I remember thinking for a long time that I’d like to have kids close in age. It would be tough, having to cope with a baby when your eldest is only a toddler, but that’s how I wanted it.
All because I am 5 years apart from my sister and I felt that, growing up, it was the age difference’s fault that we didn’t get along as well as I thought we should. Or better yet, as I saw my two cousins getting along – like best buddies. I wanted that for my kids. And so that’s how I planned it. My two eldest are 2 years and 6 days apart. It was very well planned.
Fast forward 10 years and my daughter and son are constantly bickering, arguing, hitting and kicking each other. They take things from one another, they provoke each other just to get a reaction, etc etc.
What happened to brotherly love? Is it one of those words that only exists in the dictionary, in theory, in Utopia?
I really wished they would understand the meaning, the privilege it is to have siblings, especially that close to your age, with whom you can play, chat with, do sports with and who likes more or less the same things you do…
I may not have day to day contact with my sister, but I know that she’s there for me if I need her. These two look like they could live perfectly well without each other forever.
Apparently this is totally normal. And it gets more heated/physical when kids are in their tweens (7 to 12 years old, i.e. pre-teens). I didn’t even know what that was until I did that research online to deal with the episode of Miss Z’s total lack of respect for her Granny…
They are both tweens now and being opposite genders doesn’t help matters either. What’s the solution? I took to the internet to find out.
The first article I found gave some possible strategies to curb the conflicting behaviour. I particularly like the job jar, the oversized t-shirt (1 fits 2) and the holding hands strategy – mainly because I know they’ll hate that one 😉 It should prove a good enough deterrent!
There’s other strategies like the money jar, but I think I’ll use that for something else 😉
I’ll try each one of these. Let’s hope it works!