Taming Sibling Rivalry

Welcome to Taming Sibling Rivalry!

Welcome to your self-guided class! I hope this note will help you make good use of this course.

The aim of the class is to help you reshape your relationship with your child by providing tools and information that help your child, and help you feel good about the way you're handling difficult sibling relationships in your family. We’ll also explore actions you can take at other times to help your children be more easygoing, connected, and flexible.

Every step we’ve outlined on the videos is a necessary step in that effort. Read ahead in the Listening to Children booklets, if you like, but don’t skip steps in your use of the Listening Tools we outline. The steps have been carefully structured to bring you the very best chance of excellent results.

Please plan on spending some time You’ll have access to the materials in this classroom for a year, so feel free to take the steps slowly, and to go back over the videos and charts more than once. The steps we recommend can change your relationship with your child for the better, but learning any new skill takes time and means that you'll be learning as much from what doesn't go well as from your successes with the Listening Tools we offer.

The class materials are organized by week in the modules tab on the left side of your screen. Take some time to review the entire course, and then begin with the Lesson 1, Video 1. The length of each video is listed in minutes and seconds for your convenience.

The Listening to Children e-booklets are in .pdf format in the Lessons. They’re short. They’ll help you build a more complete understanding of your child’s emotional workings, and they are yours to keep. Please do read them: there's a fuller explanation of the Parenting by Connection approach than we can convey in short videos. Feel free to download the .pdf file to your desktop or e-reader.

To build a Listening Partnership, we recommend asking a fellow parent you respect to try the experiment with you. Ask them to read Listening Partnerships for Parents, and dive in! If you can’t think of someone you’d like to have as your Listening Partner, join our online community, and register to find parents who are looking for a Listening Partner.

At the end of each lesson, you’ll find the charts I refer to in the videos, so you can review them without hunting for them. These charts stay with our classroom.

If you have practical questions, you can join our Discussion Group and post them, or search the archives there on the topic of Sibling Rivalry, so you can access over 5 years of posts and discussions on that topic. Our blog has some parent stories that may illustrate how a parent can use our Listening Tools in a situation like yours. We cannot answer questions posted in this classroom.

May your discoveries be many, and may your connection with your child grow as you use our Listening Tools to improve life for yourself and your child!

 Patty Wipfler