When you’re a parent, it’s safe to say that you want to see peace between your children, right? You’ve accepted the fact that your oldest may be shy, while your youngest may be an extrovert. You know that your children love each other, but that they have different personalities, and you’ve certainly asked yourself, “where did they come from!?” However, when you sense some tension between your children, you’re almost always concerned.
But when they’re young children and they simply can’t stop fighting with each other, you may feel like you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. Let’s face it, siblings fight! But as a parent, you can take steps to ensure that there’s always mutual respect.
Determine The Cause
Step number one to help settle a fight between your children is to determine the cause. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you should become the referee and simply break up the fight. Instead, it means taking a deeper look into the root cause of the fight to begin with. For instance, you can begin to look for patterns that spark disagreements between your children – do they fight over toys? Tv? Video games? Clothes? Look for patterns and try to figure out how to prevent these sparks from turning into all-out fires.
Stay Positive
If you have children who frequently fight with each other, it’s important to stay positive throughout the process – and this isn’t just for you! Reinforce positive behavior between your children. If one children offers to share, offer positive reinforcement – and in the same breath, if your other child is receptive to their sibling sharing something, praise them too! It’s all about teaching each child that it’s okay to give and it’s okay to receive. In addition, try to pay attention to the good behaviors and always make it known that you’ve noticed.
Make A Game Plan
The most important thing that you can possibly do, is to ensure that you always have a game plan. If your children fight frequently, it’s important to know just how you plan to break up a fight, to settle it, and to teach your children how to move on each and every time. For example, this game plan can include sitting your children down after a fight and talking it out, or it can include some sort of separation period that allows them to cool down and to take time to think about the situation calmly before talking it out.
Whatever your approach may be, just be sure that it’s consistent and effective. Your children deserve to know what to expect when you break up a fight between them, so that they can trust in the process of growing together. So always be sure that you’re on the same page after each and every situation.
Give It A Shot!
If you’re ready to bring your children closer together, give our tips a shot and be sure to let us know in the comments down below just how you made out. We’d love to hear about your experience.