Parenting Blog

"When your son and daughter are fighting with each other, you want them to learn to resolve their differences successfully, but you may have never learned to successfully work through conflicts yourself. Before you can teach your kids to listen, identify the problem, express their feelings, generate solutions, and find common ground, you have to learn those problem-solving skills yourself"- Laura Davis & Janis Keyser

Should you intervene in a sibling fight?  If they're working it out well themselves, No. And often, children do. They're endlessly creative. Conflict is actually good for them, because it teaches them how to work things out with other people. As Pamela Dugdale says, “Siblings are the people we practice on, the people who teach us about fairness and cooperation and kindness and caring, quite often the hard way.” 

So remind yourself that a certain amount sibling squabbling is not only normal, but necessary.  If "peace" depends on kids being forced to swallow their needs to accommodate siblings on a regular basis, it isn't good for either of them. Your children need to develop their voices, learn how to express their needs, try out strategies to meet their goals.

But they also need to learn to listen to each other, empathize, and regulate their anger rather than dumping on others.  While our modeling helps with these skills, most kids need some targeted coaching to use them, at least when emotions are running hot.  READ POST

“So just to clarify: 3-year-old girl kicks 1-year-old, and I am to hold my 3-year-old (after making sure the crying 1-year-old is fine, got that) and just sit with her until she feels better? No time-out, just hold her and tell her that I love her and that I know she is hurting too....So, no discipline, just love, i.e. more attention....more attention for kicking the baby?!"... Kerri

I know exactly what Kerri means.  Someone kicks my baby?  The lion-mama in me roars.  The last thing I would feel like doing is lavishing love on the perpetrator.

Except that the perp is my three year old, who is also my baby.  And who is clearly in a state of emotional dysregulation, or she wouldn't have done such a thing.  She's sending me a clear signal that she needs my help, desperately.   READ POST

Henry, age 3, is playing with Sophie, 15 months, by grabbing a toy away from her.  Sophie loves his attention and giggles at this interesting game, especially because he restores the toy to her every time.  But Henry is getting rougher each time, and Sophie is clinging harder to the toy. He wrenches it away from her.  Sophie bursts into tears.  Henry, feeling guilty, says “You act like a baby!” and reaches out and shoves her down, hard.  Now Sophie is wailing.   READ POST

"My almost 3 year old has been potty trained for a year.  Lately, it's been fun to pee down his heating vent in his room. This morning, he really pushed me to my limit when I came out of the shower and realized he had peed on his 9 month old brother. And then when I put him in time-out in his room (instead of spanking him, which is really what I wanted to do) he peed in his heater vent again. I feel like I try to be a good parent, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong. How much more love and affection can I give him?  We'll start a sticker chart today and hope that works. Because once you pee on your brother, you've gone too far, and we have to fix this now." -- Anonymous

Clearly peeing on the baby is going too far!  Last week we looked at why spankings and timeouts don't really work when the toddler pees on the baby.  (If you missed that post, it's here.)  Today, let's consider Sticker charts.  Tomorrow, we'll explore that all-too-familiar refrain: How much more love and affection can I give him?   And on Thursday, we'll wrap up this little series with some real solutions.  (Can't wait?  They'll be geared toward helping this little pisser manage his emotions, so he can manage his behavior.)   READ POST

Guest Blog by Sandy Blackard
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