Search Results for: blog sibling rivalry

Siblings Sharing Parents Experience Lifelong Effects

Did you get along with your siblings when you were a child? What’s your relationship with them like now that all of you are adults? Researchers have discovered that brothers and sisters who share parents can have a very different experience from each other. What they found can help parents of today make their kid’s relationship with their siblings into a more positive experience. An article at Medical Daily was written by Chris Weller. In it, he points out that each kid that has to share his or her parents with their siblings has a different experience – even though … Continue reading →

Sibling Rivalry

Either sisters behave differently than brothers do, or my mom has conveniently developed a sort of amnesia about what she witnessed between my sister and I when my sister was a baby. As many parents do, I sometimes ask my mom about what my sister and I were like as children. I’m not sure if she is afraid to offend or if time has faded the memories of any early rivalry but according to my mom, there was no drama when she brought my sister home from the hospital or in the months that followed. The rivalry that eventually developed, … Continue reading →

Help Your Child to Cope with Sibling’s Special Needs

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It is typical for a family that includes more than one child to see some sibling rivalry from time to time. What isn’t so typical is the amount of responsibility that kids who have a sibling that has special needs often feel is placed upon them. Here are a few tips to help your child cope with the special needs of his or her sibling. As the oldest kid, I spent time helping my younger siblings with homework, with tying their shoes, and with other day to day activities. This isn’t unheard of or unusual. The difference was that my … Continue reading →

Sister Rivalry

I know about sibling rivalry. I’m the youngest of four with two sisters and a brother. My nephew who is closest in age was born two weeks after I turned eight. He grew up with me like he was my little brother. I’ve watched sibling rivalries with my friends and my nieces and nephews. My sister has worked hard to minimize the rivalry between her four children and assure that they’d be friends all their lives. Siblings compete with other for a lot of things. The most common one is trying to get the most attention from the parents. When … Continue reading →

Sibling Rivalry Involving Children with Special Needs

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Life can be difficult for children with special needs, but it can also be tough on their siblings as well. They face the challenges of watching their sibling get more attention from their parents, struggle and suffer, while dealing with the stares and comments of strangers and kids in school. They can battle feelings of fear, embarrassment, loneliness, and guilt. Luckily, there are ways to help them. Listen and be honest. Be a good listener when it comes to your children. Talk to them about their feelings and don’t keep them in the dark when it comes to their sibling’s … Continue reading →

Teen Siblings at Odds

I had two younger brothers who always seemed to be at war against one another. Once they hit their teen years, it was like they couldn’t stand to be in the same room. As their sibling, it was also clear to me that they couldn’t stand to be apart from each other either. There were inside jokes, secrets, rivalry, and sometimes even blood. Yes, I witnessed sibling rivalry at it’s finest. Now that I have my own teens I am witnessing sibling rivalry from a different point of view. With an older brother, younger sister combination I have learned that … Continue reading →

Fostering Closeness in Siblings

Sibling rivalry and fighting among siblings can be the bane of a parent’s existence. Ask any family with more than one child and chances are sibling fighting and bickering will be a concern. Many of us choose to have more than one child so that our children will experience the closeness and bonding of a sibling (or two) and then we wonder why it seems like all they do is fight. Is there anything we can do as parents to encourage and foster a sense of closeness between siblings? Age can make a difference in how close siblings are but … Continue reading →

How Much Should Siblings Have to Share?

Sharing is one of those early life lessons and we parents seem to put a lot of value on our children learning to share. We worry that if we are raising an only child, he or she won’t learn the lessons of sharing and when an older sibling welcomes a new baby—we immediately start to worry about whether or not she will be able to share toys, time, attention, and love. In reality, however, how much sharing should be expected and when it comes to siblings, should they really be expected to share everything and anything? As many of you … Continue reading →

Don’t Make Sibling Comparisons

I know that this may seem like a “no brainer” as we used to say in the 1990’s–comparing one child to his or her sibling-whether you think you are being positive or not, is seldom a good idea. No matter how mild you think you are being, any time you say something like, “Well, your sister did XYZ” or “I never had to say X to your brother” you are creating animosity and sending a message to your child that he or she just isn’t good enough–especially, compared to the sibling. You may think that you are just commenting on … Continue reading →

The Love-Hate of Older Siblings

I think that the sibling relationship is dynamic—it is ever-changing and evolving. I’ve certainly seen how my kids have morphed and changed with each other over they years and shifted alliances at various times. Watching them now, as three high-school-age teenagers, each in a different grade, I can really see the strength of the bond playing out, but I can also see just how love-hate sibling relationships can be. If the teenage years are all about the search for identity, when you’ve got a family full of kids all very close in age, part of that self-identification comes from resisting … Continue reading →