5 Parenting Tips For Dealing With Sibling Rivalry are parenting guidelines that have helped me play more of the role of peacemaker than peacekeeper. My 3 smart beauties have developed a sister bond that has evolved into a cord of three strands which can not be easily broken. They do have their moments of squabbling but sweet moments like these are plenty in between and makes my mom heart burst.
- Be the parent and remain calm. When your children are squabbling or fighting, it can get frustrating and exhausting. It’s very easy to loose your temper and add fuel to the matter. Remember that you are modeling to your children how to solve conflict and emotions have their place but ultimately, you are called to be the voice of the reason.
- Create a home environment that fosters cooperation over competition. Taking sides without hearing the whole story sends the wrong message to your children. We owe it to our children to create and cultivate a family dynamic that celebrates cooperation over competition because family is about working together as a team and team work requires cooperation.
- Listen. Respect your children’s feelings by hearing both sides because most of the times, parents don’t get the chance to witness the conflict unfold. In the heat of the moment, emotions are running very high so being heard is critical. Listening is often the only thing needed to help and it goes to show your children that you care.
- Maximize productive resolution. Home is meant to be a training center for our children to grow into confident and responsible adults. We should use sibling conflicts as an opportunity to equip them with problem-solving tools that will serve them well at home and beyond.
- Be a bridge. You set a standard for acceptable behavior in your family and make it clear so that it doesn’t leave any room for ambiguity or misinterpretation. After assessing the situation, you may have to administer consequences for breaking those standards but how they are administered matter. You may also have to let siblings handle the matter on their own.
5 Parenting Tips For Dealing With Sibling Rivalry are parenting tools that help us remember that training our children in the way they should go often requires that we ourselves grow in the process. Sibling rivalry is inevitable but manageable if we take the time to be the parent and use conflicts to equip our children with problem-solving tools to maximize a productive resolution that will serve them well not just at home but in their every day lives.
