A Summer of Sibling Rivalry

Hello and welcome back to another great year at Lafayette! I hope you all had a wonderful summer and enjoyed having more time with your kids. As for me, I spent a good part of the vacation dealing with the dreaded sibling rivalry, which has not appeared in our house before. My two boys are spread out in age, 7 and 2, and I thought by doing that I had avoided having major problems between them as they grow up. Boy was I wrong! This summer, the two year old was finally able to assert himself, grab toys, shout "it's mine!" and just generally be an adorable/terrible two-year-old. My 7-year old could not handle it, and a lot of screaming/yelling/fighting and general chaos ensued. Thus I spent the summer refereeing between the two. I had to actually dust off my counselor's hat and develop behavior plans for them both, complete with positive and negative reinforcers as well as punishments. Yes, it was that bad. I'm happy to say that things got a lot better after that, but there were only about three weeks left to the summer by that point. Suffice it to say, I am THRILLED to be back at work this fall! I'm sure many other parents have dealt with sibling rivalry in your house, and would love to hear strategies that worked for you. Please feel free to either comment on this blog or email me at jillian.diesner@dc.gov
-Jillian