One of the biggest issues with parenting multiple kids is that the kids rarely get along. You see, sibling rivalry it’s called and it doesn’t’ matter if your kids are 2 years, 4 years, or even 10 years apart; it happens to all siblings!
This means your children are probably at each other every so often and when they’re quiet you tend to wonder what kind of trouble they’re into. Today we’re going to share some tips that will help you encourage sibling bonding so that your kids get along more often than not.
Do not Compare Kids
The first part of encouraging a sibling bond is to not compare the kids. Siblings who grow up being compared to another sibling will often have negative feelings towards the sibling that they’re compared to.
This child will continuously feel less than worthy and have a horribly negative feeling towards the other siblings throughout their life.
Teach Appreciation
Rather than comparing each sibling, try to teach an appreciation of each family member. Teach the siblings to respect each other for their strengths and learn how to work together as a team. This encourages your siblings to learn how to develop a strong bond rather than argue against each other.
Appreciation can go a long way in the family bonding and sibling bonding, too!
Team up For Chores
Another fabulous way that’s easy to help with sibling bonding is to team them up for chores. You can start assigning the kids to do chores together. Match each sibling up with one person that has a strength in one area and another that has a weakness in another area.
This will help the siblings learn how to work together to get things done and encourage them to help the sibling that may not have a strength in one area.
Teach How to Respectfully Disagree
Lastly, be sure to practice and teach each of the siblings how to respectfully disagree. This means communicating more within the family unit. You can do so by hosting family mealtime once per day where everyone talks to each other.
You’ll want to instill the value that each family member is an individual and can think the way they think or feel but to respect each other’s beliefs and feelings by being kind, and responding politely to each other.
These are just a few of our recent ideas and tips to encourage sibling bonding. The key is to continue working on ways to get the kids working together and completing things together. While you do this, be sure that you share what each sibling brings to the family.
Teaching your children through example to value each other’s strengths and weaknesses will go a long way to encourage sibling bonding.