My First Born Son

The first born son holds a special place in the family especially for mothers. (That's why I would never marry a first born son!) And while I love my daughters and can't wait for all the things we'll get to do as mothers and daughters as they grow up, the relationships differ wildly.

Boys initially probably gravitate to their moms as their primary caregivers in the family but as they get older they want to do more things with their dads and for moms that can be a turning point in a relationship between a mom and her son. On the other hand, girls are close to their moms as young children and then likely grow even closer as they get older.

I've noticed this start to occur as Austen has gotten older. He still will seek me out if he's hurt or he doesn't feel well or to help him with his homework, but he really wants to watch sports with his Dad or go and play outside with him too. (The exception of course is soccer.) He still wants and needs me to be home (instead of working) for him, but you can see he wants to do the fun things with his dad (especially after he's had his Dad coach him in 3 different sports this past year).

But, I want to do fun things with him too, and recently noticed we haven't done anything together that was just us in a few months. At my suggestion, Tom has taken to developing his relationship with Peyton by doing Indian Princesses with her and that has been great for the both of them since Peyton was such a Mama's girl. Now I need to take my own advice. I don't get alone time with just Austen too often and I know I need to make more of an effort to carve out our time before he gets too busy with friends, school and sports. I want him to look forward to our time together. I want him to feel that we have a special relationship. So I am taking matters into my own hands and planning an outing just for us. Not sure what we'll do but I don't think it matters what it is - as long as I work to keep that connection with my first born son.