I smile while I watch them playing in the park. Asmaa doing exactly what her older sister does, as if she\u2019s her shadow. Nusayba comes down the slide, and there she is, right behind her. Nusayba runs to the only swing left and before she can even get to it, Asmaa is crying because she wants a swing too. At times it\u2019s cute, like when Asmaa wakes up at 8:30 in the morning and doesn\u2019t find her sister in the bunk above her, she runs out of the room and cries, \u201cWhere\u2019s Nusayba?\u201d.<\/p>\n
At times it can be very frustrating to say the least. Poor Nusayba can\u2019t enjoy any toy without worrying that someone (Asmaa) will take it away from her and this fear seems to be following her everywhere she goes. She\u2019ll be playing with play dough at her preschool and will need the bathroom, but won\u2019t go because \u201csomeone might take it\u201d\u2013although there\u2019s enough dough on the table for all the kids in the class, plus some!<\/p>\n
The thing that gets me the most is how my younger daughter doesn\u2019t seem to realize that what\u2019s in her sisters\u2019 hands isn\u2019t hers! She\u2019ll grab what ever it is and if Nusayba puts up a fight and refuses to give in, Asmaa will throw a fit and start wailing\u2014you\u2019d think someone not only took her toy, but smacked her too.<\/p>\n
Part of it is Nusayba\u2019s fault. Alhamdulillah, most of the time she is motherly and doesn\u2019t like to hear her sister cry, but some times when she starts to put up a fight and I come to her rescue and remove the object from Asmaa\u2019s hand, Nusayba will then turn to me and say \u201cit\u2019s OK, she can have it\u201d.<\/p>\n
I keep telling her that if she keeps doing that her sister will never learn to share and more importantly to stop taking things out of people\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n
I used to think that the second child would automatically develop this concept of sharing since as soon as she opens her eyes there\u2019s another being waiting for her\u2014turns out, the second child is born with the notion of survival of the fetus!<\/p>\n
Kariman Elmuradi<\/p>\n
Kariman Elmuradi lives in California with her husband and three children. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I smile while I watch them playing in the park. Asmaa doing exactly what her older sister does, as if she\u2019s her shadow. Nusayba comes down the slide, and there she is, right behind her. Nusayba runs to the only swing left and before she can even get to it, Asmaa is crying because she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1529,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[630,1122,1160,1167],"class_list":["post-493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-motherhood","tag-islamic-parenting","tag-second-child","tag-sharing","tag-sibling"],"yoast_head":"\n