Jealousy

Hi everyone,
I was just wondering if anyone else had older children that are jealous of all the attention you are giving your child w/special needs? My older daughter who is 8 is soooooooo jealous of her sister. She gets really upset over everything. The other day she told me that all I care about is Morgan and that Morgan gets all the attention. I tried to explain to her that morgan has special needs and needs special care due to her illnesses and that it is up to me to do those things and I would do the same for her. I try to spend as much time one on one with her when my husband comes home but, Morgan is a lot of work and sometimes I don't have a lot of time to spend with her one on one. I have 4 children all together and I work full time. Â*My son which is 3yrs I feel bad for him sometimes because mom is so busy. How do you get a good balance between everything and not make your kids feel jealous or left out? I was just wondering if anyone else has this same problem and what they do. Any advise would be appreciated.
Heather

[Ann]

Hi Heather,

I also have four children - 2 older than my son, who is vent dependent, and 1 younger. Â*I also work full-time. Â*The first few years after Jack came home from the hospital we had weekend nursing so we took that time and went somewhere with the girls. Â*Now we don't have as much nursing and what I'm finding is that we do very little as a family. Â*Generally one of us takes the other kids out to do something and the other stays home with Jack. At least this way, the other kids are getting at least one parent's attention. Â*I'm sure there is nothing harder than being the sibling of a special needs child. Â*Good luck,
Ann

[Olga]

Hi
You both amaze me. Four children and working full time! Let alone that one of your children needs extra special care. You both deserve a medal.
I'm afraid I cannot help with the jealousy issue, but I just wanted to congratulate you on managing to do so much.
Olga