Photo: Courtesy of Sunshine Flint
?I want Daddy.? I hear that a lot from Persey, one of my six-year-old twins, for whom whining is pretty much a default mode. In response, her sister, Evie, ends up wanting her mommy most of the time, creating a dynamic that makes me and my partner cringe. When a family trip to Beaches in Turks and Caicos came up and my partner had to work, instead of cancelling, I decided to use the opportunity to spend some honest-to-goodness, one-on-one quality time?four days straight?with Persey, where she?d get nothing but Mommy.
Holidays can advance brain development in children, according to a study by Jaak Panksepp, a neuroscientist and professor at Washington State University. Having worked as a travel writer for almost two decades, I knew travel was an important thing to expose my kids to, but that didn?t mean my decision to take one kid over the other didn?t come riddled with some serious mom guilt. The night before we left, Persey?s sister sobbed at bedtime?sad that she wasn?t invited and sad that I was going away?and all my promises of a fun-filled weekend with Daddy made no difference. Later, as I packed the suitcase?grown-up clothes on the left, kid clothes on the right?the guilt really began to sink in. I felt awful about leaving her behind. I also found myself apprehensive about the idea of mothering one child. I?ve spent the past six years wrangling the two of them?I am a twin mom, hear me roar?and the idea of being alone with just one of t...