How Do I Stop My Kids’ Fighting?

By Laurie Winslow Sargent:

One frustrated mom asked, “How I stop my kids’ fighting? It’s driving me crazy!”

♥

Photo by Stuart Miles: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Ooooh, been there, done that, felt that. I know, it can be enormously frustrating. I think what  made me craziest was the noise level–just having to listen to it.

Even handling it perfectly (and how would that be?) won’t make it go away entirely. Kids are learning how to relate to each other and will practice with their siblings.

As we enter this discussion on sibling squabbles, ask yourself this:  “What am I most reacting to?” Is the answer:

#1 The noise?

#2 The issues at hand, which you feel you must intervene in (and should you–really–or must they work it out themselves?)

#3 The need to protect one child from another, physically or from wounding words?

Kids pick at each other for all kinds of reasons and many do require adult intervention (AKA refereeing). But for this first post on kids’ fighting, let’s examine your own attitude as a parent, as I was forced to examine mine.

Is it possible that your interventions in kids’ fighting sometimes make things worse?  Consider your:

(CLICK to cont. for 6 Ways parent attitudes can affect kids’ fighting…)

Fun Quiz: Your Child’s Personality Traits

Image by renjith krishnan: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Your Child Has Personality!

This short personality quiz is excerpted from Delight in Your Child’s Design by Laurie Winslow Sargent, and was contributed by Kim Miller, Laurie’s editor at Tyndale House.

In some ways, determining your child’s personality is an inexact science.She is likely a blend of more than one personality type. A child’s relationships and experiences also influence the way she behaves.

Still, it is helpful to get some sense of why your child acts the way she does. Try to answer the following questions to see if you can discern a pattern in your child’s behavior and help you understand and identify some of his or her strongest personality traits:

1. You can truthfully say, “I’d be a millionaire if only I could bottle and sell my child’s . . .”

a. optimism.
b. persistence.
c. kindness.
d. confidence.

2. Your son keeps you up until 2 a.m. the night before his school’s science fair because:

(The remainder of this post/quiz has been moved to: CrossConnectMedia.com.)  You should find the new site more reader-friendly.)