Growing up in my house, whenever my brother and I got in trouble, we had to sit on our hands at the kitchen table without talking for 5 minutes. If we made a sound, we got another 5 minutes. Being a brother and sister, I'm sure we bickered, but I'm not sure if we bickered as much as Emma and Allie seem to! For the first three years or so of Allie's life, things were great. Emma was never jealous, they seemed to love each other as only sisters could! Then, in the last year or so, it's gotten progressively worse with the bickering. I've been at my witts end trying to figure out a way to stop the bickering!
Today, they were bickering while a good friend of ours was here. He told us a great story of a punishment he and his brothers used to get when they bickered....his step mother would make them sit on the couch and hug each other for a solid 15 minutes!
So, this morning, when they bickered, after hearing this story, I told them this would be their punishment....within minutes, they were bickering again....I heard Emma yell up to me, "Mommy start the timer." I walked down and saw them sitting on the couch hugging. I only made them do it for 5 minutes but then they had to say "I love you" to each other at the end of the time.
I'm not sure if it will last forever, but there hasn't been any bickering since then.....and as I'm writing this blog, they are sitting on the couch cuddling by choice!!!
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