MamaBear has some words of wisdom for you, she really does.
And it's this.
Never ever *ever* get between her and her 38th cup of coffee in the morning!
Truly, attempting this foolhardy adventure is more dangerous than testing the tensile strength of a Mylar balloon via the edge of a brand new machete.
But I digress. 🙂
Let's get onto the topic of the day!
If there's one thing MamaBear hates, it's this.
Ready?
Siblings (ie, brothers, sisters) who tease one another.
Oh. My. Gosh.
It's guaranteed to not only send me into orbit, but cause the creation of brand new, squeaky-clean galaxies via the black hole that springs into being.
In other words, I'm utterly insane about there being a complete and total absence of teasing in my household.
Well!
There we were this morning. I was making French Toast for HS1 (ensuring the cinnamon and vanilla and honey and everything were all dancing together in perfect peace and harmony, much like:
No, I did *not* just date myself, why do you ask?
But I digress yet again! 🙂
Anywhos!
All of the ingredients were melding themselves together like coffee and zero-calorie sweetener, when HS2 strolled into the kitchen and started something similar to….this.
Followed by,
"You didn't do your chores last night!"
For some reason, HS2 didn't notice me standing at the counter and start to smolder like 3 cubic tons of fireworks.
That was, until HS2 noticed HS1 looking in my general direction.
So, very quietly, I asked HS2,
- "Are you teasing your brother?"
and he immediately responded,
- "Why yes mother, it certainly does appear that I lapsed in my general attitude towards my brother and indulged in great idjutness."
Okay, that was a total lie. He really said,
- "No!"
To which I said,
- "Are you lying to me?"
And amazingly (really!) his answer was….
- "Yes."
Okay, well, really…it's kinda sorta difficult to say, "Jeepers Mom, even though I was Nah nahing to my brother, of *course* I wasn't teasing him! I was…um…..praising him and it's opposite day so I wanted you to *think* I was teasing him and…."
So I quietly reminded him how Lings do *not* tease, how he's much better than that, and how he will now be doing his brother's chores for the next few days as a consequence.
He accepted this punishment as deserved (yay!).
Which brings me to the point of this post!
To stop your kids from teasing one another, simply:
Address the situation:
- Right then and there
- Comfort the teasee
- Tell the teaser he or she is much better than that and how they've dishonored themselves
- Give whatever consequences are deserved *right at that moment*.
Remember…
The key to halting teasing between siblings is consistency!
Do *not* let them get away with it, even once. Implement any consequence that gets the point home.
And if the teaser complains, double the consequences.
It might take some time, it definitely cause big huge amounts of grey hairs to take up residence on your head, but trust me on this…
Stomping out teasing between brothers and sisters is a Very Good Thing Indeed.
Do you have any other ideas? I'd like love to hear them below!
Parent powerfully,
— MamaBear
