Sibling rivalry is a term well known in most families with two or more children.
It commonly refers to the relationship between siblings marked by verbal and/or physical altercations.
And it drives parents nuts!! Yet most of us with siblings would remember our own disagreements and our parent’s laments of “Oh why can’t you just get along?!!”
So here we are, another generation of parents, still struggling with fights between the kids. Why?
Sibling relationships, especially amongst young children, have been likened to the playdate that never ends: when the kids start to get cranky with each other during the usual playdate amongst friends, parents can usually round up the invitees and take them home. But siblings don’t get that option. Siblings have to share homes, toys, parents, routines, clothes, rooms, pets, space at the dinner table, car space, grandparents, the TV remote…harmoniously…AT ALL TIMES.
Add in the age we live in of separated families, blended families, step siblings, both parents working and our busy lives, and sibling rivalry becomes even more complicated and difficult to prevent or manage.
So if we are going to try to negotiate a truce between warring parties, maybe we need to look at incorporating some new techniques into our recipe for peace in our time.
