Having more than one child is a beautiful opportunity to see how a friendship relationship emerges from childhood, which will give you beautiful moments. But also, when things do not go the best way we can find some differences between them, which are triggered in discussions or bad times.
Therefore, as parents, it is up to us to help our children, so that they can have a good relationship between siblings, encouraging certain values that will help them achieve it.
When to start
Fostering a good relationship between siblings is something that It starts from before the new family member is born, since since this new brother is in mom's belly, we have to prepare the future older brother for his arrival.
We must make most of the whole process of welcoming the new member to the brother, not only talking about his future little brother, but inviting him to support us with some activities that are related to the arrival of the new baby.
This will be particularly useful and important because in some cases, when a baby is born, older siblings may feel jealous or that their parents may not pay as much attention as before. In my particular case, my mother tells me that when my sister was born I was very jealous and I even told them that I didn't love them.
One way to avoid this, in addition to preparing it before your little brother arrives, is look for those little actions that you can help us with and feel included once the new baby is at home. For example, asking them to help us bring a diaper or to give us their opinion about the clothes that we will wear to the baby during the day, all this clear, making sure that he feels comfortable helping.
Sharing childhood
If the brothers don't get many years apart, when he grows up a little the younger brother can start playing together, for which other moments and opportunities will come when we help them foster a good relationship, and thus start with a beautiful friendship from childhood.
By teaching them to share and help each other, they can begin to relate in a healthy and friendly way, in addition to helping them to be more empathetic, something that will undoubtedly be very useful when it comes time to make new friends at school, for example .
Give them a similar treatment, but remembering that they are different
It is important that as parents we have a fair and equitable deal with them so that there is no room for envy or resentment, heading towards them with the same love and dedication, without preferences and always giving them the opportunity to dialogue without jumping into hasty conclusions.
However, although it is important that there are no favoritisms and we should give them the same opportunities, we must adapt these according to each of them, because no child is equal to another, and everyone has their different personality, tastes, needs and character.
Similarly, when there is any discussion between them, we must act as mediators and guides, to help them and teach them to share, live together and have a good relationship in general.
The relationship between brothers can be a very good one, in which love and friendship predominate towards each one of them. Let us always remember, that we will be in charge of helping you foster that powerful bond from your first years of life.
Photos | iStock
In Babies and more | How to raise children to grow up happy and not feel jealous for their siblings, Having siblings helps develop empathy in children from an early age
