My 2 girls also have about a 3 year age gap. I actually started preparing my elder daughter when I was 2 months pregnant, so right now the 2 girls love each other a lot (3.75 years, 5 months).
I think it’s never too early to help your 2 children develop a good relationship, and it’s also not too late! When I first started, I placed a lot of emphasis on what this means for my elder daughter, so it was more like, “you’re going to be a big sister!” Or “You can do all these things because you’re going to be the big sister” (eg. You and mummy can share some chocolate cake together, but baby can’t.. because she’s so small!)... then gradually it moved to things like, “baby will put everything in her mouth because she doesn’t know she’s not supposed to. So you can protect her and tell her not to.” Or “baby doesn’t know how to do so many things (I would list specific things), but you’re SO good at them. Can you teach/show her?”
I was very blessed that even before my 2nd LO was born, the elder sister already adored her. But there are times when she still wants undivided attention from me and feels neglected/jealous when I have to attend to her sister, so a lot of reminders still need to be given sometimes. But they’ve definitely been playing together and I let my elder daughter talk a lot about what she wants to do with her younger sister.
Hope your children grow closer soon:)
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Mum of 2