Conflict is a natural part of life and part of our human make up. While conflict can happen during any stage in life, it seems to be very prominent in the sibling arena. Siblings seem to be born with this innate ability to argue about everything. I mean seriously, one could say the sky is blue and the other kid would argue that it’s purple. Siblings seem to naturally need to have conflict in their life in order to thrive. While it’s completely natural to listen to siblings argue, it can be quite overwhelming and annoying for parents to listen to it. That’s why I’m sharing some tips for helping siblings to communicate vs. fight, to help parents everywhere work towards establishing some peace between the siblings in the home.

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Have Board Game Night

The first step to helping siblings communicate vs. fight is to establish a closer bond between siblings. Having a family board game night is one of the best ways to establish a positive sibling bond. Consider using games that require siblings to work together on a team, against parents or other siblings. Team building board games are a fabulous way to build the skills necessary to communicate rather than fight.

To help get you started, here are some family-friendly board games that require cooperation amongst the players. Age recommendations vary, so be sure to choose games that fit your family.

• Outfoxed
• Friends and Neighbors: The Helping Game
• Castle Panic
• Race to the Treasure!
• Hanabi
• Disney Eye Found It!
• Gnomes at Night
• Hoot Owl Hoot
• Cahoots
• Stone Soup
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
• 5-Minute Dungeon
• Snug as a Bug in a Rug
• Forbidden Island

Establish Rules

While siblings will fight from time to time, it’s important that you establish some rules surrounding the tolerance for sibling fights. Think about some of the fights that the siblings have and start creating some household rules that require the siblings to hold hands for five minutes, or do a chore together whenever they get too rough into fighting about a topic. This helps the siblings work harder at communicating when a fight starts to break out in the future because neither of them will want to hold hands for five minutes or do a chore.

Be the Example

This might be a tough one to swallow, but you have to be the example. Think about conflict between you and your spouse. Do you communicate, or do you fight? Be sure that you’re leading by example in the house when it comes to communicating vs. fighting because siblings look up to their parent’s example more than anyone else in the world.

When you and your partner get into a debate, try your best to communicate it out and negotiate to come to a middle ground together. When siblings grow up in a household where their parents worked together to resolve conflict in a healthy manner, they’ll establish their own communication skills together instead of fighting all of the time.

These three tips for helping siblings to communicate vs. fight will surely reduce the number of arguments that ensue in your home. There are many ways you can work towards a positive sibling relationship, but the key is to start working with them to develop healthy communication skills that they can use in other areas of life in the future.