I am absolutely dreading it.
DS (6) is an only child and I kick myself everyday that we didn’t try for another. My mental health bottomed out when we had him and I almost ended up in a psych ward. I was really mentally unwell,
I have since been diagnosed with ADHD and Autism.
I feel so bad for him, we have a few neighbourhood kids but not very many round here who play out. He spends so much time playing imaginary stuff on his own, it actually kills me inside. Me and DP try our best to play with him, but we can’t replace or replicate silly kids fun.
His cousins all live in other parts of the country, when we see them (rarely) they play really nicely together, but it’s so few and far between and now the cousins are getting older (he’s the youngest) they are going places with friends over the summer and don’t want to spend time staying away with extended family members.
We try and do as much as we can with him, luckily we are both teachers so get the holidays off.
We are going away twice, but again, he’ll be the only child with us.
All my childhood memories involve my brother - us playing together in the garden or messing around on the beach etc on holiday.
I don’t know how to move past this. I was capable physically of having another child, I wish I’d just bitten the bullet and had one a year or two after DS was born. Instead I kept putting it off and mentally felt unable to do it all again. He was a very poor sleeper and still is.
We have booked him into a club for a couple of days and we are planning to see a couple of friends but most of the parents are working.