Paper was light gold in medieval times.
I want tobacco sugar.
That everything we thought we knew about the world might turn out to be completely wrong.
Identical quadruplets are a miracle of nature.
Out of 61 million people in the whole of the Uk, the Carly’s girls are the only ones this year.
They’ve reached a pivotal time in their young lives.
They’re going to school and up.
I’m just turning nice big butterfly.
We follow them out into the big, wide world and discover just how identical the girls really are.
Can you see where you are?
No, and how different you want to open a box?
You don’t want to open any boxes, and a trip to America gives their parents a glimpse of what the future holds.
The thought of them going off on their own in different directions made me feel very anxious.
This is an intimate portrait of an extraordinary family.
It tries to answer the big question: what’s it really like to be four of a kind?
So, do you know what a quad is?
Yeah, What’s a quad?
Um, when we like wood bikes and i like them, what’s a quad?
Oh, no, you don’t know.
No, are you a quad?
Yeah,
So why are you a quad?
Because i’m four and it’s a triplet, and it means you’re all the same.
Ellie, Georgie, holly and Jessica live with their mum and dad in a small village in rural Bedfordshire.
We moved into this house, i should say my husband moved into this house the week after the girls were born, and it’s six doors away from my mum and dad, because we knew we’re gonna need some help.
So, as you can see, we’ve got four coat pegs, four coats and more four coat pegs over there, and four coats and lots of shoes.
Being a father to four identical girls has earned dad Jose an unusual nickname, the quadfather, as my friends like to call me some of my friends.
Yeah, You’re the man, you’re the man, you know whatever, i don’t know, i’m just me.
Here’s one look through.
Being a parent is always hard work, but for Mum Julie, even the most basic tasks are for dying butter.
However, Ellie’s reaction is a surprise.
Which one’s got?
The pirates?
I’m not going to tell you, that’s the game.
Do you want to open a box?
No, you don’t want to open any boxes.
That’s fine.
Then you can have your lovely sticker.
What really stood out about Ellie and the risk-taking task is she’s the only one who didn’t want to open any of the boxes.
Yeah, But even Ellie wasn’t anxious about it.
She was sure that she wasn’t going to open them, but the risk-taking task did show big differences in their impulsiveness.
Next up, Alison takes each girl through the puppet test.
I don’t tell my sisters what to do.
I do tell my sisters what to do.
How about you?
I tell my sisters what to do, but i won’t do it.
So what this puppet interview is designed to do is to get children’s own perspectives on family life, on their relationship with mom and dad, with brothers, brothers or sisters.
When i’m at home, i like to play with my sisters.
When i’m at home, i like to play alone.
How about you?
I like to build my sisters.
They were actually very similar in a lot of ways, so they all were talking about their relationship with mom and with dad, and with each other in extremely positive terms.
Hi, Jess, i’ve been looking forward to meeting you.
Jess’s interview with the puppets definitely stood out.
Yeah, something else: i don’t cry a lot, i cry a lot.
How about you, Jess?
No, she was more bold in, you know, stroking iggy and Ziggy.
She was less willing to follow the exact protocol of the interview.
So she stood out for me as being a bit more of an individual.
Does your mom spend more time with your sisters or more time with you me?
Ah, that sounds like my mom.
She was the one girl who did report parental favoritism.
So all the other girls said: you know, no, mom and dad treat us exactly the same, but according to Jess, she was the favorite, and it wasn’t just the behavioral tests that marked Jessica out another one, shall we?
What’s that star?
You’re a star.
Phonological Awareness
This game is testing and what we call phonological awareness.
It’s testing skills that are linked to reading.
Can you find two that start with the same sound?
And star, sun and stars?
For some of them, the the um sort of concept of taking the first letter off the um word was quite difficult.
If you take the off gate, what do you get left with fence?
If i take the off bath, what’s left fast?
It’s quite a tough test for this age, Jess.
She sort of flew through everything.
She did really well on all of it.
She really got hold of the task.
If you take this off scarf, what do you get left with off?
Well done, Jessica has already shown signs of independence, being the first to go on play dates without her sisters, and it’s her results that have proved the most revealing, because when she was born, we probably did treat her with a little bit more delicacy.
Maybe if i wanted a better word, she was actually going to die, which is why the birth was planned for the next day.
The other thing also that i just remembered was she i would leave her alone more because she wasn’t doing the trying to walk or try, you know.
So she’d be quite happy, left on her own.
And i always remember thinking this is going to affect the way she becomes as a, as a person, and it probably has a little bit.
You know, we are all a product of our experience, those tiny differences you were talking about in terms of the way you hold them or the way you speak to them, small as they are, it’s those tiny differences in their environmental experience that can make a big difference to who they are.
Biologically, physically, personality wise, they certainly are not identical, and so our expectation is that as the girls grow older, that they will become more and more distinct over time, more and more individual.
The tests have given Mum and dad a better idea of the vital part experience plays in their kids development, treating them in different ways because of maybe you know, like Jess was small.
So you teach her with more care.
That has had a knock-on effect.
With the way she is, is piecing all that together and understanding that it’s okay.
This is, this is why, and like their very first swimming lesson, every event of their lives will be important.
Look who’s here.
Julie understands that her daughters are growing and changing, but as Britain’s only mom of identical quads, there’s been no one for her to turn to for parenting advice.
When i first found out i was having quadruplets, i did try and contact a couple of other families, but they never called me back.
So i sort of gave up after that because i was too busy being a mum and looking after them.
In search of help, she’s been forced to look further afield and has recently made contact with an american family who’ve also got four identical girls.
They’ve invited her to come and visit Hello, Julie.
My my family is very excited to meet you.
The girls names are Kelly, Kendra, Megan and Sarah, age 18, very recently.
Teenagers.
Wow, can’t imagine what mine are going to be like when they’re teenagers.
Mummy’s going to go tomorrow.
She’s going to go on the airplane and go to their home and meet them.
Maybe some people would say: oh, you shouldn’t look into the future, but it’d be nice to have an idea of what lies ahead.
Bye, bye, darling, love you.
Oh.
Strawberry chops-
Okay, don’t forget the light in the kitchen.
How you feeling little bit emotional but excited as well.
Is there somebody on my own?
There isn’t.
Maybe you should use your rear view mirror.
I can’t.
I can’t see it.
Julie’s traveled four thousand miles to come face to face with her.
No, i can’t see it, Kendra.
Hey, your rear view mirror is right in front of your face.
This leads me right out of town.
I’ve got all this to come.
Cali, Kendra, Megan and Sarah are from Buffalo in the state of Minnesota, where they live with their mum, Naomi and older brothers.
It’s so nice to meet you.
I want to know what life’s going to be like for me over the next 15 years.
Oh yeah,
Right now you think it’s competitive over what church they’re wearing.
You just wait, there’ll be more close fights than you can ever.
No, it depends, it’s daily, daily.
Probably the most important tip you need is to have label labels, because otherwise they will fight and fight and no one will knows.
No, whose stuff is what.
So always label it.