Steven John
The author, Steven John, and his family.
- Having a second kid can bring new challenges in comparison to your first.
- Though you've been through the process, having a second kid can compromise your time, energy, and sense of balance in new ways.
- There are certain things you can do, like rereading baby books and starting projects like nurseries, before having a second kid that can best prepare you for his or her arrival.
In the months before we had our first child, Benjamin, in 2013, life was generally manageable - despite the fact that my wife and I were having major construction work done at our house, working full time, attending Lamaze birthing classes, setting up a nursery, reading baby books, buying baby stuff, and also maintaining our adult-only social lives for the last time.
When our second child, Scarlett, was born in 2018, there were no renovations to attend to, and my wife had taken a few years off from teaching, but there was a precocious, energetic four-year-old who demanded about 94.6% of his parents' attention during all waking hours. Life felt busier than ever, and it was sometimes hard to imagine how we would ever get anything done with yet another human being in the house.
Yes, the raising of multiple kids has been done before, but it's still unnerving to face a major life change like the birth of a second child. In fact, in some ways, the days and weeks before Scarlett's birth were more daunting than those before Ben was born.
Why? Because the second time around, we actually knew how much work a kid can be.
Fortunately, we also knew that planning ahead was critical. Here are some of the smartest things we did to prepare for our second child: