How to End Sibling Rivalry in 6 Simple Steps

Why can’t they just get along?!?

Let’s face it — no matter how nicely your kids are playing one minute, the next minute might bring tears, name-calling and even fights. If you have more than one child, it’s a guarantee — sibling rivalry WILL HAPPEN. But even though sibling fighting is a common occurrence in families, it can be difficult to manage if parents don’t have the right tools.

There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing your kids playing nicely together, and with the right tools, you can end those sibling feuds for good. (Well mostly for good, anyway!) After all, if the siblings are happy, mama is happy!

Why Does Sibling Rivalry Occur?

Try to see it from your kids’ perspective…your oldest child was once the sole focus of your attention. His requests were answered with haste, and he didn’t have to share his time or toys with anyone. Then, his sister came along — a stranger to him, for all intents and purposes — and now mommy is slower to pour his milk because she’s feeding baby, and he has to wait for daddy to finish changing baby’s diaper before they can play with Legos together. As the kiddos get older, they vie for the same toys and as younger sister becomes more independent, she gets tired of being bossed around by big brother.

Try to look at this way, how would you feel if your spouse brought home someone else and expected the two of you to get along?

Because young children can’t express these frustrations verbally, they do so by misbehaving — refusing to share, hitting, pushing, yelling, etc.

How Can I Stop Sibling Rivalry from Happening?

While you can’t stop sibling rivalry entirely, you can reduce its frequency. This means less yelling from the next room and more peace in your home!

Child psychologists recommend 6 steps you can take today to reduce overall competition between your kids, prevent future sibling rivalry episodes and put an end to the brawls once they start:

1. Lose the Labels

We live in a society that thrives on categorizing people — we want to know who’s smart, who’s popular, who’s successful, who’s athletic, who’s musical, who’s talented, etc. Labels help us categorize things. But when it comes to our kids, labels (intentional or unintentional) dramatically increase the competition between siblings. Think about it, when we talk about our “athletic one,” “the good eater,” “smartie,” or even our “wild child,” we inadvertently draw comparisons between our kids.

When we refer to one child as the “athletic one” the other child automatically thinks “I’m not the athletic one” (so why even try) or when one child is a “good eater” the other assumes she must not be. If dad refers to you as the “smart one,” I can only assume I’m (a lot) “less than smart.” If I wear the “wild child” crown, you can feel very superior as the “well behaved” or the “easy going” kid.

By labeling our children, we unintentionally place kids into one role or another — whether they like it or not–and create comparisons between siblings. The good news is, when we ditch the labels, we give our “not-so-athletic” child a chance to shine even if she’s not a star. We give the straight-B student the opportunity to be proud of her hard work. And we give the “wild child” a chance to do the right thing. The key is to cheer on positive attributes, such as teamwork, persistence, and kindness. Siblings can then root for each other instead of competing for their parents’ approval.

2. Arrange for Attention

One of the key reasons kids argue is to gain their parents’ attention — in their eyes, even negative attention is better than nothing. To satisfy your children’s need for attention, plan on giving each child at least 10–15 minutes of kid-centered, intentional attention every day. Here at Positive Parenting Solutions, This time has incredible effects on the health of your child’s mind, body, and soul.

Kid-centered means your child is in control of the 10 minutes — they call the shots.

A tea party?

Lego building?

Dressing up daddy?

Sidewalk drawing with chalk?

Listening to their favorite music with your teen?

Whatever the kid chooses, you oblige. (As long as it’s an activity that can reasonably be accomplished in 10–20 minutes.)

This means no distractions — put down your phone, don’t answer that email, turn off the show you’re watching. Your child is the center of your universe for these 10 minutes and it’s critical you are fully present for your time with her. Lastly, be sure to label your special time at the outset (you can call it whatever you want, ie: Mom & Suzy time) and when it’s finished, say, “I sure enjoyed our special time today! I can’t wait to do it again tomorrow!” Your child will benefit from knowing you’re committed to your time, plus you’ll get credit in his mind for time well spent.

By giving each child this special time, you will increase feelings of emotional connection and proactively fill her attention bucket with POSITIVE attention, so she doesn’t have to resort to fighting with her sister to get your (negative) attention.

3. Prepare for Peace

When sibling fights occur, many parents use time-out as a way to diffuse the situation. While sending kids to separate corners might give them an opportunity to calm down, time spent in the corner will not teach the child how to resolve conflict. To teach kids conflict resolution skills, it is recommend that parents use role-playing once the dust has settled and everyone has calmed down. Here are just a few scenarios you can role play to help build those conflict resolution skills:

1. Taking turns: Give children the words to use (“May I please play with…”) and also give them language for responding (“I’m not quite finished playing with it, but I’ll let you know when I’m finished.”)

2. Using “I feel” statements: It’s important children know it’s OK to have big feelings, but there are appropriate ways to express them. Teach them the language to use when they are frustrated (“I feel mad when Sam doesn’t let me play with the car” or “I feel hurt when Alison hits me…”)

3. Controlling their temper: Kids aren’t always ready to discuss their feelings immediately after a fight, so teach them coping skills to diffuse the situation until they are ready to talk — walk away, count to 10, take deep breaths, etc.

By giving your children the tools and strategies to resolve conflict on their own, you’ll notice a drastic decrease of sibling arguments in your home.

4. Stay out of Squabbles

This one might surprise you, but do you know the best thing you can do when a disagreement starts to brew? Ignore it. That’s right, go find something else to do in another room. Don’t give the squabble any attention. By ignoring the tussle, you don’t reward negative behavior with your attention and most importantly, you give them a chance to work it out on their own. In fact, my Godmother used to say to her boys when they were fighting “You two deserve each other.” Then she would walk away.

If the fight escalates into a physical throwdown or you feel like intervening is necessary, use the next two steps to guide your interactions when you do get involved.

5. Calm the Conflict

If your kids clearly can’t reach an agreement, or if the fight escalates, you might have to step in. Whatever you do, don’t take sides. You might think you heard or saw what started the argument, but don’t place any judgment on either party.

Instead, once everyone is calm, listen to each child’s version of what happened and encourage them to use “I feel” statements as they tell their story.

Without placing blame or taking sides, ask them to come up with some solutions together. If no one can come up with a workable resolution, suggest a few yourself, and help them reach an agreement.

6. Put them all in the same boat.

After hearing both sides and attempting to find a solution and your children still can’t agree, it’s time to put them “all in the same boat.” That means everyone involved in the argument experiences the same outcome or consequence. An “All in the Same Boat” statement would sound like this: “Either you can take turns with the game, or I will put it away for the rest of the day.” Then follow through. There will likely be some complaining and negotiating at first, but your kids will quickly realize it’s in THEIR best interest to agree on a solution together before you “put them in the same boat.”

Final Thoughts

Be patient with your children as they’re learning these new strategies.

Remember that conflict resolution is a very advanced skill set. (You probably know adults who still struggle in this area!) But rest assured, with these strategies in place, you’ll be able to keep sibling rivalry and fighting to a minimum. And don’t be surprised if other issues pop-up after sibling rivalry is under control. The truth is…your kids are constantly looking for ways to get your attention and assert their power, so you might notice mealtime drama, tantrums, backtalk and homework battles flare up even while the siblings are living in (mostly) harmony.

Siblings and Head Lice

You may wonder how Sibling Rivalry and Head Lice play out at our Treatment Centers. We see it ALL the time. There are many scenarios in which siblings fight about head lice. An older sibling might threaten the younger one: “I’m going to kill you if you gave me LICE!” or “You cannot play with my toys anymore because you have cooties!” Younger kids may cry while getting treated and their Big sister may call them names. Or it maybe the other way around. Big brother is bothered by the bugs and little brother makes fun of the complainer.

However, no matter who contracted head lice first or is grossed out more, the thing that remains the same is “No one asked for Lice to live on their head!” Lice like the smell of your head and crawl there to see what is going on. They checkout if your head would be a great place to hang for a while. The best way to rid the whole family of head lice is come into Lice Lifters and get everyone in the household checked and treated professionally. By using our non-toxic, pesticide free Lice Lifters treatment products, we can ensure that the lice blame game stays out of your family by eliminating all bugs and removing all the eggs off the head.

To help make sure that you never have to deal with lice and the emotions that ensue after finding them on your head, use the full line of Lice Lifters Prevention Products to keep lice at bay. Lice Lifters Lice Deterrent Shampoo & Conditioner or Lice Lifters Mint Detangler work because peppermint is scientifically proven to deter lice. These products can be found at our Lice Lifters Treatment Centers and in our Lice Lifters Store on Amazon.

May parenting bring you peace and joy!