Raising Your Second Child VS Your First, Is It Really Easier?

Have you ever seen that diaper commercial, where they show how much better you are a parenting by the time you have your second kid?   That's kind of crap.

Our kids are 5 years apart in age.  We fought through the tough few years of parenting with our son Zach, like the terrible twos, bed time battles, waking up in the middle of the night, ear infections, potty training, etc.  We thought we had it all figured out when our daughter came along.  Nope.  That's not how it works I guess!

Having a second child is imagining that you make it to the pro's in the NFL.  You've spent years of training, you're getting really good at this parent thing, and the rewards are finally starting to come in.   Then you have your second kid, show up to the stadium, and they say we're playing soccer now.   It's some weird foreign sport and I can only use my feet and my hands are tied behind my back and I have no idea what I'm doing.  Again, all over again.

Our older boy has always been a timid child.  Very cautious, usually went along with the flow, and more of a type B personality.   Our daughter is different and we can tell already.  (She turned 2 in November).    The first indication of this is when she was about 14 months old she was standing on the coffee table in the living room, launching food across the room.

What worked with one kid doesn't work with the other for a lot of the time.  Sure, I'm better at changing diapers and simple things like that.  When it comes to behavior issues and temper tantrums, it's a different ball game.

But adding another kid to it doesn't make it any easier.  It's a lot harder and let's not pretend that we know what we're doing.  My wife and I were just the other night looking at each other sleep deprived at 2 am, with a crying toddler when both of us just said, "I don't know what to do..."

The only answer we came up with was work together, take one day at a time, enjoy the highs, and weather the lows.