"Only child"ren get a bad rap.

It started this past Sunday when my husband had to work and my two-year-old son, who normally goes home with him for a nap during 2nd service, had to endure two consecutive church services.  In the same classroom, with the same lesson he had just heard.

Not only that, but I always teach second service preschool, as to avoid being in the same class as my son.  Not that I'm avoiding my kid, but it's hard for a young toddler to understand that, while I'm his mommy, I also have to be everyone else's teacher.

To only compound the matter further, there is a little girl who is always in my class who, though I try not to play favorites, I do have a closer relationship with than I do the other kids.  (Regular attendee, friends with her mom, see her more often, etc.)  Since she's there every week, she's used to getting a little bit extra attention from me.

This has led to, on the rare occassions when my son is in my class, him and this little girl (who are normally the sweetest of friends) getting into tiffs over who gets to sit in my lap.  Doesn't seem like a big deal, but, again, we're dealing with sleepy toddlers here.

So, this repeated itself this past Sunday, with my son being a fussy grumpus with the other kids yet, magically, transforming into a sweet and helpful little child the second service ended and the others' parents picked them up.  Suddenly he was helping with clean-up, chatting up the other adult volunteers, etc.

One of the other teachers turned to me and asked, "So...he's an only child then?"

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Dealing with the jealous, possessive (little) man in my life...

The other night we were hanging out with my parents before they left for vacation.  My sister cooked a huge, amazing meal, and we had eaten and had a lot of fun.

My younger niece, the 1-year-old, was closing in on bedtime and getting sleepy and cuddly.  She toddled over to where I was playing with the kids on the floor and plopped in my lap.

My son immediately ran over and hugged onto me.  "No!" he chastised her.  "My mama!"

I showed him that there was room for me to cuddle on them both, and that his cousin wasn't going to steal me away from him, but he was still pretty put-out.  That's when I started getting nervous about Sunday.

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The enemy of my enemy is my cousin.

This past weekend, as I've mentioned, my parents watched my son for me. Well, they also had my middle sister's two kids, my 3-month-old nephew, and my 2 1/2 year-old niece.

Given as my son is 18-months-old, he is just the perfect age to infuriate my niece. He is neither young enough to be a cute little baby, nor old enough to play at her level. He is also impossible to boss around (which is, sadly, one of the favorite hobbies of 2 1/2 year-olds).

So my parents (their grandparents) spent a good deal of the weekend intervening when my niece find my son irksome. (One oft-used phrase was, "He has parents; you don't need to tell him what to do.")

There is also an element of jealousy too, obviously. My niece was the oldest cousin, and until my son was born a year later, was the sole grandchild. This led too a great surplus of attention. She also has never been in formal childcare, so interaction with other kids has been low. When you add her newborn little brother into the mix, you create the perfect storm for rivalry.

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