Dealing with Siblings - Continued

If one child is great at baseball, find something that your other children can do in their own way. Making each child feel that they have something special to give to the world and that you are proud of is going to make their rivalries seem less important. If all the children play baseball, and one has a special skill the other, children are going to feel less important or less special, which broods rivalries.

Try to keep your sense of humor with children. Eventually one is going to say, ‘You don’t love me, you only love xxx’ – this is a time when you know that the rivalry is getting rough and that you need to spend more time stabilizing your relationships with all of your children and making them all feel equal in the family.

Be firm with your discipline. If you make one child stand in the corner for swearing, when the next child does it, you have to use the same treatments. A constant method of correction is going to make all the children feel equal. In the situation where the child who only gets a lecture instead of the same treatment is going to make the other children feel as if he or she is a favorite and the rivalries will build up.

If you are feeling continuous feelings of rivalries with your siblings even after you are grown, think back for a few moments about how your parents tried to make your feel special and part of the family – you will notice the rivalries will seem less important after all!