Parenting multiples is all about survival … anything to make life easier! Having multiples means you have to split EVERYTHING two, three, four or even more times. Your time, your cuddles, your hands, your attention. Being able to carry one child in a sling enables you to divide yourself a little more easily. Essentially you are seeing to more than one child’s needs at the same time.
In the very early days both children can be worn in one sling on your front, allowing you to be completely hands free! Later down the line you can either carry one on your front and one on your back, or you can use a sling and single buggy. Getting around and using public transport is made massively easier by using a single buggy over a double. Buggy space on buses is limited, using a double buggy usually means that you can be the only one on board, which is difficult when the bus arrives with a single buggy already in the space. Slings still have a use when they start to walk, toddler legs get tired easily and it’s pretty difficult to manoeuvre a double buggy by yourself and also look after 2 toddlers, especially if they decide to go in different directions! Using a sling means when they have had enough and can’t possibly walk another step, you can pop one in the sling and carry the other in arms … instead of having to carry both.
how can you help me?
We can provide advice from experience, real life occurrences where slings have greatly eased the transition to twin parenthood!
We can offer sling rental for a one off journey or occasion. We can provide a ‘try before you buy’ service so you can rent a carrier, give it a good test and then we can help you buy. If you normally drive but find a need to use public transport for any reason, we can provide short or long term sling rental to avoid the hassle and financial burden of having to buy your own sling.
real life examples
Who?
Emma K, UK
E & F, twins aged 10 months.
When did you start using slings & why?
I started using them with my eldest son because I couldn’t take the buggy on the bus; this was 14 years ago – 1999 so buses were a bit different then!
How has using a sling generally benefitted you and your child/ren?
Generally being able to have more freedom for me in getting around and nicer for the babies as they get lots more cuddles! It has helped me travelling on public transport. It helped my second child with colic. It has helped being able to carry one of my twins and push the other (although I do occasionally tandem carry them) as having a double buggy is exhausting and very inconvenient!
Can you tell us one specific occasion in which using a sling had a positive impact in your daily life?
There are sooo many occasions! The best example is being able to participate in my middle child’s life fully. He is almost five and enjoys rambling about in the woods, climbing trees etc. With the babies in slings we can all go out as a family and enjoy doing this over terrain that would be very difficult with a buggy and also I don’t think we would be able to meet the needs of our babies properly with them in a buggy for hours at a time, being carried means their needs are being met as well as my other children’s. Yesterday for example we went to a food fair and then a nature walk, the food fair was too busy for a buggy and the nature walk too hilly!
What one piece of wisdom would you pass onto other parents of twins or more who may be considering using slings?
Speak to others that carry their babies; finding a sling-meet was brilliant for me, I made some lovely friends and shared ideas. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself; there is no one way that is right for everyone when I had twins I was so gutted that I couldn’t carry them as much as I would have liked to. Although tandem carrying is possible it is easier with different ages. The specific needs of managing two newborns meant that I couldn’t always carry them everywhere by myself as I often would have nowhere to put them down when I needed to take one off to feed or change them. If you can’t do it as you want to all the time just do it when you can and enjoy it!