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Will my children ever get on or will the bickering continue forever???

4 replies

Churmy123 · 28/07/2014 19:04

Feeling so upset, frustrated and lost right now

I have had an awful day with my DD (7) and DS (3). All they do from the minute they get up until they go to bed is bicker, fight and shout/scream at each other. And its really getting me down. They have nothing in common. And I struggle to find any activities that they can do together. Everything ends in an argument. My DD loves crafty activities but my DS just tries to wreck everything she does. They can't even agree on a TV programme to watch! The minute I leave the room, to go to the bathroom or prepare a meal, they start. Today has been awful.

I now feel bad because I have really shouted at them today. Just at a loss what to do. Their behavior when they are together also impacts on other things too. For example its too much to ask the grandparents to look after them both together as they also find it hard to deal with. So my DD has gone off to spend the night with my in laws leaving my DS very upset because he couldn't go. If we are invited on play dates I only take one child and the other stays at home with my DH. Even a trip to the park or library ends in a fall out.

Is this what its going to be like for the next 10/15 years???

OP posts:
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flipchart · 28/07/2014 19:06

Mine are 17!and 15 and still bicker.
I just switch my ears off to them.

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exexpat · 28/07/2014 19:08

I have a four-year age gap between DS and DD, and they used to bicker all the time, but things have improved in the past two or three years. But I'm afraid they are 15 and 11 now, so you may have a while to go. Less bickering is partly because they have grown up a bit, but also because they have more independent lives and don't have to spend as much time together.

The worst was always car journeys where they were on the back seat together; it started improving when DS was 10 or 11 and could sit in the front seat.

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Iggly · 28/07/2014 19:10

Can you seperate them? It is quite a big gap. Give them their own space and send the oldest one to her place and set the 3 year old up with something.

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springlamb · 28/07/2014 19:13

I give you one ds(19) and one dd(12).
The entire meal we have just eaten consisted of them giving each other the stink eye over one's remark that the other had a milk moustache.
When I asked them, in my own inimitable fashion, to cease and desist, they ganged up on me together. Can't win.

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