Siblings bicker; it’s what they do. They tease and taunt and fight. It can drive parents crazy and wear us down—and for good reason. Seemingly harmless at the beginning, sibling bickering can lead to physical violence and hurtful digs like you’re ugly, fat, or an idiot, to name just a few.

Today’s parents are under increasing pressure to cope with their children’s needs for constant loving connection and the demands that life places on the parents at the same time. Flare-ups between parents and children often happen at high-stress times. Parents may be feeling worn out and exhausted from a hard day at work. Children may be stressed from a day at playschool away from the parents they need so much and be badly in need of love and attention. If they don’t get it, they may start acting up, just at the time when the parents are least able to cope with it.

Fathers become disciplinarians in much the same way that mothers do. The more we are exposed to both well behaved and poorly behaved children, we realize that fathers don’t start becoming disciplinarians early enough. More father involvement helps dads to become strong disciplinarians.

You are pregnant for the second time. Your first child is told about it and he is excited at the thought of having a little brother or sister, though he probably doesn’t quite understand what it is going to feel like not to be an only child anymore. You may wonder how to prepare him in a way that he can understand.

You may also wonder how to handle things if he feels left out, hurt or rejected, and becomes aggressive as a result.

What do the families who come into Sleep Clinic have in common? Almost all of them have tried sleep training and failed. There are some common sleep training mistakes that parents make. Knowing about them may make the difference between success and failure. Parents often feel guilty about sleep training. One of the reasons is that they have tried for a bit and then encountered severe resistance. This always makes me feel terrible– both the parent and the child have suffered without even fixing the problem.