so so much, "Are yours natural?" I despise this question. For starters how my children were conceived is none of your business if you're asking for simple curiosities sake. Second, All babies are natural. Three, It doesn't make any different one way or another.
She then went on to say, "Well my twins were natural." Thanks for sharing.
3.) I learned that fraternal twins are not different than a regular brother or sister who just happened to be born at the same time. Again people, I know this. I have a boy and a girl as fraternal as they can be, this is not new information,.
4.) Later in the day we were invited to a gathering at our neighbors house. They mean well but they're old and a little bit nutty. They invited some of the other neighbors over as well. This couple has 2 dogs and I was telling Emerson that we don't feed dogs human food. (If the owners want to that's there business but I don't want Emmy to get in the habit of giving animals any food).
Emerson said okay and went outside to play. The woman than says to me, "When my children were little we never ever said the N-O word... okay... fine but I still didn't want Emerson to feed the dog.
She also gave Eli and Emerson these huge glass coffee mugs to drink out of and filled them all the way to the top with orange juice. Then she wanted them to drink the entire glass as she stood their and watched. They were both a little perplexed by the request and of course couldn't do it.
5.) Then even later in the day at a funeral at the church I got the standard funeral response during the reception, "You don't look old enough to be a minister. You look just like a teenager." Noted, doesn't need to be said.
In conclusion people are weird.
