I was also made uncomfortable by the staging, MamaM. And more than that by the insistence on the parents' part that the toddler love her infant sibling. Okay, make a show of affection. Best to let it ride if the love's not there. Maybe over time affection will develop. Maybe it won't. But to make it an ought to will just add stress to any already fraught relationship. Luckily I was spared perfect parents ha ha ha.
Displacement is a fact, and straight out lying first by one parent/partner in a sappy voice followed by the other with goo like "It's like your baby dolls. You have your own baby now. Your own baby" isn't going to ease the situation either in addition to the kiss prompts.
The new baby is not like the dolls the little one's been playing with, as anyone with working eyes and ears can see and hear, and it definitely isn't her own baby to do with as she wishes.
Perfect isn't necessary as long as love in the form of truth and grace is present. Falsehoods, along with blind eyes and ears, have a tendency to lead to shut down.
The little girl isn't expressionless (watch her face); she is however, refusing to engage in the folderol.
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My 16 month old son had a similar reaction to the arrival of his sister. It's all on VHS tape somewhere. She simply meant he'd get less attention.
The fact that they are video taping the event as if it was an event speaks to me of disconnect, and children, even ones that young, aren't dumb.
Hey, my older sister never got over her displacement from the center ring by upstart me.
I was also made uncomfortable by the staging, MamaM. And more than that by the insistence on the parents' part that the toddler love her infant sibling. Okay, make a show of affection. Best to let it ride if the love's not there. Maybe over time affection will develop. Maybe it won't. But to make it an ought to will just add stress to any already fraught relationship. Luckily I was spared perfect parents ha ha ha.
Displacement is a fact, and straight out lying first by one parent/partner in a sappy voice followed by the other with goo like "It's like your baby dolls. You have your own baby now. Your own baby" isn't going to ease the situation either in addition to the kiss prompts.
The new baby is not like the dolls the little one's been playing with, as anyone with working eyes and ears can see and hear, and it definitely isn't her own baby to do with as she wishes.
Perfect isn't necessary as long as love in the form of truth and grace is present. Falsehoods, along with blind eyes and ears, have a tendency to lead to shut down.
The little girl isn't expressionless (watch her face); she is however, refusing to engage in the folderol.
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