Sibling Jealousy

If you had your first child in your early thirties, it is better to have the second baby with a gap of just two years. There is a little envy or jealousy in the first child because this emotion appears only at about twenty months, and the first-born cannot yet think clearly about the new baby. You will also spend a lot of time with the first-born as he is still very much dependent on you.

This kind of jealousy is often seen in the first-born. After the second baby is born the mother has to attend the newborn; and the first-born feels that his mother has stopped loving him and loves only the new baby. He starts hating the baby and keeps inventing ways to get rid of the new child so that the mother will start loving him as before. This feeling is very natural and also very powerful.

Planning A Second Baby

If you had a choice what would you have – two babies or one? Think. Is it unfair to the child to be alone, should he have the company of his sibling so that he always has somebody, to call his own, not just in childhood or at times when you might be away but for his entire life. As parents of a single child will you be too protective, thus inhibiting his full normal development? Perhaps you have decided your child must have a sibling but it is not practical. If your jobs keep you very busy, one more child could upset all your plans and tie you down to the house in the early precious years of career development. Then, perhaps, you should plan for only one child and try to frequently provide him the of his cousins or friends. You should however, bring him up with normal discipline, so that he learns that he will not always get whatever he wants.

Preparing Yourself Mentally

Many peoples, I expect, are those who have planned their baby and are awaiting its birth. The chances are that they will find parenthood a delightful experience. Perhaps they will even feel that life has acquired a new meaning. And they are preparing for the new responsibilities that the baby will bring, both during the nine months of anticipation and the following years of joy and tension. The purpose of this blog is to clear their doubts and ease their apprehensions, as they add to their joys each passing year, and also to help them prepare for the responsibilities they will have to accept.

It is also quite possible that the baby has announced its arrival at a most inconvenient time. Something has gone wrong somewhere – or rather it has gone right in its natural course – and you do not know what to do about it. If you have a challenging carrier, the baby could upset your professional plans completely. If you are newly married and are yet to set up a home, the baby could drastically disrupt the process of finding a roof over your head.

It’s time to take a crucial decision. A decision that could either bring relief from immediate stress or one that could regret later, perhaps all your life. The decision has to be yours, taken together by the two of you.