Siblings Fight...It's Common But Unacceptable

My boys are great friends...mostly.

There are those times of constant bickering, teasing, taunting that makes me sad (and angry).

Today was different. Today Dylan was mean. He said mean things to Kobe and Kobe ended up saying similarly mean things back in retaliation.

We were in the truck when it happened. I talked to the boys about how that might feel, but Dylan was flippant about it. When we got home, I sent Kobe to his room to think and Dylan to Zane's room - it's been cleared of all toys and 'stuff' because of Zane can't be trusted to stay out of trouble - to think.

Dylan's assignment while in there was to think of something he could do that was honouring to Kobe and would make Kobe feel loved.

While thinking, Dylan decided to make Kobe a book to teach him his letters. I liked the idea of a book, but told him he could do a book on how to treat people and a few nice things about Kobe. He wasn't allowed to play until the book was finished.

Here's what he came up with completely on his own...

Translation: Crossed out 'I'll break that' and wrote 'We should not break.'

Translation: 'Kobe, you're a nice brother.'

Translation: 'Kobe, I like how you play cars.'

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I was most impressed with what he came up with, especially when he did it all by himself.

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When Dylan presented the book to Kobe, Kobe just beamed. He said thank you to Dylan and then Dylan said thank you to Kobe for listening while he read the book to him. (All unprompted.)

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I told the boys that my heart felt better about the whole situation.

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What was Dylan's response?

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"My heart feels better about it, too, Mom. Something strange is going on. When I do something nice for Kobe it makes me want to do more nice things for him."

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Wow! Small victories feel so very precious!