Family Rules: Getting Along with Others
Once your parents decide that you and your siblings can stay home alone, it is a good time to talk about family rules and how to handle disagreements while they are not around.
Watch the following video to learn how to get along with others while your parents are not home.
Helping your children deal with conflict can be very important especially when you are not at home. Here are some guidelines to help your children get along with others.
- Set clear family rules.
- Give each child plenty of individual attention to lessen competition.
- Help children develop good communication skills. Encourage them to listen well and share feelings with others in a respectful way.
- Teach children a variety of acceptable ways to resolve conflict. Some examples are taking turns, splitting the difference or making a deal.
- Let children solve some problems on their own, if they can do so safely.
- Practice working through conflict situations with children. In situations where children constantly argue, work out advance plans to prevent conflict.
- Try to plan some separate activities for each child to reduce time together.
Practice the following situations and try to think of solutions with your child.
- You and your brother usually take turns putting out the recycling bins at the curb. You think it is his turn to take it out, but he says it is your turn.
- Your sister hits you because you didn’t do what she wants you to do.
- Your family had a special dessert last night. You saved your dessert for a snack after school. But when you look for it, you find your stepbrother ate it.
As children learn to work through their differences respectfully, they usually have fewer conflicts. That makes it easier to naturally develop feelings of friendship.