My children (sons who are 11 and 12) fight (argue) in the back of the car almost all the time. My husband seldom interferes and says we should just leave them to sort it out. I think it is damaging to the family and certainly ruins the journey. What do you think?
I tend to adopt an approach similar to that of your husband.
I try to stay out of conflicts between my children until it becomes dangerously physical or verbally aggressive – I do confess my parameters are quite wide. I firmly believe we do our children a disservice when we (parents and teachers) constantly monitor their every interaction and want their relationships to be somewhat perfect.
Also, I think that if I held the solution to this issue I’d be a very wealthy man.
My children can go from lovey-dovey-arm-over-shoulder-joke-a-minute-best-friends to arguing and yelling and pushing each other in the space of a few city blocks. Sometimes I handle their back-seat antics well. Sometimes I don’t.
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