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Home › Articles › General › Double the Fun

Double the Fun

Guiding Your Twins Through Puberty

By Teri Brown

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Adolescence is a time of growth, uncertainty and mistakes and that's just the way it affects parents! Triple that for the young person going through it, and you have a family riding the roller coaster of puberty. So what if you have twins? Will you ever survive?

Developing Differently
Looking back, Jo Graeber, from Anderson, S.C., believes that, in a sense, having twins going through puberty was extremely difficult. Her daughter was a rather wild child and developed socially far earlier than did her twin brother. While his sister was going to friends' houses to meet with boys, he was at home, more interested in friend stuff than chasing girls.

"My girl was boy crazy by age 10 and 'going' with boys by age 12 ... going means literally flirting, calling on [the] phone, silly girly stuff," says Graeber. "At the same time, my son still had his friends, and he was more interested in doing boy things than messing with girls yet."

When one twin develops more quickly than the other, either physically or socially, there can be resentment or jealousy. With twins, the one left behind can feel inadequate, while the one who has developed first can be sensitive about their physical changes.

Graeber's twins were no exception. "I'd say he felt left behind to a certain extent," says Graeber. "She was doing 'dating' things ... going out and having fun, while he was staying home with his buddies."

Dr. Rebecca Unger, pediatrician for Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, believes the amount of stress different developmental rates has on twins depends on many different factors. "The ramifications will depend on the timing of the changes of puberty and the relationship of the twins," says Dr. Unger. "If one twin starts maturing early and the other has more average timing, it would probably be more stressful on the child entering puberty on the early side. However, if one twin goes through puberty at an average time and the second twin is delayed, this might be more stressful on the latter twin."

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