Dealing With Sibling Rivalry

by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer

Image (c) Lyn Lomasi; All Rights Reserved

Dealing with sibling rivalry is pretty much inevitable when you have two or more kids. Brothers and sisters can get along, but there always will be moments from time to time where, for whatever reason their personalities clash. Sometimes it actually can be downright funny.

Take, for instance, a scenario with two of my daughters, who generally get along for the most part. I was sitting in the backyard writing the latest article in my notebook (I'm a freelance writer) while the kids played gleefully. Then, all of a sudden I hear, "Nuh-uh." "Uh-huh" "Nuh-uh." "Uh-huh." After a couple repeats of this scenario often heard in sibling rivalry scenarios, I had to do something.

I am known for getting creative with my parenting solutions. I also like to treasure every moment of motherhood, even difficult circumstances because they often teach lessons and make me a stronger person. Anyway, an idea to make a memory, as well as solve this recent bout of sibling rivalry, I quietly slipped away for a few moments to grab the camera.

I snapped a picture at the moment they were going back and forth with the "nuh-uh's" and "uh-huh's." That snapped their attention and they started to laugh. The first part of the parenting strategy was working. They stopped disagreeing. I showed them the picture to let them know how silly they looked going back and forth like that.

That turned the sibling rivalry situation around into a more positive one. In fact, when I asked what they had been arguing about, they couldn't even remember. They hugged each other, said their apologies, and ran off to continue playing. We now have a fun photo to look at and remember the laughs we had that day. If a similar situation comes up again, that photo will also be a great tool to remind the kids how silly sibling rivalry is. It's much more fun to get along.

*I originally published this via Yahoo Contributor Network

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