Show Notes: Sibling Rivalry with Dr Laura Markham Part 2
The second in a Two Part Series with Dr Laura Markham where we learn how our parenting behaviour can influence the relationship between our kids, and facilitate sibling rivalry, or sibling friendship. If you missed the first in the series, listen to Part One here. You can find more wonderful resources from Dr Laura Markham at Aha! Parenting, including heaps of amazing free content, the two books we discuss here: Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids, and Peaceful Parent, Happy Siblings, as well as lots of great audio content and a parenting course.
Summary
Sorry about the poor audio quality. The content is well worth it! If you want a transcript, please click here and enter your email address so I can let you know when it is ready.
What Undermines Sibling Relationships?
Taking Sides
The target of blame feels like a bad kid. - Like you don't love them. - So they pick on the other sibling.
The defended child doesn't learn to stand up for himself. Instead learns to call you to solve any issues, and begins to worry if the other child is appreciated (in case it is a role reversal).
Punishment
If we use punishment to teach lessons, our children will also use punishment to teach lessons.
Children don't learn well when they are emotional. They learn when they are calm.
Punishment makes the child feel unsafe, and escalates emotional disregulation.
Punishment also sends the message that love is conditional on good behaviour.
What children learn from smacking is that physical aggression is part of intimate relationships.
Time Out
Time out was developed as a very good alternative to spanking. It is based on behavioural psychology, but children are much more complex than rats.
The problems:
Assumes that the behaviour is chosen. Mostly children lash out because they are emotionally disregulated.
Sending your loved ones away when they most need support undermines connection, and inhibits emotional processing.
Due to the perceived love withdrawal, children misbehave more in the long run and moral development suffers.
Children who calm down alone tend to repress their emotions.
Time out doesn't deal with the source of the behaviour. The emotions are still there, and will flare up and affect behaviour.
The research behind Time Out:
I asked Laura more about the research behind time out. Here is her reply:
"A study done by the National Institute of Mental Health (1) concluded that timeouts are effective in getting toddlers to cooperate, but only temporarily. The children misbehaved more than children who weren’t disciplined with timeout, even when their mothers took the time to talk with them afterward. Michael Chapman and Carolyn Zahn-Wexler, the authors of the study, concluded that the children were reacting to the perceived “love withdrawal” by misbehaving more. That’s in keeping with the studies on love withdrawal as a punishment technique, which show that kids subjected to it tend to exhibit more misbehavior, worse emotional health, and less developed morality (2). These results aren’t surprising, given how much children need to feel connected to us to feel safe, and how likely they are to act out when they don’t feel safe."
I also did some of my own research and found that time out is generally considered a form of love withdrawal. Which makes sense. If your child misbehaves you withdraw your attention for a few minutes, this to kids, would be experienced as love withdrawal. Love withdrawal isn’t associated with moral development. Children whose parents rely more on inductive discipline, which includes coaching, empathy, acknowledging other children’s emotions, are rated as more prosocial (3), more likely to take responsibility for their actions, and more likely to consider other children’s perspectives (4). In contrast, children whose parents rely more on power-assertive discipline, such as punishments,
view more