by Michelle Stein posted in Parenting

Some days, I feel sorry for my youngest child. She's our third kid, after all -- so she hasn't received anywhere near the one-on-one attention our older two have. Other days, though, I feel like our 16-month-old pretty much has it made. Since she's probably our last, we all tend to baby her. And she milks it for all it's worth.
Good or bad, here are 7 realities of parenting baby number three:
1) By the third kid, it's a safe bet that pretty much all of your books look like this. Flaps taped back on for the 10th time, or flat-out MIA. Back covers torn off. Pages ripped out. Bite marks. Random crayon scribbles. Aren't all books supposed to look like this"

2) Screen time before age 2 is a given. Even if we're not intentionally plopping her in front of the television, secondhand TV is totally happening as she's playing with toys while Nick Jr. is on. (Or holding a video game controller while her dad and big brother are playing.)
3) They'll have an epic selection of toys from birth. With our oldest, we started out with just a few teething and battery-operated learning toys. But through the years -- thanks to birthdays and Christmases for our first two kiddos -- we have accumulated a suffocating an impressive collection of all things play-related. This toddler hit the jackpot.

4) Hand-me-downs are life. At this point, we're preoccupied with keeping her rapidly-growing big brother and sister in clothing that fits. So new clothin...