Trying to be the best version of myself, for them 😍😖🤔
Hi, I am Ranj, and these are my incredible twins. You will also get to meet their superstar mother (my amazing wife, not some rando!) who is the real mastermind behind the family!
Children are wonderful, but being a modern parent can be a tough gig. Even though we had done a lot of thinking up front, I still found being a dad practically challenging. Let alone balancing this with being a good executive, employee, colleague, husband, son, coach, business owner, staying healthy, mowing the lawn, keeping the goldfish alive…you get the idea. 😵💫😵🥴
On top of this, every experienced parent I met told me they regret something about the time they spent with their young families. I heard this time and again in books and podcasts as people reflected on their achievements in life.
I was determined not to have any regrets, so I went out of my way to build a life around the twins where I could be the “best version of myself" for them. Like everything that involves the twins, this didn't go 100% according to plan. 🤦♂️
You can find my totally honest lowdown of what went well and not so well on this site, I hope it helps you on your parenting journey!
How to use the site
Here is how to navigate the site depending on where you are at:
A. My hair is on 🔥, the 💩 has literally hit the fan, and I need some practical input on how to parent ASAP ASAP - Check out the articles in the "Practical Parenting" section. The posts are split by activity or subject (e.g. Sleep, Bottle feeding), so you can easily find the subject and development stage you are looking for.
B. I am an expecting or new parent and am trying to figure out how I want to parent - Start with the "Parenting Choices" section. These post’s share how we figured out as much as we could as a couple before the 💩 hit the fan. It also makes the rest of the site make more sense as these choices set up how we approached everything else.
C. I want to be the best parent I can be - Me Too. I have shared how that is going (or not…) in the “Best Version of Myself" Section.
D. TLDR; Just show me some goddamn babies! Check out our month in a minute videos - a month by month video diary of the twins growing up (and me getting older.... 🤣). A great way to quickly get a feel for #Twinlife!
There is a lot of content on this site. I could have written single page clickbait - "how to get your baby to sleep in 10 easy steps", but the reality is all families are different. It's not the things that work that are the problem, its the things that don't, and the little differences and challenges that pop up. By sharing our experiences in more depth, warts and all, I hope it can help you to navigate your own unique circumstances. Longer articles have a summary and are broken into sections, so you can easily jump to a topic or age if you are after something specific.
Just curious what the crazy wonderful world of twins is like? Check out our "a month in a minute" videos, which will give you a flavour!
The Elephant in the Room
You will see words like respect, independence, choice and contentment repeated throughout this site as I talk about the impact we hope to have on the Twins, and the way we are parenting as a result.
Even I have struggled a bit with the irony of sharing so much about them, when they don't currently have much of a say in the matter. To be honest, it was almost enough for me to shelve the project. But as I have become increasingly passionate about some of the larger questions that have surfaced around how we think about and prepare for parenting, and the value placed on upon the process, I think it's worth sharing a little more of our lives if it makes the subject more engaging and more likely to reach a wider audience, and helps to make things more real and useful for others.
I hope when the twins are old enough to understand the site exists they will be happy with what we have done, but if not, then I will happily close the site if necessary. In the mean time I have made them anonymous as "Twin Girl (TG)" and "Twin Boy (TB)" throughout the site, and will be filtering comments to avoid trolls or anything else I wouldn't want them to see, so if you would like to comment or ask questions, please use the contact form and I will get back to you.
If anyone has a more effective and elegant way of dealing with this please reach out as like our cuddly friend above, I am all ears!
Disclaimer
I am a parent doing my own research so that I can be the best dad I can be, whilst sharing the results. Please do not take at face value anything on the site, do your own research and consider your own personal circumstances. Please always consult a doctor or health professional if you are unsure of anything or feel there might be an underlying health issue.