12/08/2026
Being a sibling of a child with cancer can be very scary and confusing. Family dynamics change, schedules are unpredictable and schoolwork and activities can start to fall through the cracks.
Many parents of children battling cancer express guilt that their healthy children are unintentionally overlooked while they are forced to focus on their sick child’s immediate needs.
Apart from the fact that one of the parents, usually the mother, is either absent from the home for days weeks and sometimes even months at a time as she is at her sick child’s hospital bed, even when everyone is at home, dealing with a child with cancer and all that goes with that is time-consuming and exhausting.
This is even more difficult in single-parent families (as many of our childhood cancer families are).
Many mothers have expressed to us that their other children have become very naughty and often rude to them and/or ignore them completely as they are jealous of the attention given to their sibling and the fact that their mother is hardly ever around to pay attention to them, misses school activities etc.
The term “glass child” was coined to describe children who grow up in families where a sibling’s needs are so intense that the other child becomes emotionally invisible.
The word “glass” refers not to their fragility, but to the way adults and caregivers often look through them—focusing instead on the sibling in crisis.
There is no way to consistently balance the attention you give to your children when one is fighting cancer, but there are a few simple ways to make sure that all your children feel important, even during such difficult times.
Keep their routine as consistent as possible. During stressful or scary times, it is especially important for a sibling to feel like they have a routine, and for others to help them keep that routine consistent.
If possible, ask a parent of their friend or classmate to drive them to and from activities after school so they can keep that part of their lives steady in the face of uncertainty.
For more information and advice, seethe Blogpost "Glass Children – The Invisible Siblings" on our website
https://littlefighters.org.za/2026/08/12/glass-children-the-invisible-siblings/
