treating chidlren equally

[mum3girls]

The best advice I can think of is to just love your kids as much as possible (and then some ). At the end of the day, both your kids are individuals who will have different experiences and different temperaments, personalities, etc. The one thing that they will remember more than anything is how loved they felt by you and their father. One child might feel love through being hugged and kissed a lot, the other may like their space, and much prefer to be told how much you adore them. Or spending time with them, or the many other dIfferent ways of showing your child how much they mean to you.

On an a personal note, the breastfeeding issue really stuck a chord with me. I have two older girls from a previous relationship (turning 10 and 11) that I breastfed for approx. 2 months each. I was very young, and there were other circumstances that did not support my breastfeeding attempts. I am currently still feeding my almost 17 month old daughter, and hope we can keep going until she is 2. This is in no way indicative of my relationships with any of my daughters - it's just how life played out. And from talking to my older daughters about breastfeeding, and how difficult it was for me with them, and educating them about breastfeeding, I honestly feel that they have no problems with the difference in how long I fed them for compared to their little sister. They see 'boobie time' as a way of providing nutrition for bubby of course, and spending special time between mummy and baby, but they know that this is not restricted to the relationship between a breastfeeding mum and bub. I spend special time with all of the girls, individually, and together. And our relationships have grown and developed based on their individualities, and mine, and our love for each other.

Sorry, this has become an essay - the joy of having a baby sleep in when she usually doesn't The one quote that keeps popping into my mind is something I heard on Oprah once ( yes I know the irony of quoting someone who doesn't have kids, but it is really thought-provoking) - "Do your eyes light up when your child enters the room?"