Bickering siblings

[begonia]

For real, the bickering between DD1 (6) and DD2 (2.5) lately is crazy! They were getting along so well, played together but had the occasional fight, but goodness, this last week or so it's like nonstop!

For the most part it doesn't bother me a ton because I fought like mad with my brother and some of it I think is just natural to want to bug your sibling. It's not like I think there's something I can do that will completely get rid of it, but I'm wondering if anyone has any good tricks that work with their kids. Right now I usually just try to distract them with a new activity ... often that works, until they bicker over that one

How do you all deal with it? And be honest ... those of you with lots of kids ... does that make it worse or better?! Do you just have 2 fighting in one corner and 2 fighting in another?!?!

[TTC5]

My eldest two are always at logger heads!!

[nuthinbutpink]

My 6 and 4 year old fight sometimes and other times are BFF. 9 year old fights with 6 year old in a mean girl way. Not hitting. 17 month old bugs everyone! 9 year old and 4 year old never ever fight. I think it is just the ages.

[begonia]

NBP and TTC5 that's kind of what I'm expecting, actually ... I bet my oldest and youngest are rarely going to be fighting, but I think DD2 will pretty much be at odds with one or both of her sisters at any given point.

LOL about the 17 month old bugging everyone

[Hobbermittens]

My 2 oldest get along for the most part, but they have their moments. I usually separate them when the fighting gets bad. That helps. Do your kids share a room? Mine do, but we have a play room, so usually I send one in there, and one to the bedroom, and after they have a break from each other, they usually get along better.

The baby (21 months) is either their best friend or driving them crazy. More than anything, I usually have to get her out of their room/away from their game/stuff.

[Cinss]

8yr old and 5yr old play nicely most of the time, but i am seeing classic middle child syndrome with 5yr old, now that she has a little sister and is not the baby anymore, she gets jealous if 8yr old pays more attention to 2yr old, so acts out quite a bit.

[auroara78]

My 9 month old baby bugs the crap out of my 4 year old. The baby is kinda crawling now, (he more or less "slugs" his way around our living room, lol) and he keeps getting to 4 year old's dinosaurs and that really gets DS1's goat. He goes "Evan! You can't have my toy!" And he pulls it out of the baby's hands really rough on purpose, like he wants to hurt the baby's feeling to teach him a lesson!

No advice here, sorry, but I'm sure these two will really start bickering once DS2 can talk back and steal toys right back from DS1! On the other hand, DS1 has been known calmly play with DS2 toys near him, and try to boss him around, "No, Evan, it's not like that, it's like this!" That always cracks me up, the eldest you know, being bossy...

[LolaInLove]

My 6 and 4 year old fight sometimes and other times are BFF. 9 year old fights with 6 year old in a mean girl way. Not hitting. 17 month old bugs everyone! 9 year old and 4 year old never ever fight. I think it is just the ages.

These are my girls ages and exactly what happens in our house. My younger girl is such a sweet, happy-go-lucky kid and I think it irritates my older daughter sometimes. I think it is just a power thing....the older can "control" something. I was mean to my little sister because it made me feel like the big dog, LOL.

Begonia, I have gotten to the point where I either ignore them and tell them "If you are going to fight, go in your room and work it out." When they know I won't intervene and lay down some punishments and nothing is going to come about, they usually drop it. Lately, I have been just telling them stuff like, "Hey, we don't fight in this household. Why would you be mean to your SISTER, your best friend and one of the only people who will ever have your back for the rest of your life?" It's a little heavy for them, LOL, but my oldest gets it.