I grew up around our local Chinese Restaurant. It was where we came together with family and friends on Friday nights as long as I could remember. Where kids could make a mess and join two or more chairs together when we got a little tired from the dim lighting and spring rolls.
So naturally as a mother, I now like to take my kids to the local Chinese. It’s nothing flash, but good local Chinese comfort food, and usually it’s a mid-week event as we both work full-time.
So this time around, being a Wednesday, you’d expect to enjoy a meal, make a mess, and then apologise for the mess as you leave – basically a normal dinner for a family of four, complete with our 2-year-old twins.
Now I’ve been taking my twins out for meals since they were 6 months. Yes they make mess. Yes they may yell. But they sit in their chairs, and are happy if they’re eating alongside us, with some cups of water, a bunny and a train set thrown in for good fun.
But on this particular Wednesday, as I sat enjoying my glass of wine and my combination birds nest I couldn’t help but overhear the comments from 60’s + table of four behind me. “Parents should know better...kids shouldn’t be out”. It was 7pm. I turned around and gave an over compensated smile to the lady who was so opinionated about my family’s behaviour. We asked for the bill, “Oh its OK, they’re leaving now”. I turned around to exclaim “Yes, it’s ok we are leaving now” Only to be met by a blindly over supporting husband telling me not to listen to other people’s business. My reply “It’s hard not to when you are basically SHOUTING IT AT ME.”
I then reminded them nicely they were at their local Chinese. My blood boiled with anger.
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On the other hand there was the table in front of me. The older couple dining together must have been in their late 80’s. As she walked in she recognised we had twins. I have boy/girl fraternal twins, the boy being much taller means they are often mistaken for close siblings.
Not long into our meal she turned around and gave them a Kit Kat. At first I thought about the sugar rush and the impending struggle to keep them seated.
But then I thought what a perfect moment – you just happened to have the perfect treat to be shared between twins. A Kit Kat.
She mentioned she always carried treats around for good little kids and it gave her as much, if not more joy then it did the twins.
As we were leaving and dealing with the comments from the other table, the sweet older couple called our twins over, handing them a two dollar coin each. I kept thinking, 'don’t put the money in your mouth', and spent the trip home trying to pry it from them as they kept doing exactly that.
But as my blood boiled from the people behinds comments, the older couple in front had dispersed it.
As we left the restaurant all I could hear was the older lady saying how good they were. “They’re twins you know”, and we couldn’t have been more proud than in that moment.
Yes they are twins. Yes they are good. Yes we are allowed to have an early dinner out. And no, I’m not going to apologise any more.
Especially not at my local Chinese restaurant.
Do you have twins? What are some of the struggles you face?
TAP on the image below and scroll through the gallery to see cute identically-dressed twins...
