I think we’ve all been there.
I’m not going to lie I was not thrilled with my little brother came along.
Part of it was having to share the spotlight and the other part was because I was hoping that if I got a little sibling it would be a sister.
Of course it didn’t last forever and even though I did eventually get a little sister, my brother and I had become thick as thieves.
It wasn’t quite the same for my kids as my son was delighted to get a little sister, but jealously does rear it’s head every once and a while.
I think it mostly came down to the extra attention she was getting because she was a baby and it’s hard to explain to an older child that they got the same attention as a baby because they can’t remember that time.
Vogue Williams recently touched on the topic of sibling rivalry in her latest post about her two children.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CECg6BJj3Tr/
Vogue only welcomed baby Gigi into the world a couple of weeks ago but she says that Gigi and Theo are fast becoming.
That being said she also mentioned that there was a little bit of sibling rivalry to begin with;
“We had a little jealousy at the start but now he just wants to hold her and kiss her!”
I think a little bit of jealously is normal and we can easily combat this by making the older sibling feel as included as possible.
It’s also great to give them ‘big sibling’ tasks for helping out with the new baby like grabbing a nappy or helping to tuck baby in. Tasks like these will help them to build a bond with their little sibling while also feeling important and like their the ‘big kid’.
