This Tween Tuesday, Liz Atwood writes about how the house changes when one tween is away... 

My older son is at overnight camp and that means his 8-year-old younger brother is an only child this week. On Sunday, I took him to the pool and we left when he asked to go. I treated him to dinner at the restaurant he chose and he watched the TV program he wanted to watch before going to bed. The afternoon was unmarred by whining, bickering, name-calling or tattle-telling.

I've heard stories of the abrupt shift in family dynamics when one child goes off to college and parents suddenly discover the younger sibling who has been sitting quietly at the dinner table. While my younger son and I do occasionally do things without my older son, I look at this week as the chance to get to know my younger son a little better outside his big brother's shadow.

Of course, having a parent's undivided attention can be both a good thing and a bad thing. This week, he will be the only one I'll nag to do summer reading and math workbooks. And while he might think it's great he doesn't have to share the TV this week, he was so desperate to have someone to play video games with the other night that he tried teaching his 72-year-old grandmother how to work the Xbox controls.

It's going to be an interesting week. Have you had occasion to discover a younger child when big brother or sister was away? Were there surprises in how the family dynamics changed?