Thanks to Kelli Pritchard for sharing with our group about sibling affection. Here are some notes from today's talk. The audio is also available on the player to the right.
Teaching Sibling Affection to Children--these are some thoughts that Kelli shared about systems that have worked in their household.
1. The Hippocratic Oath--applying the idea of "do no harm" to sibling relationships. If someone says something mean to a sibling, they must say 2 nice things to that person.
2. Age Hierarchy--in the Pritchard household, the children are taught to honor age.
3. Teach and model how to appropriately show affection towards one another.
4. Teach common courtesy--saying "please" and "thank-you".
5. Teaching Apologies--not simply saying "sorry", but also asking, "Will you forgive me?" and "How can I make it right? Along with this comes teaching how to also forgive.
6. Be nice to your siblings' friends. No tough talk.
7. Make sure that friends are nice to younger siblings, as well. Again, no tough or derogatory talk allowed by guests in the Pritchard household.
8. When siblings disagree, they become "twins" for the day and must be together until the disagreement is resolved.
9. Servant Leadership--good leaders serve well. This means teaching children how to serve one another and their household.
10. Fair, but not equal--teaching children to be happy for those who get blessed.
How To Make Changes in Your Household:
1. talk it over with your spouse and then give him time to mull it over.
2. Have family meetings where you can begin to address some of the changes you'd like to make.
3. Talk your way through those changes, continually, with your children.
4. Teach your older children how to defer to the younger ones. Example: older one always gets to choose the movie. Say to the older child, "this might be a good opportunity for you to let your sibling pick the movie."
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