Bickering

As anyone can imagine, and parents with more than one child know, having another sibling (or multiple siblings) means that you don't always get to be first at everything, or get 100% of the attention for yourself, and of course it means you have to learn to share your toys & things from an early age (whether you want to or not).  In my opinion, children who have siblings learn some important life lessons at a younger age and certainly ones that will come in handy when you are an adult.

In my house, there is constant bickering.  The need to be first, the need to be heard and the need to win is usually at the root of the bickering.  Although the arguing only involves Thomas and Abbigail as of yet, I'm sure Marilyn is not too far behind and will join in soon enough (unfortunately).  Some of the most common causes in the Heck Household are:

• "the spot" on the couch
• whose bedtime book gets read first
• whose bookshelf the book goes back on once we are done reading it
• who gets their teeth brushed first
• who gets to play with a certain toy first
• who gets the first wipe down after we eat
• who gets to go to the bathroom first
• who gets "heard" first because they claim they were talking first
• blah, blah, blah, blah

A side note to this list - I have a solution/process in place that minimizes the bickering.  I didn't say STOP the bickering, only minimizes it. *sigh*
Don't get me wrong - there is lots of love between these two.  They have a great time together (most of the time).  But given the closeness in age (2 years), the fact that school is out and Thomas is home for the summer, and that we do everything together... well, there is no surprise that it gets a little loud from time to time.  But, as I have to remind myself often, they are indeed learning some valuable lessons:  How to handle conflict, how to speak up for themselves, and how to share.