‘My wife is raising our two children as twins, but there’s one major problem’

“They will be able to go to school together and have each other’s backs,” Jade justified.

If you have two children and they’re born on the same day, but in different years, how would you celebrate?

This was the question Jade* and Sam* found themselves asking when they welcomed their second child into the world recently. 

Coincidentally, Sam and Jade’s new son was born on the same day as their older sibling, prompting the couple to start a fierce debate about how they celebrate moving forward.  

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Jade wants to raise her sons as twins. Picture: iStock

“My wife is set on the idea of raising our two boys as twins”

Sam and Jade’s first child is only a year older than their second, and since they have the same birthday, Sam started joking about how they could celebrate their children every year. 

“I thought this was just a neat coincidence and joked about how much money we would save on birthday parties,” he said in a Reddit post. 

RELATED: 'We looked at each other and realised we didn't know which twin we were holding'

He jokingly put this idea forward to his wife, thinking she would reject the idea of hosting the same birthday for the two kids at the same time. 

However, she did the opposite, taking things arguably one step too far. 

“My wife … is taking it a lot more seriously,” Sam said. 

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Jade has always wanted to raise twins, but since that wasn’t on the cards for her, she decided to take matters into her own hands. 

“She’s set on the idea of raising our two boys as twins,” her husband said. “She said the fact that they were born on the same day is a sign from God.”

In Jade’s mind, if they raise their two children - who are one year apart - as twins, “they would be able to go to school together, having each other's backs and believes that they would be closer as twins rather than siblings.” 

Naturally, Sam doesn’t think this is a good idea and believes raising the kids as twins would do far more harm than good.

“I told her I’d rather not psychologically torture my son for the rest of his life,” he said. 

“But she’s adamant that we will tell him when he grows up, and it’s only so he can be closer to his brother now.”

There was another issue Sam tried to raise: they don’t look like they’re the same age. After all, one child is a year old, and the other is a newborn. 

But that didn’t matter to Jade, who argued that “by the time they’re one and two, no one will be able to tell the difference.”

RELATED: ‘Blessing’: Identical twin sisters give birth minutes apart from each other

“It’s going to screw with their minds”

The idea of raising two kids as twins was shocking to the Reddit community, who argued the parents could cause psychological harm if they went ahead with the plan. 

“Why set yourself up to constantly lie to your kids?” someone asked. “One will think he is much more advanced and the other more behind than the other and end up resenting each other and you.”

“The developmental rate for children this young is going to blow her twin fantasy to smithereens unless she purposely plans to stunt the older kid's developmental progress,” said another. 

“No! Don’t do it!” wrote a third. 

“The older will essentially be slowed down, and the younger will feel like they are behind. It’s going to screw with their minds.”

The logistics of raising the kids as twins also got people scratching their heads. 

“Does she plan to lie on school registration forms?” a person asked.

“Legal documents for getting them identification like a driver's license or passport? Does she plan to forge their birth certificates?”

*Names have been changed

Originally published as ‘My wife is raising our two children as twins, but there’s one major problem’