ABSTRACT
For home practice you were asked to try “the fighting advice.” Did you? Were you able to do it? Did it help? Constant fighting between siblings can be such a blight on a family, it is well worth a good strong period of retraining. If the fighting becomes more fierce and you are becoming afraid they might harm each other, examine whether most of the time you do let them get on with it but you can be induced to intervene. This will cause dangerous fighting because they learn they can get you involved if they get fierce enough. If this is happening, leave and go where you cannot see it and cannot hear it. If you do, no payoff will occur and the “fighting advice” will work. If you chose to practice “not scolding,” it is hoped you are having success. This scolding parenting method either hacks away at your child’s self-esteem or causes “parent deafness” in the child—neither of which is what you are trying to accomplish. Save all such important teaching for an “information session” or family council meetings or a “one-on-one” time when both of you are feeling good.
