7 Ways to Deal With Sibling Rivalry in Your Home
Sibling rivalry can make your life difficult. You feel you are in the center of a war and no matter who wins, you’ll always lose. Here’s how you can deal with sibling rivalry and bring peace back to your home.
1. Never ever compare
When one kid is more obedient and seems leaning towards the road of perfection, you may get the urge to compare. Resist the temptation. Comparing kids makes everything worse. Understand that they are individuals with a different set of desirable or undesirable traits. When you compare, you lower the self esteem of one and add to the arrogance of another. This further fuels sibling rivalry.
2. Don’t make the ‘elder’ one suffer
Just because one child is older doesn’t mean he/she has to make sacrifices every time the younger one throws a tantrum. Often we ask the ‘elder’ one to ‘understand and adjust’. The elder one has to give in to demands which seem unfair to him. Please understand that your older kid is still a child. Treat him like that and don’t expect him to be mature enough to understand everything. If you continually ask him to make sacrifices, then you are sowing seeds of bitterness and resentment.
3. Don’t take sides
Don’t pick favorites or take sides. You might like certain traits of one child more than the other but don’t make the mistake of letting your kid know about it. Each child is special. Treat them in the same way. Give them the right ambiance and every child will bloom to perfection. So whenever they fight or argue, don’t take sides.
4. Encourage them to do fun things together
The best way to dissolve tension between siblings is to get them together for a fun activity where they can enjoy themselves and forget all about their rivalry. Provide such opportunities frequently so as to bring them together emotionally.
