A mum who has been criticised for keeping her two-year-old twin babies in separate cots has shown her reasoning by filming how quickly her two kids can go from the best of friends to properly scrapping.
Lauren Berty has shared many videos to her TikTok in the past that show her two young girls Shiloh and Ever-Grace Berty playing together nicely.
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However – as is the case with all kids – things can also go the other way and take a serious turn.
The mum of three decided that she’d rather keep the two twin toddlers apart at night time, but received a fair bit of stick for having them sleep in different cribs.
Well, now Lauren has shared the baby monitor footage that proves that she’s probably right to keep them apart, and might even be saving herself a load of time and the children from injuries.
The clips show the nice side of the youngster’s relationship, with the pair often cuddling and enjoying each other’s company, but they also end up in a number of fights as well, often yanking at each other’s hair and biting each other’s fingers.
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So, whilst Lauren explained how they can be ‘lovey-dovey’ with one another during the day when they’re supervised and not trying to sleep, they’ve had to be kept apart at nights for their own safety, for the peace of the household and – presumably – for their mother’s sanity.
There was another reason behind her decision to share the video, though.
Lauren said that she wanted to show that the twins can have disputes and arguments – even fights – but they don’t hate each other.
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She explained how other mums had contacted her worrying about the relationships between their own children.
Lauren, from Richmond, Virginia, said: "The twins like cuddling and kissing and I'd get a lot of comments from people saying 'why do you keep them separated in their cribs?'.
"It was funny to me.
“Yes, they love each other, but they fight just as hard.
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"So I decided to put all the videos from the baby monitor together.
“I got moments where they weren't being super lovey-dovey and having real twin sister moments.
"It was a response to people asking why I don't let them sleep in the same crib.
"The video also shows the two sides of sibling relationships.
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“I've had so many mothers of twins reach out to say 'your girls get on so well, I feel like my twins hate each other'.
"I wanted to show people the two sides to raising twins.
“I already show the good stuff, so I wanted to show that my twins aren't perfect and always in this blissful lovey state every day."
Lauren added: "My monitor automatically records if there's any activity.
"For some of their fights, I'll hear it from my room. I'll hear somebody crying and run in there to break it up and put them back down to sleep.
"I'll then watch back on the monitor to see what happened.
"If the fight has escalated to the point where there's biting, I'll go in to separate them. But what I've found with twins is that you shouldn't intervene in every altercation.
Still, she insists that the pair have a great relationship, despite their physical altercations at times.
Lauren concluded: "They're each other's BFFs. They go to pre-school three days a week and they play together.
"The cool thing about twins is that they have these social skills that most kids their age haven't developed yet, because they always have a partner.
"Most of the time, they're very cordial."
"The twins probably fight at least once a week, though not necessarily always in the crib.
"I think they'll always share a room, mainly because our house isn't that big.
"I've noticed that if they've been separated for a day - say if one of them is sick and has to go to the doctor - that they'll miss each other.
"There's something about them being in the same room that I think they find comforting.
“But they do need to have their own space."
Tom Wood