Twins are individuals who learn to share before they are born.

More often than not, sharing is natural or inevitable for twins because they are conceived and born together and in most situations share all, or nearly all, of their early lives. Understanding that other people do not begin life “sharing” takes twins time, maturity, experience and education. As well, age brings deeper insight. I believe many twin children and their parents fail to understand that sharing all of the time is not normal and may even be unhealthy for individual identity development. Twin children are hopefully raised with the belief that some people, objects, and ideas are not “necessary” to be shared and should not be shared. Sharing is optional. Understanding that non-twins may be reluctant to share is a steep learning curve if you (a twin) have had so much experience with, and drawn comfort from, sharing with your twin.

Because twins begin their lives with such a profound sharing adventure, they do not easily understand how to not share; a twin has limited experience being an individual. As infants and toddlers, twins still share parental

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