Please enjoy this guest post–a clear and very practical piece written written by Jennifer Kogan, LICSW, who provides counseling and support for parents at her office in NW DC.
What is a parent to do when the kids start fighting?
For parents to answer that question, it can help to look back at our own relationships with our siblings. Can you remember your parents yelling at you both to “stop fighting and get along,” or being ordered to, “go to your room” or perhaps being spanked? Did any of these methods work to help you get along better with your sibling? Most likely they did not.
One thing you can do that is different from what our parents may have tried is to pick up a copy of the book, Siblings Without Rivalry by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. Both Faber and Mazlish were parents of young children thirty years ago. They participated and wrote about the lessons they learned in a parenting group they were in led by the renowned child psychiatrist, Dr. Haim Ginott. [Read more…]
