On Being the Littlest

Being an only child, I don't have sibling dynamics with which to compare my children. There was a family with four daughters next door; we were close, but still not sisters. However, I did witness a lot of sibling dynamics going on in that family. I remember how unfairly they treated their little sister and as a teenager I would threaten to leave if they didn't stop picking on her. Many summer afternoons were spent lying on the silver tanning blanket alone because of their fighting. Today, I am the mother of four children, one of which is (of course) the youngest. He is 2 1/2 with blonde hair that stands straight up with two swirls on the back of his head which make the hair come to the middle. As a baby, people referred to the hair "style" as a shark fin. He says "mama" in the sweetest way and always asks to sit on my lop (lap). He's definitely my baby; he sucks and chews my hair and always kisses me when he pulls it a little too hard. Sure makes it hard to treat him poorly. Not so, says the older kids. He's always into their stuff: their gum, their trinkets, their jewelry, their remote control boats. Just like what I witnessed as a kid, the older siblings can sure be mean to the littlest. It's not that they mean to, they just don't want to share their precious stuff. Lou took away the binocular case from Ray, of couse he was MAD. He tackled her, he pulled her hair, Lou held on tight, but still he got the binocular case back. After this I took Lou aside and explained that Ray's the littlest and learns how to behave by watching her and it's important to respect him and not take his toys. She was once the littlest and Grace and Lee were expected to share and treat her nicely. I said, "Let's make things fun for the littlest." Lou seemed to understand; she walked over to Ray and in the sweetest way asked him if when he was done with the binocular case if he would please give it to her. With a big grin and sweet little voice, he responded, "No way!" and continued filling the case with plastic broccoli. We all got a good laugh from this one.