Can you help me with my research pretty please?

Afternoon all.

Literally just before our lunch was dished up (thank you Steve!) my muse smacked me over the head with an idea that I'm gonna need help from twins with to even make a start on it.

If you're not a twin and/or don't know any twins, then you can safely stop reading.

I'm after a pair of twins (obviously  😜) who have an at-best OK relationship with each other.  If these twins are usually in each others pockets other than the occasional "I wanted that biscuit/cake/toy!" etc argument but they are back to being best friends within hours then that's great for them and their family and friends but they can't help with this research.

If you, as the adult, spend more time breaking up fights and squabbles and arguments than breathing a sigh of relief that you can listen to/watch your favourite programme on the telly or radio or you can read another chapter or more in a book or you can do a few puzzles or whatever then keep reading!

Everyone seems to think that twins always know what the other is thinking and that they will always support each other and stuff, but I can't help wondering about those twins who don't have such a close relationship with each other and, as with the majority of my manuscripts that I've written so far, I wanna help those two children to feel less alone by writing a book about twins who don't have the best relationship in the world.

That's literally all my muse gave me, so I'm asking that you, as the adult, email me and first off tell me the age of your twins so that I know what sort of book to write then ask each of your twins to make up a totally fictional name and from that point on, when you're talking to me about them, please use the fictional name that they have chosen so that I can respect their privacy as much as possible.

As long as you are happy that this is genuine research, can you help each twin to set up a throw-away email address (like Hotmail or Gmail or whatever) with the fictional name that they have chosen and with you sitting right next to them (or at least in the same room as them when they read and reply to each email) get them each to email me at research@stories4childrengroup.com and first off tell me their fictional name that they want me to use in the research, how old they are, then give me a run-down of a typical day and how they feel at each point for them... no specific times or identifying details at all please, just something like:  "7am - Jessica woke me up with her snoring yet again, which made me angry, so I threw my slipper at her and yelled at her to shut the freak (or whatever word they would realistically choose) up.  8am - Jessica finished off the dratted cereal again.  Well just for that I'm gonna finish of the orange juice 'cos she hasn't had any yet and there's only grapefruit left which she hates lol" etc etc.

How are their school days different to weekends and school holidays?  Are they in the same tutor group/sets etc or different ones?  What do they do at break and lunchtimes at school?  Do they have the same friends or different ones?  Do they deliberately avoid each other whenever possible 'cos they don't get on or do they feel forced together purely because they're twins and that gets on their nerves too (maybe it's the only thing they agree on)?

I just need to get into the head of my potential new main characters is all and I've got absolutely no experience of the day-to-day life of twins who don't live in each other's pockets constantly.

Please, please, PLEASE, have parental software running the whole time and if possible read every message I send them before they see it and each of their replies to me... I haven't got a clue who they are and that's how I want it to stay, so I wanna do as much as I can to keep your twins safe.  Don't edit their replies and let them off the swearing (if that's realistic for them), just while they're helping me with this.  If they swear, could you get them to put in the usual adult punishment in their own words, then you email me separately and tell me how you would react, whether that's a particular look you give them or shouting or yelling or huffing or grounding them or whatever else.  I need to be able to get into the head of each of the characters in the real modern-day world, instead of the one that's painted usually.

I'm willing to answer any questions you've got for me before you agree to letting your twins loose on me... you can find all my sites and blogs linked to at amandas.website and I'm qualified to work with children aged 12 months to 7 years 11 months.  I don't have a current CRB approval 'cos I haven't worked since 1999 due to my disabilities but you are more than welcome to run one on me if you want to and it would help to reassure you that I'm genuine, you would need to pay for it though, sorry!

I'm around all day, every day (except Monday early afternoons 'cos that's when our groceries are usually delivered and this coming Tuesday 'cos someone's coming over about a grant for something in the house that we might be able to get.  I've got a hospital appointment on 24th June too, but let's get May out of the way first, eh 😉) and I'm happy to do my best to answer any questions or provide any reassurance you need whenever you want me to.

Feel free to ask any questions whenever you want and I'll do my best to answer them for you.

A huge thank you to you and your twins in advance.