Baby in the Family- Tips to Help Siblings Accept the New Family Member

Welcoming a new baby is always a very important moment for the entire family. And, ideally, it should make everyone even more happier and strengthen the bonds between the members of the family. Unfortunately, that is only the ideal case and you can often see that the youngest family members might not see things in the same ways as you do. They may have many fears, feelings of anxiety, and curious questions. What is going to be my life like with a small brother or sister? Is my mom still going to pay as much attention to me? Will anyone really care about me?  Here are some tips to make welcoming a baby easier for the older siblings.

Tips To Help Older Siblings Accept A New Baby

Before the Baby Is Born

Everything should start even before the baby is actually born. What you should do is talk with your children about how life will look like with the new family member, with the focus obviously being on the positive things. Tell them about the games they will be able to play with their new siblings and how fun it is going to be growing up with a brother or sister. Share a few funny stories about your own childhood experiences – and make sure that they know that they are going to get as much attention as they will require.

Welcoming the Baby

The crucial phase is, of course, the welcoming of the baby itself. The number one rule that parents should try to follow is that the entire process should be as gradual as possible, especially if the older children feel overly anxious about everything. It might be hard for the parents – and especially the mom – to divide their attention between two or more children, but trying is what counts the most in this case and fathers should do their best to help with the usual chores early on. Communication is also very important – let your older children understand that you might not be able to give them as much time in the early days, but that things will soon return to normal and emphasize that this in no way means that you prefer one child over another.

The Later Days

After a while, all of your children should start feeling comfortable enough around the new family member – and you might even want to start showing them how to take care of the baby. Of course, you certainly cannot hand any important duties over to them and you will always have to be around to make sure that nothing unexpected will happen, but the whole experience is usually well worth it. You will be paying attention to everyone in the family, which should lead to the strengthening of the family bonds. As your children grow up side by side, you should allow them to help each other in as many ways as possible. That way, they will be able to feel that they are all fully respected members of the family and that neither of them is being preferred in one way or another.

Wrapping Things Up

As you can see, there are plenty of things that parents – and especially mothers –  can do in order to make their children feel much better about the new family member. Ideally, the entire process should start even before the baby is born – but it most definitely should not end there. The most crucial phase comes in the first few days after actually welcoming the baby at home – after that, it should all become very natural and, hopefully, all family relationships are going to be strengthened rather than weakened, with your children fully accepting their new siblings.

Guest post by Jeff Mcneil who is a writer and contributor on various blogs. He writes for Chrissy Weems website and he is a father of 2 wonderful kids.  Photo by FamilyFocusBlog.