A new role awaits ......

How would you prepare and get your first born to get involve in the preparation of welcoming the new addition in the family ?

At the initial stage, he kept asking us for a sibling, till now he is still very excited and looking forward to the arrival of his little sister. For every gynea visit, he will assist Dr Chong to put me onto the couch, squeezed the gel on my tummy and "helped" Dr Chong with the scan.

Everyday without fail, he will say good night to me and good night to my tummy (Baby). I'm not sure if he is putting up a brave and happy front. He is always so jovial, surrounding us with his silly laughs. Why did I say this was because lately he has been a little attention seeking and his behaviour seriously made me breathe out fire.

Even his trainer in Mindchamps feedback that he tends to be more attention seeking in class. For instance, he gets upset that he is not the first to present his work or answering questions. For the past two years (under the same trainer), he has been alright with it until recently. However, he is still pretty participative and well behaved in class.

I know that it's not easy for Xav to accept the fact that the love and attention he is getting from us for the past five years is going to be shared with a younger sibling. He could have felt insecure. But we kept him reassured constantly that we will not love him any lesser and we will still be spending time with him. He acknowledged.

I see that he needs to feel important as a big brother. As such, I gradually tasked him with little chores to help me out, he happily took them on and was so happy that I gave him praises for the job well done.

What I did recently was, I decided to paint some wall murals to be hang up. I got some canvas and drew out the animals. I got Xav to paint them together with me. One of the activities, I can bond with him at home.

Meticulously painting

Here's another new task for him; hanging up baby's rompers, booties and mittens. He was so happy that he kept coming back to me for more to be hand up ! He even told me "mummy, I will do it ok ? You don't need to help me because I'm your little helper !"

Felt that Xav has really grown when he told me how he can help me. On my part, I told him, it's good that he can help me out and I hope he can continue to do it and teach his younger sister the next time. He proudly nod his head and acknowledge !

What else would you do to prepare your first born to take on his new role as an older sibling?