Well, we raised these babies right! They don’t just pull out cuteness for fame and fortune. If it isn’t sincere, they won’t even bother. So when I can get Zach giggling like crazy or Rissa talking up a storm, and then I try to call the grandparents and leave messages for them while they are at work, but the babies look at me like I’m crazy for trying to inspire them to do what they were JUST doing, and the grandparents get empty machine messages of me sounding silly and the babies giving nothing… well, when that happens, you know they have ethics! They’ll be cute when they feel like it! And they know full well that if you could see them staring blankly at me, you’d think they were cute just doing that! They’d rather skip the gig than give up their ethics. And I say, 3 cheers! So grandparents, when you get home to empty answering machines, I’d like to preemptively apologize. And if anyone else would appreciate a courtesy empty answering machine message, let me know!
I’m not sure how this behavior is ethical. Doing something to intentionally please or entertain someone else (like, for example, telling a joke, or even posting pictures of your twins on a blog) is often considered, in general, a good thing (although of course it could be abused). If anything, this seems to have nothing to do with ethics, but has more to do with how much they’ll be people-pleasers (or put in a different way, how socially awkward they might become when they grow up). I personally was less responsive when I was a baby than how you describe the twins, if that tells you anything…