Children, if left to play and if able to share, will tend to become natural friends more quickly than we’d expect. It’s a lesson us adults can take into our own lives and try to emulate, even if we’re unlikely to play in a garden sandpit with our colleagues anytime soon.
However, as a parent raising small siblings of similar age, perhaps even in the form of twins, triplets, and beyond, this can be a task that takes some getting used to. After all, that much proximity to one another’s lives makes you the greatest of friends and the most sworn of enemies depending on the day. It’s all in good fun, of course, but there are certainly ways we can, as parents, help the former take precedence.
So, in this post, we’ll get right to it, and share four tidbits of advice for helping your young children/siblings/relatives get along. Without further ado, let’s begin:
Implement A Real Sense Of Fairness
The best thing a parent can do for any young children sharing a household together is implement fairness. Children are quick to figure out if one is getting preferential treatment, from the gifts they receive during the festive season to the turns taken on the games console. It’s important to try and encourage turn-taking and sharing as much as possible, and in some cases, putting your foot down when that standard is not being followed. Of course, you can also make sure they respect one another’s property, as using customstickers.com for quick visual identifiers can be a great place to start.
Promoting Empathy Through Thinking Of Others
It’s important to continually ask your child to think about their sibling if they have a disagreement, and what it’s like from their angle. This might not have a perfect effect, but it can help encourage getting them into the attitude of at least thinking what their sibling might be thinking, and how that doesn’t always correspond to their vantage point. It’s a healthy lesson for children to learn, and the crucible of a shared household is the best place to learn it.
Divide Your Time As Well As Possible
It’s impossible to be truly 50:50 at every moment of the day. Your children may have different needs. But it’s important to try and do this as much as possible. Sharing time with them at night, be that reading to them before bed, playing with both and each one at the same time, or not developing in-jokes or pet languages you do with one and not the other is key. It’s a hard ask, but you can do it with a little attention.
Try to be The Best Example You Can
You don’t have to be perfect to be a parent, but it is important to try and be as fair as possible. For example, it’s hard to teach healthy approaches to disagreement or conflict if we’re in constant conflict with our own partner and don’t reserve our disagreements for the private space. Again, parents are never perfect, nor always neat in their conversations, but if this is the broader example you set, that’s a healthy thing.
With this advice, you’re certain to help those little ones get along, despite the challenges of childhood.
