Family fighting and bickering can cause a once peaceful and loving home to become a dreadful, dreary place. One of the biggest complaints that parents have is the inability to get their children to get along. Sibling feuds go way back into history, and are very common in the household. You might find that your older and younger kids are competing, fighting, or are just plain out rude to one another. In order to tackle some negative behavior it is going to take a large dose of positivity and specific steps to make your kids appreciate each other more and fight a whole lot less.

If you’re in the other room and you overhear the fighting and bickering begin it is your job as a parent to step in and immediately intervene. This will give your children an opportune moment to reflect on their behavior and reconsider it. Have your children vocalize their issue with one another and help them problem solve it together. The more you do this the less you’ll have to! Your kids will begin to take on the roles of mediator themselves, hopefully causing there to be way less arguments in the house over who gets the remote controller and when.

Sometimes it helps to teach your children to think of others first before themselves. So, if your daughter wants to watch television, she may just want to automatically flip to her favorite television channel. Instead, help her to understand that others may not want to watch the same programs that she does. Have her learn to ask her little sister what she would like to watch, and help them compromise on a show that they both agree on. This approach can be taken with any sort of area in the home. Thinking of their sibling will reroute their mentality, and do away with selfish behavior.

Helping your children evolve from enemies to best friends is a process that will take a lot of personal involvement and commitment – but the result is priceless. Strong family bonds are important to create, and having close personal ties to your sibling will help your children stay grounded with higher self worth for themselves, and a personal outlook on like that will reflect a truly caring and understanding individual.