How much bickering

[freespirit333]

Interested to hear how much average siblings bicker. Mine are ND (one for certain) ages 9 and 6. The eldest can be kind when it matters but is often so mean to the youngest! Saying mean things rather than aggressive. Youngest will annoy the eldest.

Days out with friends recently have shown lots of siblings actually get on, feeling pretty inadequate about my parenting!

Mine (6 amd 8) can be lovely together sometimes but bicker to the point where I end up shouting at them at least a few times every day.
The other day I overheard DD say to DS

When we're grown ups and Mummy and Daddy aren't around I'm going to slap you every time I see you.

Oh wow @AhBiscuits. I had a good old
laugh at that, thank you!

😂🤣😂

Mine are older, but it was non stop in the car or other confined spaces when they were 9 & 6.
They get along better now & can communicate more effectively.

Dont feel inadequate, you can see the mean behaviour and once you address it with your child then you are,adequately parenting.

I will say it is utterly draining especially if you are in the company of kids that get along!

Mine are driving me bonkers with it at the moment. Three year age gap. Ruins some outings for me.

@AhBiscuits that's hilarious. I would probably still say that to my brother and we're both in our thirties 😂

As for bickering, I think all siblings fight. Some are probably just better at being little angels in public. I know mine are. I'm always being told how well behaved they are by strangers and as soon as we get into the car, they're tearing chunks out of eachother.
I thought a 5 year age gap would mean less fighting but no. My 6 year old is not against having a fist fight with a toddler.

I think 3 years is tricky isn’t it! Ours are dead on 3. I planned it and was lucky it worked out, but friends’ kids with 2 year gaps seem to get on better.

I gave12 and 10 year old sisters a lift home recently. Their Mum text to apologise hoping their behaviour had been ok.

It had been great 🤷🏽‍♀️

Apparently they were bickering by text and involving Mum in my car 🤣🤣🤣

Haha! Thank you, you’ve made me feel better. Mine aren’t hugely physical which I’m grateful for…for now!

I doubt if it translated the same at the time but this is hilarious 🤣

It made me giggle too 😂
She can be such a little cow sometimes.

97% of the time, my 4 dc (1 of which is nd) get on really well - they always have done. The other 3%.... well normal sibling bickering. They are 20, 15, 12 and 8 though.

Mine are 11 and 8 and bicker constantly, it drives me up the wall. They even seek each other out to argue.

Mine are 14,10,6 and they are very Regularly physically and verbally fighting especially in the school holidays when we are together all the time. 2 minutes after tearing chunks out of each other they will all be having a great time laughing and joking together! I have spoken about childhood experience of siblings to others and found it interesting that other siblings fought a lot as kids but are very close now, me and my siblings didn’t really fight and we aren’t close at all as adults.

12 and 9 here and exactly the same. I often say to them I know they can’t always get along but please make the sensible choice and stay away from each other…. They just can’t do it.

It is endless. They fight and argue most of the time. If I leave the lounge for a minute they just start wrestling on the sofa. Eldest definitely has a mean streak when it comes to his brother.

😆
Sorry.

Mine are now 19 and 16 , took them till the eldest was 15 before they really started to like each other. When they were small I used to cut days out short if they were arguing too much 😔

Yes my eldest does, it does make me really sad sometimes. I know he finds his brother the most annoying person in the world but the meanness really upsets me.

I'm hating my life right now due to the constant bickering!

Ds10 and dd4 are driving me crazy, we went out to a free family day and they moaned about the queue so I turned right around and came home and I'm now looking up kids clubs for the summer holidays.
Dd4 cries at the drop of a hat but ds10 does wind her up, then she winds him up, they both get told off, I'm exasperated! And I hate the aggression they have towards each other, it's horrible.

In front of people, they're angels, with me they are arseholes to each other.

I've explained to them both that if they can't behave for me then I won't plan things.

I could cry right now.

Bickering is very normal.

Also, just because your friends' kids appear to get along when you're on days out with them etc, that doesn't mean they don't bicker incessantly behind closed doors!

My brother is six years older than I am, and we bickered pretty much constantly until I was about 12... which is when he left home. We get on fine now.

Lol my eldest two fought and bickered from the time the 2nd was born until the eldest left home , and even when they met up after that. Only in last 2 years they can be in a room and chat nicely and they are 32 and 29

9,7 & 3 just now and its relentless in my house at the minute. Especially the older two, cant even be in the same space for an hour without it turning into an argument!

I think it's hard to draw a meaningful average.

I'm from a family of 5 and the behaviour amongst us has been at times outrageous but it never damaged any relationships. I don't row with anyone but every time I see my sister (who lives abroad) we're always a little stand offish until we've had a row

Other people you read about on here and they went NC because their brother ate their Yorkshire pudding one Christmas in 1976.

So yeah, I don't think there's a right or wrong amount, it's just what effect it has

I’m seeing snippets of them getting on better sometimes now that they are 12 and 14, but even that’s not all the time. Now they’re both at secondary school and a little bit more mature I think they can find some common ground. Having said that, eldest is almost always the one to start it by saying something unnecessary and unkind, then the youngest drags it out. I do think there’s light at the end of the tunnel now though