“Oh what cute babies,” the cashier says.
“Thank you,” I say with a smile, as I continue unloading my groceries at the till.
“A boy and a girl?”
“Yes,” I say. “One of each.”
“Are they identical?”
I bite my tongue. I bite it hard because it is not the first time I’ve been asked this question, even after it’s been established that I have one girl and one boy.
Let’s think about this for a second. We’ve already determined that one baby is a girl and the other baby is a boy. So one is female and the other is male.
What determines the sex of an individual? Yes, that is right: their girl parts and their boy parts. So if that’s how we determine the sex of an individual, there must be some sort of difference between the two, correct? And if they’re different, they can’t be identical, now can they?
So let’s return to the conversation…
“Are they identical?”
I bite my tongue. Most times when I’m asked this, I manage to force a smile, shake my head and say “No, they’re not.” This time though, I decide to have a little fun.
I look at my twins, and I say “Yes, my daughter and my son are totally identical. Some days I can’t tell them apart.”
The woman behind me in the line-up giggles but the cashier doesn’t notice. I smile as I leave the grocery store to take my “identical” twins home.
