Dealing with Sibling Rivalry and Encouraging Sibling Relationships

One minute they love each other the next they can be like Tom and Jerry! Sibling relationships is our topic today with Dr Laura Markham of ahaparenting.com sharing scripts and diving deep into how we as parents can effectively deal with sibling rivalry and disagreements. We also focus on the positive of how to develop and encourage sibling relationships.

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Sight Words Around the House: Mixed Up Words :: The Pleasantest thing

First up an interesting article about the long term consequences of how our siblings treated us and the input or lack of input our parents did. As parents what do we react to and what do we let slide?

Bully in the next bedroom – are we in denial about sibling aggression?

In light of that article about-What happens when sibling become aggressive towards each other and what should we be doing as parents? When these questions are written here it seems a really easy answer. Duh! We must intervene and do something. When our children are doing things we’re not always there, things get twisted and situations manipulated. Reacting at the time isn’t always our best decision. Dr Laura shares a simple way through skills, standards, respect, empathy and relating.

For us to model conflict resolution we have to know how ourselves .If we haven’t been taught then we need to learn this first.

“You leave your sister alone…” and other expressions. You are mean to one and sympathetic to the other….. Is this a good or bad thing?

What is the way to intervene with your kids and make everyone safe and at the same time not reinforcing the role of perpetrator and victim?

Submitted question: How do you handle or encourage getting on with your sibling when they are 18months ( twins)?

stay as close as possible
use scripts to model interaction and navigate the situation

What happens though when you’re not there and something happens? What’s the first few things you would do?

Curb your reaction
Go to the one hurt and ignore the other.
Help the hurt one find their voice
Model the repair

What happens if one pushes another over because the other child took his toy?

No scolding
Go to the one hurt and ignore the other.
Model the repair
Lead them to each other and help them find their voice and express

Is there a place for independent play and leaving them alone to work things out?

Tips on children that you know are just going to go straight back to hurting the same child

What happens if you are dealing with singletons of multiple ages? Same rules. Same situations?

Ways to foster sibling harmony to build relationships

age gap between children
temperament of each child
You set the tone in the house
What you say to each of them about the other one

What happens when you here loud angry voices from another room and you need to deal with it in mixed aged families? How we respond is really important