Summer 2018: a weekend at Paola's parents' beach house in Gallipoli with our two-year-old twins. It was tiring, chaotic, and we even managed a couple of hours of rest. Only parents of twins will truly understand.
Organising a weekend with two-year-old twins
Gallipoli is about half an hour's drive from where we live, and Paola's parents have a small house right on the beach. Sounds easy, right? Not with two-year-old twins. With two kids of different ages, the older one usually understands instructions and the younger one follows. With twins, when one is calm and the other is causing chaos, the calm one follows the chaos. It only works in one direction: towards the mess, the shouting and the crying.
We're part of a Facebook group where twin parents swap advice and support each other, and we all agree: you can't understand it unless you live it, not even if you see it with your own eyes. I love them with all my heart. But sometimes I'd like to disappear for a couple of weeks.
A few hours in Lecce
After lunch and a nap (and a bit of sunburn), the grandparents took care of the kids for a couple of hours and we escaped to Lecce. I filmed that part on my phone because I was too lazy to get the camera out. It was really hot and quieter than usual. We went shopping and, of course, ended up buying things only for the kids. Even when they're not around, we think about them more than about ourselves. Then we had dinner at a Greek restaurant.
Back to normal, and a thank-you
Back to normal life, we dropped the twins at kindergarten: crying and screaming for their mum, as usual, then playing happily five minutes later. Overall it was a nice weekend. With grandparents helping, you might even get a couple of hours to relax.
I want to close the same way I closed the video. I try to be a super dad, but Paola does 99% of the job. Whatever I do, I don't think it's more than 5% of what really needs doing. Thank you, Paola. You're doing a great job with our twins.