Dealing with Sibling Conflict

by Stephanie Romero | More from this Blogger

05 Aug 2011 07:05 AM

When my youngest son and daughter were little, they were pretty close. They are closer in age to each other than with my oldest son, so they often played together. It was probably around the time my daughter turned 12 that suddenly her little brother was nothing but a nuisance.

Well he quickly learned how to get her goat and so for the past couple of years, it has been a struggle to see these two get along with each other. Of course now it doesn't help that both are swimming in hormones. It only adds to the excitement.

But this past Wednesday night my daughter stepped in and came to her little brother's rescue. He had been sitting in youth group with his friends when they suddenly decided to go sit with a group of girls. Now I don't know if he just didn't want to go with or they didn't invite him, but he was left sitting alone.

I have mentioned in previous blogs that my youngest son is very sensitive. He really does take things to heart and so this left him feeling pretty sad. My daughter saw what happened and went over to the one of the boys, who she is mutual friends with, and told him to go back and sit with her little brother. He did.

This was like a light in a dark tunnel for me. I don't remember the last time my daughter stuck up for my son. I don't remember the last time they cared enough about each other to do something like that.

I also appreciated her boldness. But that is her, she addresses injustices no problem. If something isn't right, she will take care of it.

With so many different things going on in my children's worlds, I think they can easily lose sight that it isn't always a cake walk for their siblings. They can be so wrapped up in their own teen struggles that they forget it's not so easy for the others.

It really got me thinking about the need to remind my children of this. So my plan this weekend is to visit each one of my children individually, remind them of the struggles they are going through and then explain how their siblings are going through their own stuff. Perhaps it will cause them to feel more compassion for each other.

Yes, I am going to take advantage of that moment when my daughter did something nice for her brother and encourage this to continue in our family.

How do you handle the conflict that happens between siblings in your family?

Related Articles:

Siblings that Don't Get Along

When Teen Siblings Don't Get Along

Relationship Dynamics

Photo by PinkStock Photos in Flickr

Learn more about Stephanie Romero

Stephanie Romero is a wife and mom to three children ages 13, 14 and 18 years old. She writes web content for We Do Web Content and of course, blogs for Families.

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