Surviving Tweens - er Twins

We recently had my 13 year old twin girl cousins up to stay for week to give their parents a well earned break. They are really lovely girls; sensitive and caring and they can make you laugh at their witty little cracks and sayings and drive you to madness with their constant chatter, yet its really nice when you get home after a long hard day at the salt mines to get a welcoming hug and smile - makes your worries seem less important.

They are however entering that delightful stage of between teenager and child - tweendom! its a wasteland between the innocence of a child and the I know everything of a teenager. You have to endure endless hours of chatter about the Jonas Brothers, Hannah Montana and the latest sexy pop star. Clothes are discussed at length and disseminated. Everything and anything is fair game - nothing misses those sharp minds!

They think of me as an big sister, which is nice - but it does leave me open to to all sorts of questions and boy are there some beauts!
1. How old were you when you first French kissed a boy? Er, ummhhh he he I can't remember a while ago.
2. Was it a looonggg time ago? Yes, when Queen was popular.
3. Who is Queen? Rhythmic wailing and head beating starts.
4 Have you ever gone further than kissing? oh boy!! I knew that one was coming like a dark cloud on the horizon!! Yes but that's adult stuff and when you are an adult you will have your own experiences. Not too bad I thought, but then they stung me with the question - when are you an adult then? How old are you when you're an adult?
5. Should you ever go out with your boss if he asked you? Noooooooooo I would rather commit Hari-Kiri than do that. Seriously, its not wise to mix work and pleasure together ever. It doesn't usually work out well.

If it wasn't me being tortured with questions, then it was the poor cats who were suffering. They love cats and have a pavement special at home, and one of our cats bears an uncanny resemblance to theirs and as a result the poor cat got the lions share of their fussings. It was dressed up in outfits and lugged around like a doll - by the end of the week it was suffering panic attacks at the sound of their voices!

As for my poor mother, well she had to endure endless questions and chatterings. She never had a moment to herself without being questioned to death. It was the one time that I was actually happy to go to work!

After a week - all I can say is peace has returned to the household and the cat is off its anxiety medication. We survived with our sanity intact - I think!

Seriously, though raising children is one of the hardest and most fulfilling jobs in the world. Having those young minds to mould is an awesome responsibility and not one to be taken lightly ever.