Yesterday my son really scared me—he brought up a topic I never thought I’d have to face. He asked me for a LITTLE BROTHER, and to be honest with you, I’d love to go through all that suffering again—keeping a tiny baby alive—especially with all the experience I’ve gained with my son. But I just can’t allow myself to do that. I know it would be chaos, both financially and emotionally, I’d end up devastated because the truth is, it’s NOT easy at all. Even though I have the experience, I remember everything that happened both during my pregnancy and at the time of birth, and I don’t want to go through that again. This conversation lasted almost an hour, during which I probed and tried to find out why he wanted a sibling. In the end, my son told me he felt very lonely because he didn’t have anyone to play with.
And that’s normal—in fact, I thought it was strange that he hadn’t complained, since he’s spent most of the vacation cooped up. After everything that’s happened, it’s been hard for me to get out, plus I had other vacation plans involving La Guaira, and obviously that didn’t work out. It occurred to me to suggest we go to a plaza or park a few times a week so he could play with other kids, and he liked the idea… So today we went out to find someone to play with; we looked like some weird child kidnappers, haha, but my son just wanted to hang out with other kids and have a good time. His friends from school aren’t even here, so they haven’t been an option either.
And watching him try to get along with the other kids broke my heart; it reminded me of my own childhood because I was just as introverted. It’s hard for us to mingle with other kids, unless an outgoing kid comes along and pulls you out of your shell—which happened to me almost all the time, and it happened to my son today, too. After a long string of failed attempts to get him to join the other kids, he finally managed to make a little friend—and thank goodness, because I was already on the verge of tears, seeing his disappointed little face when the other kids ignored him.
It's hard for me to go out almost every day to spend two hours at the park while he plays, since I also have work to do, but it's really something that needs to be done—because I don't want him to remain that introverted child who will always be too shy to express himself around others. I want him to be different from me, because otherwise he'll carry that burden forever. Even now, at 31, I'm still like that, and I HATE it so much.