Sibling Rivalry

So I started responding to Amy's comment on the last post and it got so long I decided to just post it!

We're actually struggling with sibling rivalry for the first time since Jared's been born. Sam has always been so soft and sweet with Jared and we thought we were going to be lucky but I think that now Jared's moving around more, Sam perceives him as more of a "threat" (to his toys and mom and dad). We just had FHE on the subject tonight and told him that just because we spend time with Jared it doesn't mean we don't love him still, etc. As for the public discipline, I don't know how you can avoid a lot of it with a toddler. I can see it with a teenager when you can address things later in private. You can also address it later for a toddler but I think you have to address some of it before they get out of hand in public. However, I've heard that in customer relations, the advice they give to employees is that the more the customer's voice rises, the more yours should lower. So maybe just maintaining that calm.

I really don't have too many suggestions. I guess another thing is we started doing Mommy-Daddy time during Sundays. Since we only have two right now, we take turns and spend about 30 minutes alone with each of them so they get more alone time with each of us. Eventually when the kids are older, we want to do it so it's more of a priesthood interview with Ben at least every fast Sunday.

So those are the only suggestions I can give....remaining calm, show loving persuasion, time-outs, talking about it, and spending more alone time with them. But I'm probably not the best person for advice. Just when I think we've got something figured out, something changes (the child, the behavior, or whatever) and I realize we don't really know what we're doing at all! =)