Double trouble
Anastasia De Waal, 22 March 2010
There’s something altogether appealing about mothering twins. As seemingly smug couples push their newborn darling duos around Clapham Common on Sundays, envious pedestrians can only dream of two babies for the price of one meeting with a midwife: the ready-made future playmates, the prospect of sacrificing only one, not two, evenings to traipse around school discussing spelling tests and times-tables… Needless to say, the double pushchair even takes precedence on these narrow, windy paths.
As a proud older sister of twins, I’ve witnessed a lot of the ‘cute’ that accompanies these couples. However, little did I know, that whilst I was imagining ludicrous outfit opportunities—matching his and hers hats, mitts and booties—my parents were carefully watching their wallets and dreading the onslaught of a future of sibling trade-offs. Compromise is complex; after all, alternating gift-giving on birthdays doesn’t make for happy families.
In short, having twins isn’t a simple case of buy one, get one free.
The public’s perception of parental perfection exists in stark contrast to the reality of bringing up the Tina and Ginas, the Jim and Tims and the Tristan and Isoldes of Britain. A report published last week by Tamba, the Twins and Multiple Births Association, suggests that families with multiple births witness a significant drop in income, are more likely to encounter financial stress and experience higher levels of material deprivation. Parents are also more likely to separate or divorce. Twindom ceases to look so rosy.
Given a little thought, these findings aren’t really surprising. Clearly, two tickets to Lego Land cost more than one. And there’s not much you can do about stringently budgeting for school uniforms via hand-me-downs and the like if both twins need new uniforms at the same time.
What is unexpected about the findings, however, is the demographic of families more likely to experience these problems. The likelihood of multiple maternities only increases with age, and a significant increase in the number of multiple births in Britain today is largely accounted for by the increase in popularity and success of IVF treatments – also commonly associated with older mothers. These mothers are also more likely to be married and in paid employment. Author of the report, Birmingham University’s Professor Stephen McKay, writes that these circumstances should ostensibly maintain a ‘degree of protection’ from the implications of multiple births. Only they’re not.
With such stark correlations revealed, I’m pleased to see this report hasn’t been added to the ever-increasing arguments against postponed parenting and assisted conception. Instead, Chief Executive of Tamba, Keith Reed, is urging the Government to turn to the continent for solutions to help parents who get more than they bargained for. I wholly endorse the common sense measures in place elsewhere—higher birth grants in the Czech Republic and altered parental leave entitlements in France—and hope to see similar in party manifestos soon. I imagine potty-training twins is stressful enough without the acrimony of paying double for childcare in order to return to fulltime work so that the year six residential trip invoice sitting on the kitchen counter can be settled in order to enjoy a little well-earned respite.
By Annaliese Briggs