Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too

We want to make it clear to each of our children that the joys of scholarship, dance, drama, poetry, sport are for everyone and not reserved for those who have a special aptitude.”

Start by acknowledging the children’s anger towards each other. That alone should help calm them. 2. Listen to each child’s side with respect. 3. Show appreciation for the difficulty of the problem. 4. Express faith in their ability to work out a mutually agreeable solution. 5. Leave the room.

The key word is describe. Describe what you see. Or describe what you like. Or describe what you don’t like. Or describe what needs to be done. The important thing is to stick with the issue of this one child’s behavior. Nothing his brother is or isn’t doing has anything to do with him.”

“we can see how comforting it is to have someone who will listen to our negative feelings. Children are no different. They need to be able to air their feelings and wishes about their siblings. Even the unsavory

“What I’m seeing now is that it’s up to the parent to set the tone, to make it clear that no one in the family is ‘the problem.’” “Some of us might have greater needs or greater challenges, but we all need to be accepted as we are.” “And each of us is capable of growth and change.” “Which doesn’t mean we won’t have problems, but we’ll deal with eac

You’ll never go wrong if you describe what you think the child might be feeling (‘You must be so proud of yourself!’) or what the child has accomplished (‘A lot of practice and perseverance went into winning that medal’).

treating our children, not as they are, but as we hoped they would become.

Because when kids are growing up, they experiment and do crazy, dopey, cruel things to each other. But it doesn’t mean that they’re crazy

Oh, Ashley, I can see how very upset and angry you are.