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Welcome back to The Word of Dad.

This is the sixth post and each week I will be writing about what I have learned and experienced as a Father of two sons.

I will also be keeping a journal of what has been happening over the week. This may give some insight into what it is like to be a parent and we also serve to remind me of all the little details that get lost and forgotten otherwise.

 
 

 
 

This weeks topic is,

Sibling Rivalry

My two sons are still arguing all the time and it is generally over nothing.

We have not started Wing chun yet as they could not fit us in last week but hopefully we are going tomorrow.

They are back at school which has helped to disperse some of their energy.

The main thing I am seeing is one upmanship or telling tales on each other.

'He did that and he did this ' are common phrases being thrown around at the moment.

This constant bickering is clearly not constructive

 
 

 
 

My Solution

I decided to try a new tactic. So far reasoning with them has not really worked.

I tried to say that if one side did not start something then retaliations would not happen etc this made little impact.

On Friday night it was family movie night and because of one thing or another we were all up quite late.

Normally my youngest goes to sleep half an hour before my eldest, this gives me some time to put them to bed individually and have a little chat about what is going on in their lives.

That evening though they went to bed at the same time and I took the opportunity to try my new approach.

We were all calm and quiet and they were sleepy. I explained that they were the closest thing they had to themselves.

They are similar anyway but this is true and will only change when they themselves have children.

They understood and agreed so I went further and made the point that they do love each other even though they fight.

They agreed with this too and my next step was to get them to apologise to each other whilst they were nice and calm .

That has seemed to have worked and in the morning they were much nicer.

 
 

 
 

Conclusion

When their emotions are high the last thing on their minds is reconciliation. When they are calm logic appears to have a better chance.

They forget , like we all do, to be nice all the time to our loved ones when life is busy or stressful.

I will see how this new way pans out, but so far so good.

 
 

 
 

Journal.

My youngest has been trying to ride his bike without stabilisers. They have been outside priding there bikes and enjoying it.

We all had a good time doing bike maintenance as well.

really good nature walk this week. and lots of fun.

It was a boiling hot day and we got tired quicker than normal .

We are all looking forward to Wing Chun tomorrow (hopefully).

 
 

 
 
If you have any questions about woodwork, furniture or being self employed as a crafts person let me know.

I know my wood and I have spent years teaching myself furniture making , furniture history as well as living it as a self employed cabinet maker .

I am also in the process of writing a

'How to series: Setting up a Woodworking Business'

Which you can read here;
Part 1: Workshop
Part 2: Tools and machinery
Part 3: Finding a good timber yard
Part 4: Deciding what type of woodwork you are going to do.
Part 5: Advertising and getting customers
Part 6: Dealing with Customers.
Still I am learning every day and the journey is the point.
We have started a woodworking community here on steemit and would welcome you. We have a discord channel, link here: Woodworking on Steem Discord Channel

And a weekly woodworking post competition.

 
 

 
 
@woodworkcurators is a daily curation service for the woodworking community.

You can read about us here
Win SBD in our Weekly Woodworking Competition
 
 

 
 

Many thanks for viewing,

Onwards and upwards,

@jist

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