Thursday, June 6, 2013

Second Borns are Lucky

Oh the "poor second child!" syndrome. You hear about it all the time. There isn't enough one-on-one attention. There aren't as many pictures. Milestones aren't as celebrated. As much as all of that is 100% true, I do think being a second child is a pretty sweet gig. 

I'm a first-born myself, so I don't know exactly how it feels to be the second child and believe me...when I was pregnant with Jackson, I worried. I made silly promises that I knew I couldn't keep. He wouldn't be treated any differently than Ethan. He would not fall victim to the second child syndrome. Then baby number two actually arrived and I realized how time (or lack thereof) takes away some of those opportunities you had with the first born and momentarily I felt bad. 

Then, just as soon as I was feeling bad for not taking 1000 pictures the very first month like I did with Ethan, I realized Jackson had it made. The first born is totally an experiment (read: no one knows what the heck they are doing with their first child). I was scared of everything with Ethan. I was a blind woman feeling my way through every phase. With Jackson, I'm a little more skilled. Things aren't as stressful. Problems aren't so mind boggling. And the 200 pictures I did take of Jack that first month were actually in focus unlike most of Ethan's. Practice does pay off after all. 

I remember Ethan's first six months when he wasn't able to sit or doing anything too exciting, life was so mundane for him. I bounced him back and forth from holding him, to the jumper, to the swing and I could tell...he was bored. Jackson never has a dull moment. He always has a tiny entertainer to hold his attention. He has a big brother who can show him what life has in store for him and how to do it. Ethan rushes in his room every morning when he wakes up, climbs in his crib and entertains him for a good 5-10 minutes. How lucky is he?

I do miss having more one on one time, but that's something we are working on. Honestly though, when we do get it...Jackson is completely out of sorts. He's needy and whiny. He misses his big brother. I am nowhere near as entertaining. 

The brotherly love between these two melts my heart.

Each birth order position has it's own wins and losses. Maybe one day I'll write about why it's awesome to be a first born (because it totally is), but I will no longer feel bad for the second borns. They have a pretty sweet gig themselves. 

5 comments :

  1. I love the brotherly bond my boys are forming too! I am definitely guilty of not taking *as* many pics and videos...but do I really need hundreds of pictures every month? Nope! I also love that my little guy is so entertained by the older one. I can't remember how I "got through" having to entertain my first all by myself!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I posted about something similar'ish a while ago because it's true! You always hear about the poor 2nd kid, and you also feel kind of guilty that you're going to ruin one of their lives or something...and yea, totally kid has it MADE. Constant entertainment. It's kind of a sweet deal.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Totally agree! I am a 1st born.. and I was just thinking about how with my 2nd I can learn from all the mistakes I made with the 1st! Im excited about that actually! ha

    ReplyDelete
  4. I completely agree...I think C is totally bored when Nolan isn't here or is napping. He loves watching his big brother and just laughs and laughs at him...being a second born can't be too bad!

    ReplyDelete

Comments make my day! Go ahead...get to typing. I want to hear from you.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Creative Commons License

My Thoughts - Uninterrupted by Laura Sager is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.mythoughts-uninterrupted.blogspot.com/p/contact.html.

All images are property of Laura Sager unless otherwise noted.