I hate conflict.
You could say that conflict and I have never gotten along and we likely will never become friends. I prefer hanging out with my pal, Passive Aggressive, over the other guy, Direct Confrontation, any day. But we know people have all kinds of different ideas and opinions, so conflict is (gulp) inevitable in relationships. This was a hard fact for me to swallow when I got married, especially since I married Mr. I-Love-Debating. :p It’s taken me a good decade’s worth of work to be willing to look conflict in the eye, instead of avoiding it, but have no fear, I have plenty of more opportunities to face it. This is where my kids come into the picture!
I never realized how peaceful life was when we only had one child. Of course there was a lot of crying and screaming with our high need baby, but at least I knew how to deal with it (ie. meet E’s needs by feeding, holding him, etc). However, three weeks after C joined our family and E realized there was a “no returns/no exchanges” policy on siblings, things began to get a little sticky. This is when I got a crash course in Sibling Rivalry 101. And ever since then, conflict has been a part of my every day life (faint!).
These are some of the things I’ve learned so far:
1. Siblings can fight over anything and everything. Sometimes I think they just want whatever the other person has, regardless of what it is.
2. There is a resolution for every conflict, but cutting mom in half isn’t one of them (this was C’s suggestion for how she and E could share me).
3. Conflict can bring siblings closer (if they are taught how to work through it). It’s amazing how E and C can say to each other, “I’m not your friend anymore!” and then, “You’re my best friend in the whole world” a few minutes later!
I’ve had to learn a lot of conflict resolution skills over the past few years. It hasn’t been easy with my lack of experience in this area, but believe me, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t have plenty of opportunities to practice. I think the most important thing I’ve learned is to hear both sides of the story and to address each person’s feelings, especially if I was in the other room when the screaming started. Once I know what’s going on, I can then give some advice on how to end WWIII and also prescribe a “make-up hug”. 🙂 I’m finding that the more we deal with conflicts, the less frustrating and emotional they are (at least for me) and the easier it is to move on from them. But of course the fewer conflicts I have to deal with, the better!
I do have to say that I appreciate sibling rivalry for the good lessons that it teaches my kids. Having a sibling means that E and C are learning how to share, how to wait and take turns, how to consider another person’s feelings and needs when making decisions, how to forgive when they are wronged, how to apologize, and most of all, how to develop lasting friendships. They are light years ahead of me when I was their age in terms of their relationship skills.
Image courtesy of sattva/freedigitalphotos.net |
Even though conflict isn’t my friend, I guess I shouldn’t consider it my enemy either. It’s just one of those things that you can’t live with, yet you also can’t live without.
Check out Pentatonix’s cover of Sugarland’s song, “Stuck Like Glue“. It reminds me of E and C’s bipolar friendship. 🙂