Sibling rivalry

Hm, one of the most exasperating feats of being parents is handling sibling rivalry. As we parents often hear the so-called experts preaching the importance of parents to provide equal treatment to their offsprings, practicing it, of course, is a totally different matter altogether.

I remember when my husband mentioned sometime back that I appeared to be too critical on Aisyah and suggested that I might not love her as much as I love my other two kids- I was aghast of course! To tell the truth, she's the one I seem to favour better - she's so much like me, extremely cute, articulate, a perfectionist (though a little too much to my liking), and brilliant! It's just that during that phase, she was undergoing the phase of miss-goody-two-shoes, and I had no choice but to put her on the right track. She was forever trying to exert her 'authority' over everything, no matter how trivial they might be. Well, due to my intervention, my darling angel is now more amicable that the bossy tot she used to be.

Next, there's also rivalry among my nephews and nieces as well, esp when it comes to clamoring for the attention of my dad. My niece, Dhia, is especially fond of old dad, so, she would shove away anyone trying to vie for dad's affections. The same goes with my youngest, Nisa, who is usually the Tok Wan's darling when no cousins are around. Hm, the squabblings they've had simply put huge grins on my dad's face!

Then, there's also the rivalry the kids face with their peers and the nursery. Hm, the scratches and the bites they take home are no longer as often as it was, but well, that's kids! Like what kak Bedah use to say, "namapun budak, bukannya anak patung!"

And here's an anecdote on child rivalry I got from Clean Laff's mail:

As I was dropping off my son at his daycare the other day, I overheard some of the other children talking about their siblings."My brother takes karate lessons," bragged one little boy."My sister takes gymnastics," said another. Not to be outdone, the littlest child in the group piped up. "My sister takes antibiotics!"