-Sibling Rivalry-

Today's topic has been one of the biggest thorns in my side since I became a mom! My sister and I are 10 years apart so I didn't understand how prevalent it was until I became a parent, myself. When my husband and I got married we would brag about how we wanted "a ton of kids!" I guess we never noticed the sarcastic smiles and the silent snickers of the veteran parents who knew better.

Sibling rivalry creeps up early ,too! My firstborn had it down by the time he was 18 months old! His cleverness would have shocked most adults! If he saw me hand a new stuffed animal to his baby brother he would, quick as a flash,grab it from his chubby little fingers while simultaneously replacing it with some random toy he didn't want. His baby brother didn't even realize the coveted toy had been hijacked! The smile on my eldest sons face was so palpable it could fill a room. Eventually, this no longer worked. Andreas became increasingly aware, as babies tend to do, and started catching on to his brother's trickery. As they have grown, these situations have become more intricate.

With my husband's job pulling him away from home 10 month's out of the year this leaves me being the lucky one who gets pulled into the kid's little tug-of-war's most often. My male children are so territorial of me, I think that the next logical step might be them urinating in a circle around me to shield off the other with his scent! I hope it doesn't come to that but, I am learning not to underestimate the serious nature of these disputes. Is it normal that,upon entering my minivan I found duct tape forming a barrier that divided it in half? How many other family's have to use rulers to measure cake sizes to ensure equal proportions? Do all siblings wait for the other to go to bed to pillage their backpacks to see if the other has some valuable treasure inside it?

Even our family pets get pulled into the action! The boys play a game called "Who's your master?" Each boy stands on opposing sides of the room while making exaggerated hand gestures. They both yell loudly and in an animated fashion trying to out do the other.If this wasn't bad enough, both boys have pockets filled to the rim with dog treats. Our big, male dog excitedly runs from boy to boy lapping up all the attention. Our tiny female chihuahua just sits defiantly in the center of the room as if to say "no way buddy, I'm not choosing either one of you as my master!"

I find myself getting cold sweats when we are out in public and they begin the familiar banter that plays out like a broken record. My nervousness is a result of seeing how quickly they can go from "Mommy, he's sitting in my seat" to "Mommy, he hurted me in the head!" I find it extremely uncomfortable to have to play referee outside of my home. I feel like people think we're the Beverly Hillbillies. Then, there are the kind folks who try to help by telling me how they have heard of this place that you can send unruly boys called "The Pea Farm". Apparently, you pick pea's from sunrise to sunset and get to experience a hard days work. Huh, it seems like child labor laws might close a place like that down. In retrospect, maybe they were making that up. I would look it up right now but, I have to go...Nikolas has super glued our chihuahua to his side of the room!