Kids & Company Blog

Bringing Home a New Baby

Bringing home a new baby can be quite an anxious time for many. You're leaving the hospital where all the nurses helped you bathe feed and care for your new one, and going home to start a whole new routine. For many people, this new routine also includes an older child, who's waiting patiently at that front door to see who (or what!) you might be bringing in the front door.

The typical justification of bringing home a new sibling for the older child to share their parents with is usually along the lines of, "you're so great, we needed another child!" But would a wife be happy if her husband walked into the house and said, "I love you and everything about you, in fact I love you so much I brought home another wife to spread my love around. What do you think?" Not many wives would appreciate this, which of course makes you think, how would the children be fooled by an identical story!

My personal strategy for bringing home new babies is a bit different. This strategy seemed to work quite well as all of my children get along well and have always been there to support each other. In fact, they even protect each other when they've done something wrong and I am unhappy with them. It drives me crazy, but it is worth having children who get along well and protect one another in every situation.

What's my secret? I offered each new child to the others as a gift! As I brought each baby home, I would say "guess what? I have a special brother or sister coming home to see you and they will be your baby!" My children all loved and adored each other and they never had any issues with new babies coming into the house.

This method has gone through my 8 children, and it has worked fantastically. Do you have any special tricks or methods that helped you transition a baby into your existing family?

Posted on: Monday August 29th, 2011

Posted by: Victoria Sopik