Bickering siblings!!

[missrandom]

My 7 yr old son and 4 yr old daughter, will not stop bickering, all the time and it drives us nuts!! What works best? ignoring it and letting themselves sort it out or keep telling them to stop!!

[Lily_b]

Try talking to them and listening to each ones cause for the argument and point out where each one has had their reaction fuelled by the others action (usually the case with my two, age 8 & 6) I end up feeling like Judge Judy.

Failing that I separate them into different rooms to play on their own and they soon miss each other. Or, if I get to the stage of getting seriously peeved with them, I leave them to it and go to my bedroom & read a book after making sure all is safe to leave them alone downstairs. They soon miss me and join me where all previous arguments are then forgotten.

Sending them to bed does not work as they just sneak to each others rooms to chat. Time out does not seem to work so well now either. Confiscation of drawingstuff(DD) or the playstation/Wii(DS) works quite well, but I reserve that for major league issues.

If anyone else has some ideas too it would be appreciated.

[missrandom]

thanks :-)

[annie0000]

Every time they do it give them time out - don't listen to any of the argument about who did what first - you'll only get drawn in to it. Keep punishing them both equally every single time - zero tolerance - they'll soon get the message and either leave each other alone or get on better! That's the theory anyway - it works on my boys who are 6 and 5. But the key is - do not listen to any arguments!!!