February 22, 2012

Siblings

We have 4 children, and throughout the years I've wondered if they would be friends and realize that in the end all you have is family. This thought has come and gone as they played, teased, argued, fought, and then seemed to be inseparable again.

Now, jump forward 20+ years and again this morning that thought has been on my mind. We had an incident last night. One child reprimanded a relative on what he thought wasn't appropriate behavior. Now one of his siblings has taken it upon herself to talk her brother down. My heart broke as this happened!

It is so hard to see them struggle with issues that really don't matter. However, this pair of siblings has never really liked each other and I know as a parent the only thing I can do is try to kindly council and try to help them realize that one day the relationship they have with each other will depend on how much effort they put into it now and pray and pray that someday they will find a warm spot in their hearts for each other. I hope that this will someday happen. I guess I take heart that even our Heavenly Father had children that were rebelious and didn't get along. I guess that I had always hoped that our family wouldn't have to deal with these situations though.

I'm sorry to vent on my blog, but maybe someone out there will have the answer. . . .

Do they ever learn to love each other??

3 comments:

Unknown said...

This is my worst fear for my children. I have 3 siblings, and only one talks to me. It really stinks. My husband also has 3 siblings and none of them talk to him. I am trying to figure out how to fix whatever happened with ours so it doesn't happen when my kids are older...but I don't know how or what to do.

I am sorry. This is hard.

I know my husband would say to be the parent and not take sides, because that is what he feels happened to him...but every situation is so different and has different needs.

Kristanne C. Willden said...

They do. Some families seem to be so close even as adults, and others seem to let little things bother them. My sister and I were just talking about this today. We are really close, and we were asking if our kids would have the relationship we do. But I look at Shawn's family and although they aren't really close, they still depend on each other when times get rough, and they are the first ones to step up, and give support.

It's there. I have a sister I am not really close to, but I still love her and would do anything for, even though she really irritates me some times. Your kids all love each other, and even though it may be difficult at the moment, it is there.

Ivey League Mama said...

I have one brother and we aren't super close, but we support each other and rarely have disagreements. My husband has 2 siblings. With one of them, we all get along and really enjoy being together. With the other, it always feels strained and full of polite smiles. My husband and I talked about that at Christmas...how close the children are to each other now and what (if anything) we can do to help them keep these tight bonds.