My seven year old is a very high strung child. He is sensitive and quick to tears and has a very astute sense of fairness. He’s a lot like I was as a child. Yesterday all the stress of a new brother, a long plane trip that caused an early morning followed by a late night at a sporting event caught up to him and he had a meltdown. My middle child was sick and he and the baby were getting a lot of attention and my oldest accused me of liking the middle child more than him. It broke my heart a little bit because I remember thinking that way growing up.
I took my oldest away from everyone else so we could have a private talk. I held him and told him how much I love him and we talked about siblings. I told him that I know it’s hard to be the oldest, but that I also know that when he’s older he’s going to have two brothers that will be his good friends and they’ll have memories together that no one else will have. I told him I know this because of my relationship with Uncle Eric. As I was telling him this my son said, “Mommy, your eyes are sparkling.” It was because I was tearing up.
I didn’t want to cry, and even more I didn’t want to give my dramatic son another reason to cry, but I couldn’t help it. I miss that special relationship that Eric and I had. I’ll never have another one like it. It makes me really happy to know that my boys will have that kind of relationship with each other.
Eventually I got my son cheered up and later that night he taught his younger brother to read. Seriously. I watched them playing and interacting beautifully and hoped that will be one of the memories they keep forever. I know it will be one that I keep forever.
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