Getting An Older Child Ready for Baby

Filed in archive Family Life on June 20, 2008

OK Magazine's front cover story says Shiloh, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's 2 year old daughter is finally ready and excited about the arrival of the next two additions to the brood.

This pregnancy being my second, I know how tricky it can sometimes be getting an older sibling ready for the arrival of a new baby. If you don't prepare the child enough, there can be a lot of resentment, jealousy and angst in the household when you bring the baby home. How you prepare a child for such an event depends on the age and personality, I suppose.

In our case, my son is almost six, and likes to pretend that he is too cool to be affected. So we purposefully did not draw too much attention on my pregnancy. What we did however, was to involve him in some of the more important events such as the first ultrasound, choosing names and shopping for baby. Seems like it worked.

Do you have other tips on how to prepare an older sibling to a new baby in the family?