Five boys and one lonely girl. A mom tries to keep her sense of humor and appreciate every bit of boy-craziness in her life.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Fourth Child Syndrome?
First of all, I have to say that Fall2 is in no way neglected. If he wants something, he points and yells and one of three brothers gets it for him. His brothers adore him no matter what he does and no matter the kind of trouble he causes, Fall2 is still considered "cute". [When Winter4 causes trouble, big brothers generally consider him something far less than "cute".]
Fall2's big brothers tend to be rather overprotective. Fall2 was a very late walker and when he was finally practicing standing, I caught Spring7 sitting him down. I watched a bit more and every time Fall2 tried to stand, Spring7 rushed over and sat him down and said gently, "No, no Fall2. You don't want to get hurt." I told Spring7that his brother needed to get stronger so he could walk. Spring7 looked at me like I was encouraging his baby brother to crawl on the roof..."But Mommy, he could FALL." [Thank goodness, nature is more persistent than big brothers and Fall2 did learn to walk. I had an image in my head of Spring7 hauling him everywhere in a homemade rickshaw.]
To his credit, Fall2 is a remarkably sweet and cute two year old. He's a pack animal and is happiest when his family is all together. Lately, Fall2 has made it clear that he likes his place in the family. He's also become obviously jealous when I pay a lot of attention to his brothers or Mike.
Over Easter weekend, he stooped to a new low. Winter4 hurt his knee so I got down on the floor with him to inspect the damage and dry his tears. I happened to notice Fall2 observing us. He watched for a minute then he pretended to cry and ran to me holding his head saying "bump! bump". I wonder if he'll ever realize that being the fourth child means that while he gets lots of love it also means that Mom isn't going to fall for drama?!
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I totally understand now how the youngest gets spoiled. Everyone will do just about anything to make them laugh or shut up.
ReplyDeleteMy brother Rick hasn't learned that yet....
ReplyDeleteMy youngest son is the same way too. He got a lot of attention in the family and become jealous when I give attention to his oldest brother. But I tried my best to give everybody's attention and them not feel left out.
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