Hey folks! Whether you have 1 kid or
10, adding a new baby to the family is always a big deal, especially
if you have younger children who might have a hard time adjusting to
the sudden change. As parents, we can get so caught up in taking care
or and worrying about the new baby, that we might forget how hard it
can be for little ones to adjust to all of the changes. With that
being said, here are 4 easy ways you can help younger siblings adjust
to having a new baby in the house!
*Do an activity they like with
them.-Yes, even if it's not something you may particularly enjoy
yourself. ;) For littles, this will probably consist of painting,
coloring, building with blocks, playing pretend, etc.
Although I'm pretty sure I'm crazy,
I've still been trying to plan a few activities for the kids to do
each week, especially with the recent holidays because there is
always an abundance of fun things to do involving them. St.Patrick's
Day scavenger hunts, Easter egg hunts, etc. Most of the time, though,
our older two kids favorite activities are playing Minecraft and
painting.
*Squeeze in some extra snuggles
time!-Our 2 year old has been getting up WAY early since we got
home from the hospital, for some reason. She's been waking and
getting up at least once, sometimes two times a night and still
getting up at crazy hours, like 6. A lot of times, I tuck her back
into bed, but occasionally I will let her stay up for a little bit
because she keeps requesting to snuggle. Even if it's when she gets
up early, we usually get to snuggle on the couch and watch cartoons
for a bit before everyone else gets up.
*Let them hold the baby.-Obviously
you'll need to supervise this and help them, but I feel like NOT
letting your older kids interact with the baby at all will lead to
resentment.
*Let them help out.-Again, don't
shut your other kids out. Little kids especially usually like helping
mom and dad out doing “grown up” work, such as helping put dishes
away, sorting through laundry, etc. They can even help out with the
baby by retrieving pacifiers, setting bottles in the kitchen to be
cleaned, getting diaper supplies ready, etc.
With that being said, I also personally
think it's a bad idea to try and force kids to help out with the baby
if they do not want to. Again, I feel like this could lead to
resentment and jealousy. You can always continue to ask them
occasionally as they may (hopefully) warm up to the new baby, but
again, I wouldn't force it.
What do you do to help
your older children adjust when you bring home a new baby?
This is fabulous advice! My husband and I are constantly talking about when a good time for baby number two will be. We want our first to be able to understand what is going on and be able to fend for herself while we tend to the new one but we want to limit the sibling rivalry as much as possible.
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From everything I've heard from others, I don't think there is such a thing as a perfect age gap. We had our first two three years apart, thinking the oldest would be old enough to understand, fend for herself some, and wouldn't fight over stuff. Boy was I wrong about the latter!
DeleteLovely advice. It's so easy to get caught up in the new baby, and the exhaustion that comes along with it! I'm sure it's good for the parents as well as the siblings to have some special time together. We also bought a special present 'from baby' to the older child to show from the beginning they would be friends and not feel left out. #FabFridayPost
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! And I am not perfect, by any means, and still struggle to do something fun with the kids some days. All you can do is try, right?!
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