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A couple of months ago, a friend revealed to me the secret to ridding my home of sibling rivalry.
As a parent of three children who frequently tear each other down in breathtakingly cruel displays of shoulder-shrugging disdain, barbed comments, and malevolent singing, I was all ears.
“Do they need help, or is this a vent?” is one question parents should ask themselves, says Adelaide clinical child psychologist Kirrilie Smout.
Credit:Getty
Her parents, she explained, were finally getting along with their siblings after decades of sniping. The key was that they no longer competed for their own parents’ attention or obsessed over who was the parental favourite.
I m cheering for the end of school holidays â and the guilt they bring
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January 18, 2021 â 5.30am
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It was when her son challenged his sister in the supermarket checkout line â about the existence of her middle name â that one mother I know felt her mind teeter the other day.
Credit:Cartoon by Matt Golding
âHe was like, âNo, your nameâs not Avaâ, and sheâs like, âYes, it is!ââ says my friend of her kids, including her daughter whose middle name is in fact Ava. âI mean, I ve made a list of what they argue aboutâ¦Iâve actually got to get a grip,â she says, adding that she was so visibly shattered the woman working in the checkout stopped her work to give her a âpep talkâ.