If You Want Your Kids to Get Along, Avoid This
Camp Kupugani is our residential summer camp located about two hours from downtown Chicago and 90 minutes away from Madison, Wisconsin. We are all about helping our campers get along, via practical models to conflict resolution models like “I Statements” and the “Clean-up”. Outside of camp, we also recognize that getting siblings or other children in the same household to get along can be challenging. A recent article lists some things to avoid doing to facilitate good connections. Bullets below, with the full article here.
- Suggesting they race to do anything
- Very confusing to children
- Create time-limit challenges instead
- Comparing them to each other in any way, shape, or form
- Can create negative feelings towards their siblings
- Resentment can form from being embarrassed
- Labeling or grouping your children
- Labels cause children to want to fit that label even if it is not how they identify
- Can cause the child to feel they cannot measure up if it is not within “their label
- Punishing one in front of the other
- Praise publicly; correct privately
- Punishing can cause defensiveness when in front of siblings
- Correcting privately limits embarrassment
- Yelling at them for getting upset with each other
- If we can’t control our emotions/actions, how can we expect them to do so?
- Empathy can go a long way in solving/correcting the behavior
- Phrase questions to help them understand the issue
- Forcing them to share
- Causes bitterness, not resolution
- Bring it back to them to figure out a resolution
- Helps them develop important relationship skills
Source Article: https://www.thewellandbalancedmom.com/