Bullying Between Siblings
It’s interesting growing up with siblings. We learn a lot from them over the years. For example, things we should do in life, what not to do that get us into trouble, and even possibly a few tricks to keep us out of trouble. If we were the older sibling, often we were frustrated to have our younger sibling hanging around with our friends, held back from doing what we wanted because the younger sibling wasn’t old enough to join, couldn’t run as fast, didn’t get the jokes, or maybe was just annoying. If we were the younger sibling, maybe we tended to look up to our older siblings because we wanted to be like them. We had a sense of respect for them and thought that they were so cool, able to do more “fun” things and didn’t seem to be limited in what they could accomplish. But most of all, we wanted them to like us, and to accept us as equals.
Sometimes that is not an easy task to accomplish. We each have different personalities and experiences. Many times, younger children tend to be picked on, taken advantage of, and feel left out. There might also be feelings of jealousy from older children toward the younger children due to favor or preferential treatment given by the parents. There might be more time and attention spent by parents or other family members on the other child. When this happens, it’s not easy being the other sibling. There could be a lack of attention, or specific expectations that were put upon us and not the sibling, whereby we were not prepared for or wanted to accept. When a sibling relationship or even parent/child relationship isn’t effective, the much needed trusting relationship is threatened and could possibly impact the growth and development process…
