Managing Time with Twins

A father of twins writes, “Once the twins are born, I think my worry is going to be about time. Time to stay on top of everything. Time with my son, time with the twins. I think we are lucky that we do have close family that should help us out.”

Time is always a challenge with twins, especially when you have twins and other children in the house.

Make Time for Your Twins

Now as you said, you’re lucky because you’ve got family close by, so you need to be able to tap into those helpers to assist you with your family. So talk to your family that lives close by and have frank discussions on how they can help you now, and once the twins arrive. We lined up helpers for the first two months after our twins were born, but we definitely would’ve taken them for longer if we could have.

These were helpers that would help out during the day, but also family members that would stay with us for several days. They would stay overnight and they would help with the night shift, changing and feeding the twins during the night. This was a lifesaver for us, because we were able to get into a good rotation where at least one adult in the house was able to sleep through the night every couple of nights.

Another thing you can do is make sure that you schedule one on one time with your son or other kids after the twins are born. Because if you don’t have a schedule or a time set aside, then you may neglect your twins’ older brother or sister, and you definitely don’t want that to happen.

Other Things Can Wait

Make sure you talk about what you will stop doing and what can wait so you’ll free up time for child care and for bonding.

A lot of things around the house on your to-do list or for work can wait or are not as important as taking care of your twins and taking care of your older children. By making arrangements and plans now, you’ll have some peace of mind that you’ve got things lined up for when the twins come.

This question was originally addressed on the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast episode 29: Managing Time, Double Clothes Dressers, 3 Money Saving Tips.

Picture by Joshua Bloom