I am the father of three kids. They are all adults now. As is probably the case with most parents, our parenting style and skills evolved with more kids added to the family. We tried to be as much by the book as possible with our first child. By the third child, we loosened up so much, she was probably raising herself. When my kids were little, one day my son, the middle child, asked why his little sister was so wild. I told him it was because he and his big sister were not raising her right.
I think the best illustration of how our parenting skills changed from child to child is in the way we introduced our children to solid food. My wife was a stay at home mother. While I was at work, I would get short daily calls updating me on what our daughter was eating that day. “May ate green beans today.” The next day I would get a call saying, “May ate bananas today.” The next day I was told, “May at carrots today.” Either daily or weekly, our daughter was being methodically introduced to some new food. It seems like it this process took a couple of months before it was complete.
Our son is 17 months younger than his sister. The process started almost the same with him. One day my wife calls to tell me “James at green beans today.” A couple of days later she called to tell me “James ate a little hamburger from the Dairy Queen today.” What happened to the bananas and carrots? He started out bigger than his sister and would quickly pass her in size, but I still thought it was odd that he went directly from green beans to sliders.
