My eldest didn't take the new addition to our family very well.

Richard Morris: After my wife and I had our second child, a girl, our 3-year-old son was showered with gifts from relatives and friends. He was very happy to receive them -- though he had no idea that unlike birthday presents, these gifts were given more in sympathy than in celebration to help our unsuspecting child weather the difficult transition to come. It was appropriate then that some of the gifts he received were books about children learning to cope with having a new sibling in the house.

As the designated bedtime reader in the family, I became very familiar with these stories. Most of them were pretty straightforward, with the same reassuring message -- sure, it may be different at first with this new person around, but eventually you will grow to love this person as much as your parents. But it became clear very quickly that this good, wholesome message wasn't exactly sinking in. Quite the opposite, in fact. Instead of growing to love the baby, my son was dreaming up ways to get rid of her.

"Mommy," our son asked one day, "maybe we should put the baby outside tonight so we won't have to hear her cry?"

On a long car ride home one weekend: "Daddy, can we pull the car over and leave the baby on the highway?"

And then simply, "What would happen if we fired her out of a cannon?"

At first, my wife and I were alarmed by our son's failure to accept his baby sister, not to mention his rather active imagination. But we began hearing similar stories from other parents who had made the transition from one child to children. We were relieved, almost gleeful, to hear that other parents were struggling with the same issues.

I mean -- what child isn't going to be a little upset about losing his or her number-one standing in the family, free reign of a house, and a parent's undivided love and attention? This is like telling an emperor that he will have to share his kingdom with somebody else, and I think history is pretty clear on what happens next: War.

So for a few months, I would come home from work and my wife would entertain me with new quotes from my son about how we could get rid of his baby sister. "Tie her to the roof, flush her down the toilet, pack her up in a suitcase and send her away forever ..."

Well, what's a parent to do with this? It ended up inspiring a book.

I'm happy to report that my son, who's now six, and his sister, now four, are getting along better than ever. In fact, my wife tells me that they have even decided to get married.

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