Has anyone got two boys with a 3 year gap?

[emmalinewre]

Hi!
Confirmed second boy due soon.
Our first son will be 3.5 years old when DS2 arrives.
I'm really worried about how he'll take it. I hoped for a girl so he might feel less.. encroached upon?

Has anyone got two boys?
With this kind of age gap?
Do they get on? How do you entertain them both at the same time? I feel like there are so many years between them that we'll struggle to keep them both happy. Even things like tv programmes - so much gap.

Do you have two boys? What's been your experience?
Thanks :-)

Two boys, 3y3m gap. They get on great and play together all the time. Well, except for when they fight. But they're good buddies most of the time and DC1 was old enough not to be particularly difficult when DC2 was born.

Yes, we have two boys 3 years apart. They get along really well. The older one was able to cope with his younger brother arriving as he was a bit older.
The younger one tends to play with stuff his brother had and now they both basically play and do the same things. Same activities and lots of Lego, the older one reads a lot and the younger one copies him with reading.
They watch TV together and they flip between what they each want to watch. Although as they are basically 7 & 10 (both Jan birthdays) they watch the same stuff.

We have that gap and they get on really well. I actually think it's a really nice gap. Having a slightly older child when the second comes along means it's less of a juggle. However they aren't so far apart in age they can't get along / find things in common.

It’s a very normal gap. I have 2 boys, 2.5 year gap, no complaints.

I had two boys with that sort of gap. A lot of the time they played together really well. Some of the time they didn't. Honestly, I don't think the largish gap was a problem. Even nine months would have seemed massive to them, and in some ways a larger gap decreased the sense of competition between them.

The overwhelming thing that I want to say, though, is that it depends on them as individuals. The age gap, and their sex, are only going to be a couple of factors in the mix. They happen to be the ones that you know about in advance, so your apprehension can focus on them, but there will be many other factors, unforeseeble and imponderable.

Absolutely, I appreciate that.
I actually feel sorry for my son - I feel almost selfish for doing this to him. I know that's silly. I just don't know how he's going to cope.

All normal feelings. xx
He will be fine. If you didn't have a sibling on the way, you would have worried about him being an only child. If there was a girl on the way you may well have worriesd about whatever dynamics that might have brought. Worry finds fodder for itself. xxx

2 boys 4 years and 9 months between them. They get on really well and always have done. Don't get me wrong they squabbled when they were younger like all siblings, but grew out of it.

Yes I do and I remember being worried about how older ds would cope with the change. The reality was that nothing much did change. Baby ds slotted into our lives, we didn’t change things to revolve around him ( if that makes sense). I involved older ds with everything baby related and they have always got on well.

I do! 3 yr 5 months. We talked a lot about the youngest being his brother (and he described me having the baby as ‘when you went to the hospital to get Name for me’ 😂). I really liked the book ‘Aren’t you lucky’ as prep. It’s about an elder sibling and talks about both pregnancy and when the baby comes home. It’s not all wonderful, but ends very positively.

Eldest is now 10 and there are some challenges sometimes, but they can also be very sweet together, but I don’t think it’s the age gap.