TwinzGear Parenting Twins Newsletter

Parenting Twins Newsletter

Summer 2008

Happy Summer!! and welcome to TwinzGear - the source for all your twins needs. We've spent many hours updating our store and adding more helpful products for twins (infants to school age). The NoSqueeze Juice Box holder and the MeToo! portable high chairs are both great products for twins families on the go. We hope you like what you see, and we love to hear from our customers. So tell us what you think so we can continue to make our site even better for Twins families.

Summer is a time for hitting the road (although the gas prices being what they are, I think many folks are re-thinking that option this year). We are definitely a family that likes to go-go-go. Our family loves to ski in the winter and bike in the summer and just get outside and play as much as possible. This can be challenging for families with twins as the added complexity of heading out with twins can easily be over-whelming for twins parents.

Bike riding with twins has proven to be a challenge for our family. Our older son is able to ride on his own, so that's been a big help. However trying to teach our twins to ride has been a challenge. They're starting to get the hang of it, but we like to cover quite a few miles on our rides and the twins are definitely not ready for that type of ride yet.

In an effort to be efficient and save money, we bought a double tag-a-long to attach to my husband's bike. I'm sure most folks have seen those type of attachments which basically turn an adult bike into a "bicycle built for two." However in the case of a double, it makes it a "bicycle built for three!!!" What a wonderful invention we thought. What a great item for a twins family. Dad can take the twins on his bike and mom can tow the bike trailer filled with all our "gear."

In fact I even tried to find a vendor for the product so I could sell it on TwinzGear. Again, I thought it would be a great help to families of twins. However after using the double tag-a-long for a quite a few rides, and searching high and low to try and find a vendor for this product, I've come to realize it's not as great as I thought. It turns out that balancing one child on the back or your bike is challenging enough, however two is a bit much to handle. The balancing is a real challenge for my husband and he's not a small guy. And the more I looked into it, I found out that the manufacturer isn't making the product anymore. Apparently they realized that the product wasn't safe!! Just a heads up to all you other twins parents so you don't make the same mistake we did.

And the other dynamic that would should have thought about but didn't realize when we made this purchase was the "twin discussions" that accompany every ride. Our twins actually LOVE the "yellow bike" as they call it. They sing to eachother, they tell jokes, they laugh and get lost in their own discussions. Just another example of the joys of twins!! So, we're toughing it out with the twin tag-a-long for another few months until we can get them both proficient on their own bikes. Wish us luck!!

FEATURE OF THE MONTH!

Twins Clean

Shopper

Each month we feature a product with particular appeal for twins and twins families. Last month we talked about the Ski Trainer Kit. We used it for our twins with GREAT success and a number of TwinzGear readers have shared similar stories of great family ski outings.
This month, I’d like to feature the Twins Clean Shopper. This product is definitely a TwinzGear twins store Great Gear pick. As a mother of twins, I do the majority of my shopping at warehouse stores. These stores have the double grocery carts that can hold two children (which is a huge help when shopping with twins). Twins Clean Shopper allows me to protect my kids from all the dirt and germs that are always found on the grocery carts. If your house is anything like mine, I go to just about any lengths to avoid a cold or flu making its way through my family. The Twins Clean Shopper helps avoid picking up those germs every time we go to the store. And it’s machine washable, so when ever it needs a washing, I just throw it in the machine. It’s GREAT!! Check it out here. It’s a great shower gift and can be used as long as the twins still fit in the front portion of the grocery cart. My twins are 4 and we’re still using it!!