How To Handle Kids Fighting
What do you do when kids fight? My kids are not perfect and today they had a fist fight. You see, we can’t control what our children do but we can control our reaction to it.
This particular day I was busy in the study when I heard some bad language. Now bad language is forbidden at our house. So I went to investigate and find out what was going on. Out in the lounge I found my three boys all on top of each other in a fight. Now I have to say, if you have girls you probably can’t understand this. But boys like to fight. Or at least, my boys wanted to fight today.
My youngest child had been put in a head lock and was calling out for help. so I freed him and thought about how I would handle the situation.
I put the boys in their rooms and talked to each of them about what had happened. And, of course, I was given three different versions. Now why am I not surprised?
Now the boys picked a bad time to have their fight as I had earlier on that morning given them permission to organize sleepovers at it was the school holidays. I felt for the kids and I told them that they would have to postpone their sleepovers. Then I decided to hatch a plan… so I went out for an hour and them home alone.
Actually, I was hoping that my kids would think about their behavior and do something while I was out to make up for their bad choices. I was just giving them an opportunity to right things. As it was school holidays I wanted to try to extend a little grace to them.
When I arrived home with my groceries I had a pleasant surprise. One of my kids was washing up the dishes, another was cleaning in the bathroom. The third boy was busy in the lounge tidying up. YES! My plan had worked.
Now you need to understand that I did have every right to cancel the sleepovers. But I was hoping that the boys would put in some effort to show me that they were sorry for their behavior. And that they did. I was thrilled with their efforts so decided that their sleepovers could go ahead as planned. I am always looking for opportunities to extend grace to my children and I definitely extended grace to them this day when they didn’t deserve it.
I sat the kids down and we had a chat. Everyone apologized to each other and we discussed how we could have dealt with the issue another way and still had a good outcome. The end result? The kids still got their sleepover. Mum extended grace to them this time. And the kids know that next time, the penalty will be more severe.