Sibling Rivalry

[EmmaH83]

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice.

I have a DD who is 7 and a DD who is 5 (20 months gap). They are very close and inevitably share the same hobbies.

My DD7 is very bright and does well in all aspects however my DD5 is always just a little bit better. I realise that this is sometimes because she has her big sister to copy.

My DD7 has started making comments like "X is better than me", "X is cleverer than me" I have tried to explain that she is copying her big sister but it doesn't seem to work and I am trying to balance celebrating DD5's achievements against the hurt feelings of DD7.

Can anyone help or give advice?

Much appreciated

Do they do anything separately so they get a bit of a break from constantly comparing each other? It may well even out over time. My twins seemed to leapfrog each other academically and I spent a lot of time emphasizing that learning is a marathon not a sprint and that hard work is the key. (They are lazy boys though!)

That's a good point. At the moment they attend the same infant school and have the same hobbies. In September DD7 starts a different junior school so the space will probably be healthy.