My older daughter and her husband are expecting their fourth child in November. They hope that child #2 and new baby will be buddies, no matter the sex of #4. Child #1 (almost 8) and child #3 (almost 2) are great buddies, and that is helped by the fact that #1 is old enough to understand personal space, and knows that she can’t force #3 to like her. Instead, she plays with him in an appropriate manner, reads to him, and generally lets him be him. #2, however, tries to make #3 love her, and is way too enthusiastically and physically affectionate. (You don’t want to play with me when I love you so much? See how much I love you? Momma, he’s running away and I want to HUG him!)
My sister is the middle child and she has always been opposed to anyone’s having a middle child. She told her husband that if he wanted four children, fine, they would have four. But they wouldn’t have three. He pointed out to her that they couldn’t have four without first having three and she explained that three guaranteed four. They have two children.
When I see how #2 and #3 interact, I realize what my sister meant all these years. I think back to how my brother (#3) and I (#1) treated her. There were five years in age between my brother and me, and we got along well. My poor sister was often the odd man out. My brother was (in my memory, at least) the worst of the two of us when it came to tormenting her. There was a period of time in his youth when he was obsessed with robots; they didn’t exist yet in any form but there was plenty written about their development and my brother was fascinated by the idea of them. When my sister was angry with him and told him off, he would repeat in a monotone voice, “That does not compute. That does not compute,” until she gave up and went away.
A lot of what we did to her was the result of her having her birthday on April 1st. It wasn’t her fault that she was born on April Fool’s Day, but my brother and I made the most of it. One year we sent her on a scavenger hunt. She followed clue after clue, only to find a gift-wrapped apple core at the end. I really, really hope that we had the generosity (and the budget) to give her a decent gift after all of that, but I don’t remember. We often told her that she had won the Fussbudget of the Year Award (after Lucy in the Peanuts cartoon), but no wonder!!! We tormented her and she, understandably, fought back.
So, for #2’s sake: I hope new baby just loves, loves, loves his or her big sister!
Oh, and---sorry, Linda!!!
My sister is the middle child and she has always been opposed to anyone’s having a middle child. She told her husband that if he wanted four children, fine, they would have four. But they wouldn’t have three. He pointed out to her that they couldn’t have four without first having three and she explained that three guaranteed four. They have two children.
When I see how #2 and #3 interact, I realize what my sister meant all these years. I think back to how my brother (#3) and I (#1) treated her. There were five years in age between my brother and me, and we got along well. My poor sister was often the odd man out. My brother was (in my memory, at least) the worst of the two of us when it came to tormenting her. There was a period of time in his youth when he was obsessed with robots; they didn’t exist yet in any form but there was plenty written about their development and my brother was fascinated by the idea of them. When my sister was angry with him and told him off, he would repeat in a monotone voice, “That does not compute. That does not compute,” until she gave up and went away.
A lot of what we did to her was the result of her having her birthday on April 1st. It wasn’t her fault that she was born on April Fool’s Day, but my brother and I made the most of it. One year we sent her on a scavenger hunt. She followed clue after clue, only to find a gift-wrapped apple core at the end. I really, really hope that we had the generosity (and the budget) to give her a decent gift after all of that, but I don’t remember. We often told her that she had won the Fussbudget of the Year Award (after Lucy in the Peanuts cartoon), but no wonder!!! We tormented her and she, understandably, fought back.
So, for #2’s sake: I hope new baby just loves, loves, loves his or her big sister!
Oh, and---sorry, Linda!!!
Posts
3 comments:
No, there was no gift after the scavenger hunt: upstairs, downstairs, inside, outside...upside down? You and David claimed that you had no money to buy a gift and thought that I would enjoy the scavenger hunt!!! apology accepted!
Hmmm, could "annonymous" be the little sister?
Yes, anonymous is younger sister-the infamous middle child. The blogger wouldn't let me use the username and password that I had just put into the system so I had to go with anonymous. Maybe it will work this time!!!
Post a Comment