This was my oldest son Brian's response when I told him his father and I were expecting a third child. We'd survived the first round of sibling rivalry when his brother, Damian, was born. But now three-year old Brian had made his stand about this new baby, and neither logic, reason nor persuasion could budge him.
Puzzled, I asked him, "Why don't you want a new baby?" With wide and teary eyes, he looked straight at me and said, "Because I want to keep Damian."
Rosemary Laurey
While this story absolutely made my heart melt, I wondered if all siblings felt this way towards one another. Growing up, it was just my older brother and I. People often ask me if I longed for a sister or brother, but to be honest, I did not mind it being just the two of us. After all, we got individual attention and space- who would not want that? I had sisters in the forms of friends and cousins. I knew the day would come when I would have a sister in real life form- my brother did eventually get married and now I do have a real sister. I have brothers too- my husband has an older brother and a younger brother. So while growing up it was just the two of us- the branches of my family tree grew and now there even cute little fruit, in the form of babies and toddlers- blossoming on those branches, Alhumdulillah (All praise be to Allah)
What about you, how did your children react to their new siblings? Was is love at first bite =)
How about growing up- did you always *wish* you had more siblings?
mashallah alhamdulilah my two boys get along really well.. of course there is the occasional wrestling match but overall it really melts my heart to see them together... i think a major factor in their relationship being so awesome was that ibraheem was in the hospital for the first three weeks of his life...yusuf was not allowed to meet him until he was discharged.... while ibby was in the hospital we would always take pictures and videos and then bring them home to show yusuf, who was only 2.5 yrs but understood alot... yusuf is now super protective over his little brother and it took a very long time for him to get over his separation anxiety with his brother (yes, to his brother, not me!).. whenever wed take ibby to an apt and leave yusuf with my mother in law, yusuf would get stressed and tell us to tell the doctor not to keep his baby this time = (
ReplyDeletemay Allah always keep their bond strong, ameen.
and i think one reason why i totally am in love with watching the two of them is that i grew up as an only child... yes, something very rare amoungst muslims! lol.
and yes, i did always want a brother or sister when i was a kid... but now seeing my boys together totally makes up for that <3
KHaled loves anything that moves! haha - I could have bought him a cat and he would have been so happy. SO yeah, love at first sight here! Not sure how baby Maryam will feel about her brother. Time will tell :) inshallah looking forward to lots of love and friendship.
ReplyDeleteaww... real sister! Alhumdulillah May Allah subhanahu make our relationship strong and for his pleasure. Ameen!
ReplyDeleteI ALWAYS wanted a sister!! b/c i didn't even have girl cousins where I grew up. Although I have to add that i loved being the only DAUGHTER! Allah has his wisdom behind everything!
Now with AR and H, just how Aasiya said I love watching them... and despite there rare fight over a toy...they both mashaAllah LOVE each other! (May He increase them in love).
I remember though when AR was born he was really Jealous of her... I knew it was a phase that would pass but its painful for the little ones. NOW, mashaAllah he is so worried about her all day! he's like Baby patrol service!!
On contrary, the interesting thing is to see H feel Jealous of him! I guess this is normal too!
The first child ALWAYS gets one on one attention but the second one always has divided attention and from the start they has to (kinda) share everything. (I don't mean the individual attention that we should give children).
:)