AIBU to put on my coat and sit in the car till it's time to leave

[HammerToFall]

I can't cope with the constant arguing fighting and bickering in this house any more. Dc (8 and 6) start the minute they set eyes on each other in a morning to the minute they fall to sleep at night. They even argue from their beds across the landing.

It drives me mad, all I can hear is shouting banging fighting and then I have the constant barrage of 'he did' 'she did' approximately every 17 seconds.

I hate mornings and dread picking them up from school.

Haha bettercaul excellent idea. Unfortunately it was out of my hands as they are adopted siblings, but given any control over the situation I most certainly would have left a much bigger age gap!

Having children is never easy on the nerves. My daughters are 19, 16 and 12 now and thankfully this sort of thing is getting less intense as time goes by.

That said though, 16 year old and the 12 year old sometimes still go hammer and tongs at each other (19 year old is mostly away at uni now). It absolutely drives me round the bend. If I had thought about the "shove them into the bathroom together" method when they were younger I would have been game to give it a try. They are getting a bit big for it now though, I suppose. The 16 year old towers over me and the 12 year old is about my height now. Instead, I just try to ignore them as much as possible, and about 80% of the time it blows over.

Kids!!!!!

I have two nieces that bicker all the time...apart from when they come and stay with me. I may have mentioned my rules on here before...
1 - if I say [our secret word] they both have to stop what they are doing. Usually used when out walking but can be used in the house when too noisy
2 - if you both fight, and one of you gets hurt - it's your own fault. I don't wanna hear 'she said/she did' as I am not interested.
3 - if you make grandma cry [they did once at bedtime] you wake up bald.

When i told them this last one, the older one looked at the younger one and said 'she wouldn't' and the younger one said 'she would!'...

If I was responsible for them going to school it would be
4 - if you are not ready on time, you go to school in your jamas.

They have been a dream since I made the rules.

Don't cave! If one gets violent then they 'lose' no matter what the other did to provoke. Be strong.
Incidentally, the worst 'bickerers' were number 4 and 6. He's 8 years older than her. So I don't think it's an age thing, it's a personality and control thing.

Better, my kids are 4.5 yrs apart. Didn't work.

I have a 9 year age gap but my kids still argue constantly, it drives me mental and the noise level is ridiculous.
I had three boys all under 6 at one point, I felt like a referee

Oh, I think all bets are off with six, Hairy! You have nothing but my respect and awe!

It was obviously just my inspired parenting then Spoony!

yup, you are a better parent than I :) I could not stop the bickering.

I will sit with Ledkr on the bad parent bench.

FunkyBoldRibena

Sometimes children are just better behaved for their GPs than their parents?

1 - My boys would never hear me speak when their busy fighting, so a secret word would remain a secret to me.

2 - I impose this rule as well. It has no effect that I'm aware of. I don't think they fight to get my attention.

3 - I shave their heads anyway, so this one won't work for me.

4 - I have taken them to school in their PJs before. In fact I have taken them in their underpants. DS1 was mortified and got dressed a little faster for a day or two. DS2 thought it was a fantastic idea and then protested about wearing clothes to school at all. They now get dressed for school the night before and sleep in their uniform/clothes so I have less to yell about in the morning.

I think I'm just going to start wearing ear-plugs and humming like a mad-woman.