As the father of feuding sisters, Chris Farley Ratcliffe discovers the perfect solution to bringing peace to his home.
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Lovers or fighters? Comrades or enemies? Best friends or “she hit me first!”? Siblings are great – always cooperative and always supporting one another. ‘Friends for life’ and all that, unless of course they are not.
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Sibling warfare is a pretty regular thing around our home. We have tried a number of tactics to bring some order to the squabbling, shouting and hitting:
- We have tried talking about emotions and the intensity of emotions
- We have tried talking about perspective and what matters
- We have tried boxing gloves
- We have tried taking deep breaths – at least on the parental side of things
- We have tried sending them to their rooms (unfortunately they share a room)
None of it has worked.
Then we found the solution, the one thing that has put an end to the bickering and fighting: we sent one of them out of town.
Our oldest spent part of last week at my mum’s house doing activities with Nanny. She went canoeing and saw a play. She walked the dog and generally had a good time. She called home in the evening to say good night and her sisters missed her. Her regular sparring partner talked about being bored and lonely without her big sister. She said it was hard falling asleep in their room without her sister there with her.
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Yesterday we all went to the airport to pick up the sister and daughter that we were all missing. My mum came for a visit and brought our oldest home on a plane. Her sisters waited anxiously for their sister to come down the escalator and when she got to the bottom, they ran to her and gave her big hugs.
Love wins the day – just like in the movies!
Not a chance – we didn’t even make it out of the parking garage before they were arguing and hitting each other.
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Photo: Flickr/Donnie Ray Jones Originally appeared on Dad Goes Round. Reprinted with permission.
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