There’s a clear difference between kids who grow up around extended families and those who grow up in a nuclear family setting. The different types of exposure babies have from a young age influences who they become.
After all, we are a product of our environments. Children are not born knowing anything; they pick up traits that influence their personalities from the people around them.
Through the first year of his life, my baby grew up surrounded by grandparents, grand-aunts, aunts, uncles and cousins of all ages. He would learn different things from different people and be comfortable around every member of the family he was familiar with.
However, when we suddenly uprooted him and put him in an environment where it was just me and his dad, the change was almost instantaneous. He became clingy, reserved and had much of his progress delayed.
In the month we have been back home, he has completely changed again. He lost his picky habits and now eats almost everything we eat. He can spend hours on end without me, and will even go as far as waving bye bye to me as he takes off. Something that was completely unimaginable within our first week of arrival. His interests have diversified and his adventurous spirit has been reawakened.
I have definitely noticed much change and growth in my son in the last month. He now tries harder at everything. He tries hard to talk since everyone around him speaks a lot. He tries to play with bigger children as he copies their moves or joins in in their games. He looks forward to spending time with other people who are ‘more fun’ than his boring mama. I feel like sometimes he has so much fun mingling with others, he completely forgets about me!
In itself, the idea of my son forgetting about me for hours on end would be a sad one, but it has contributed heavily to him reducing his breastfeeding significantly. If you remember, I travelled over 9,000km mainly to wean my almost two-year-old off the breast. We had a hard time with breastfeeding when it was just us three. Our close proximity and attachment meant he could demand the breast whenever he felt like it, and refusals were met with uncontrollable tantrums.
As it stands, my son only breastfeeds at night now, something I am working on completely stopping in the next couple of weeks. But just this step has been a great achievement in our lives and a huge step towards our weaning journey. My father is working on a crib that will enable him to sleep on his own without falling off. My sister has plans of taking him to stay with her for a few days. So all in all, I can attest that having my son grow up around his extended family has had a massive positive impacts on his upbringing.
