Comments on: More CAN Necessarily Mean Better

By: pam

pam — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:38:32 +0000

oh yes. i remember going to a talk at my triplet mom group about discipline, when the boys were about 6 months old. the speaker said the best thing to do was to get three of everything. “nonsense!” i thought. “my boys will learn to share!”

HA! yeah right. now i know it’s necessary for some toys. not all, but some. like elmo.
.-= pam´s last blog ..20 months! And a ton of pictures. =-.

By: Beth

Beth — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:50:27 +0000

My girls are 4. For a long time they didn’t care and were good about sharing and taking turns. While they still are good at that, and we practice it often, they also have VERY similar interests and like to play together most of the time. Therefore, in the last year or so, we started buying two of some things. It doesn’t always work. My parents bought two sit-n-spins and the girls never really cared for them. But we have to have two grocery carts and two cash registers (but only one kitchen set). We have enough blocks that two can play happily, one train set, etc. It usually depends on the size and how easy it is for two kids to play with it at the same time. Usually we get one, and if the girls both love it, we get another (and try for the exact same. Then we put their initials on it so they know whose is whose). This system has worked really well for us. It is a little bit more stuff than we would like, since we have two of several items, but it keeps things peaceful and I think it’s good for the girls to have things that are their own, that they don’t always have to share. Since they have one or two items that belong to them, they are much more willing to share everything else.

By: Staci

Staci — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 03:56:24 +0000

This is the very reason my daughter’s baby doll stroller has been in the closet since the day we bought it. I will need to purchase another so my son can push the babies too, oh and a baby for him.
.-= Staci ´s last blog ..Silent Sunday =-.

By: reanbean

reanbean — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:23:02 +0000

We have two of the exact-same-in-every-way Chicco ride on train toys (birthday gifts) and they still both fight over one of them. Go figure…

By: Sadia

Sadia — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:05:14 +0000

We don’t have two of anything more, at age 3. Turn-taking, sharing and playing together is working well for us. I think this is another area in which every child and every set of multiples is different.

What my girls DO fight over is who gets to sit in the car seat on the passenger side. Why that’s better, I don’t know.
.-= Sadia´s last blog ..Weekend observations =-.

By: Diane

Diane — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:38:21 +0000

We make do with just one of most toys (my boys are 25 months) But we MUST have duplicate foods such as snacks. Twin A must have identical bag of pretzels to Twin B, or all heck breaks loose.
They do both like a specific puzzle we have, and the only way to handle this is one plays with it IN HIS CRIB to protect from the other one grabbing pieces. So I do need to buy a duplicate of some favorite puzzles, for example, but my shopping time is zero so we are making do. I did buy TWO identical Go Go Diego balls and that has saved lots of fights.

By: Joanna

Joanna — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:18:32 +0000

My boys have done pretty well with the sharing. They are 27 months and we don't have very many duplicates and those are mostly on smaller items. We have had to break up some fights, but mostly they do fine. .-= Joanna´s last blog ..Chatterbox =-.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:41:00 +0000

Haha. This is my life.

Having learned something over the past 2+ years, we now buy two of something. Preferably exactly the same and in the same color (the fight over the one pink sippy cup is neverending. Seriously.). Of course, then one of them decides they want TWO [shopping carts, phones, cars etc...] and it all starts over again.

By: Quadmama

Quadmama — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:18:38 +0000

Ooops, also forgot to mention: when I DO buy duplicates of more expensive things I typically buy one and then see how much use it gets. If it’s a huge hit I’ll consider buying more.
.-= Quadmama´s last blog ..Raising Multiples: A Pain in the…. =-.

By: Quadmama

Quadmama — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:17:20 +0000

It all depends on the toy. When I bought my girls play cell phones for their birthday I bought four because I had already witnessed them fight relentlessly over a friend’s “phone.” But we only have two Aquadoodle mats (4 pens of course) and 2 Magnadoodles. Do they all want to play at the same time… some times, but for bigger items I’m not willing to buy 4. Sometimes buying 4 (or 2 or however many you need) doesn’t even help. We have 4 matching Dora chairs and inevitably I hear this “Mommy, she’s sitting in my chair.”
.-= Quadmama´s last blog ..Raising Multiples: A Pain in the…. =-.