Comments on: The firstborn, dethroned

By: Wench

Wench — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 06:23:37 +0000

Good attempt at spelling attention I thought… just keep it and bring it out at her 21st birthday party LOL!!

By: NoAdditives

NoAdditives — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 06:19:12 +0000

Oh my god. Yeah, parenting is tough and parents need to be adaptable, always on their toes, and always willing to learn. I don’t profess to be a perfect parents or have perfect children. But my husband and I did a lot of research before figuring out our family plan. And from everything we’ve seen, the closer in age the children are the more likely they are to be great friends throughout their entire lives.

So yeah, I’m going to have some tough times as a parent, especially once we have another baby. But I’m not wrong in saying that I won’t find a note like this from my daughter because she won’t remember being an only child.

By: NoAdditives

NoAdditives — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 06:09:53 +0000

@Sarah My daughter is already telling us no (although in her defense, it’s mostly to questions like “Is it naptime?” or “Do you want to eat this?” which really are stupid questions to ask a toddler) and she gets into absolutely everything that she can. Our house is ridiculously baby proofed. Until just recently we had to have our dining chairs tied up around the table so that she couldn’t pull them out to climb up. She’s way too smart for her age and we’re always on our toes. Thankfully our son is pretty laid back, at least for now. I’m sure that will change once he’s crawling and exploring, but for now things aren’t too difficult.

@April Yikes! I can’t imagine having them that close! That’ll probably be pretty rough. Even though my kids are pretty good my husband and I say it would probably be easier to have twins than a toddler and a newborn. Just do your best to give your older son as much one on one time as you can and when it gets difficult ask for help. And take heart in the fact that your sons will almost definitely be best friends for their entire lives!

By: hungrygrrl

hungrygrrl — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:35:35 +0000

Team First Child here. I was an angel. I didn’t cry much, I cooed. Tricked my parents into having more kids- and my younger brother was a colicy hellion of a baby (no cooing stories, instead, “washing dishes with one hand while holding him so he’d stop crying” stories.)

By: Zee

Zee — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:48:35 +0000

That wasn’t advice, and I’m not psychic.

It doesn’t take a psychic to know the cardinal rule of parenting: never, ever gloat in public about how you avoided a problem by your great parenting. You will either have to deal with it here, or in the next life.

(This ESPECIALLY applies to potty-training and child-proofing.)

By: April Grill

April Grill — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:41:31 +0000

I wonder if that will work for me. My sons will be 10 months apart. Go ahead and do the math… I’ll wait =D. Nope, didn’t make it to that 6 week check-up!

By: April Grill

April Grill — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:36:49 +0000

I am the eldest of 10 children. I am the only girl. I was not spoiled; quite the opposite. It was always told to me “You’re the oldest, get over it,” when they received things I never got. I had to work for everything. My privilges (sp? oh it’s so late) were very restricted. Once my parents realized that I went to sleep-overs and parties without dying or getting abducted, my brothers had free reign. Being a mother now, I was very hard core health nut when I was pregnant with my first. My second, not so much, now that I know that eating tuna from a can has no risk of mercury!

By: Donna Martin Graduates!

Donna Martin Graduates! — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:33:49 +0000

Is that like a Chinese burn, when you twist someone’s forearm in two directions? Youch!

By: Donna Martin Graduates!

Donna Martin Graduates! — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:32:14 +0000

I am the middle of three girls. All we did was squabble and fight — “She got more than me! – waahh!” etc

There is 2.5 yrs between me & my elder sis and 4 yrs between me & my younger sis.

So how come I got “You two older girls should know better” and then also “You two little girls – time for bed.” Hmmnnn?

UNFAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: Noelegy

Noelegy — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:53:28 +0000

I was one of those infamous middle kids. My parents had my older brother, and then when he was 9 years old, because they thought they were unable to have any more kids, they adopted 1-year-old me. From the time I was 3 or 4, they told me that I was adopted and what that meant: that I was special; that they had chosen me; etc. I had a pretty healthy self-esteem about who I was and where I’d come from.

Then when I was 6, my mom unexpectedly got pregnant. In addition to the usual angst of the sudden status of big sibling, I also had to deal with the fact that there was somehow a baby in my mom’s tummy and my dad had somehow put it there. “Wait a minute. I thought everyone went to a big building and picked out their babies!”

But even that wasn’t the worst. I lived in a small town where it didn’t take much to get people talking. And adoption just wasn’t an everyday event. A woman actually came up to my hugely pregnant mom in the grocery store, with little 6-year-old me standing right there, and said, “So now that you’re having one of your own, what are you going to do with her?”

My mom didn’t miss a beat. She said, “Well, the warranty’s run out. I guess we’ll have to keep her.”

That being said, if I was this little girl’s aunt or friend of the family, I would *totally* spoil her, knowing how it feels to be in her shoes.

By: ammali

ammali — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:59:25 +0000

Then again, it’s possible that at the tender age of 6, she’s a fan of the work of e. e. cummings.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:11:50 +0000

My sister and I are only 17 months apart. That has always been great for us. We shared toys, we shared friends and the hand-me-downs I got were only two years old (she’s taller).
But when my sister was a NO-screaming, constantly-running-away three-year-old and I was a just-learned-to-walk, putting-everything-in-my-mouth one-year-old, our mom almost got a burn-out until a friend of hers offered to take care of us one day a week.
So what I’m saying is… be prepared!

By: “Testosterone-fueled wackjobs make the darndest threats!” | PassiveAggressiveNotes.com

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:03:59 +0000

[...] The firstborn, dethroned [...]

By: NoAdditives

NoAdditives — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:27:48 +0000

Oh, so you’re psychic? Or are you just like all those other people who have given me “helpful” in-my-experience advice that hasn’t been at all true for my children?

And just why should I regret posting the current status of my children’s sibling relationship? I’m sure they will have plenty of fights and periods when they just don’t like each other, but for right now they really love each other. Why should I regret stating that publicly?