A social story for a toddler getting a new baby brother or sister
Most of it is about the weeks after the birth, because that is where it usually goes wrong for a two- or three-year-old. The blanks are for your family’s words. The note beside each line says which advice it rests on.
9 pages: a cover for their photo and name, the story, a page for you, and picture cards to cut out. No sign-up.
1Our family is going to have a new baby. The baby will come after .
Why “after ___”“In five months” means nothing to a two-year-old. Anchor it to something they can watch approach: after your birthday, when it is cold.
2When people come to see the baby, they will say hello to me first.
Make this trueAsk visitors before they arrive to greet the older child first, at their height, before they go near the baby. It costs them ten seconds.
3When I meet the baby, the baby might have a present for me.
Why a presentA small present “from the baby” for the first meeting gives it a good shape before anyone has had a chance to feel replaced.
4Sometimes I might want to be little again. That is OK. I can ask for a cuddle.
Why say it is OKRaising Children lists wanting help to eat or dress, wanting to be rocked and waking at night as ordinary after a birth. It is a request for attention, and giving some of it freely meets it.
5Every day, my grown-up and I have time that is just ours. Our special time is .
Why every dayA slot each day that belongs to the older child, even ten minutes while the baby sleeps. Raising Children suggests a special song or bedtime book you share. Predictable beats generous.
6I am the big one now. I know lots of things the baby does not know yet.
Why this endingRaising Children suggests telling the older child how much they have learned and grown since they were a baby themselves.
When to read it
From about three or four months before the birth, and again in the first fortnight after it, when the house fills with people who have come to see somebody else.
The whole plan behind this story, with what to do on the day: Preparing a toddler for a new baby, and the weeks after
Sources
The advice here is the same as in our guide to preparing a toddler for a new baby, whose two Raising Children sources were read on 17 September 2026. No story prevents jealousy, which is a normal part of adjusting.
The pictures come from Becoming a Big Sibling, one of our picture books. In the book, the child in them is yours.
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