Sibling relations

I recently spent a wonderful week with my young adult daughters on a “bonding time" vacation. I found myself reflecting on their journey to adulthood and their relationship with each other as they passed through various stages of life. I have seen their relationship go through its ups and downs, the quiet competitiveness and the movement towards a growing friendship filled with respect. Well, respect most of the time. I have friends whose kids get along and others who don’t. I was curious to see how others felt, so I posted a sibling survey on tellwut to see how other sibling relationships fared. So far over 120 have voted and the results are encouraging. 59% of the respondents get along with their siblings and an additional 24% like some of their siblings. That leaves 17% who don’t get along; sad but not bad. I was interested to see if competitiveness was a negative factor; however the survey found this not to be the case as 88% of siblings said their relationship was competitive. This is a good life lesson as siblings learn that you can be competitive and stay friends. Another positive was that 58% of sibling’s relationships improved as they got older and wiser, while 27% said that their relationship stayed the same. If you don’t get along now, there is hope. Work on it. Now for the big question; what are the biggest causes of problems amongst siblings? Parents listen up because 22% of fights result from issues relating to you. Also, near the top of the list were issues relating to the sharing of property and the taking or borrowing of the others clothes. Sharing and clothes taking provide interesting parallels to young children. Are you experiencing or do you remember your little ones over use of the word MINE? Remember your child or their friends artfully grabbing a toy or that blatant push to take something. Do you think there is something we can do better in our raising of children to help them deal with the sharing of property issue when they get older? Sounds like the potential for a new online survey. Stay tuned.