Growing up I always knew my brother was my parent's favorite child, they showed it in their actions on a daily basis.
But my amazing grandma always a fountain of advice and wisdom and a mother of 3 herself had a great saying. "You always have a favorite .... you favor the one that is sick until he is well ....you favor the one that is away until he returns, you favor the one that is hurt until he is healed" and this rings so true for me today.
As I lay cuddling my sick daughter at 1:00am this morning I realized that the day ahead of me was going to be consumed by a sick girl wanting my undivided attention and how are the boys going to be with this. But then I remembered what grandma said, and I think that they will be okay (well, Alex at least ... Landon still demands alot of attention).
The older 2 already had to deal with what would appear to be Landon as my favorite for the past year because he is so needy and dependent. I think they have done well this year, and I have done my best to reiterate that Ellie is my favorite girl, Alex is my favorite big boy and Landon is my favorite baby. I have tried extremely hard to show each of them that they are special in their own way to me, re-iterating what I love so much about each of them .... I try really hard to at least once a day tell them one thing that is unique and special to me about them ....again, Landon will get his in due time! :)
Being raised in a family where I was definitely never favored for anything I know how hurtful extra attention on another child can be. This makes me hyper aware as I interact with my own kids, I am aware that any extra love or attention or affection I show one may be construed negatively by another one. Maybe I will go overboard because it does hit so close to home for me, but I can't see this being a bad thing.
I am going to try my hardest to make sure my kids know they are all my favorite! And I will never forget grandma's words of wisdom .... so for today I am going to tend to today's favorite because she is sick!
Thanks grandma, once again, you are the best and your lessons taught have been taken to heart and remembered now that I am a mom.
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I hope Ellie feels better soon! I hear you on the favortism thing - I always felt like I wasn't favoured as a child, and want my kids to feel like they are equal in my affection and attention. It's not an easy thing, but I love your idea of telling them each something fantastic about them each day. I'm going to make a conscious effort to do that more.
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