Siblings protecting each other

[Anonymous]

Oh! You are doing something right, op! Your kids love each other. My kids were like that, but around 7 ds exhibited insane anxiety and started hating his sister as she was "embarrassing" him. I was like this with my sister, still am. It is a wonderful thing to have.

[Anonymous]

I’m 48 and my brother is 45 and my mom tells a story about how she yelled at me when I was around 4 because I destroyed my bedroom after she had cleaned and my little brother gave her an earful (mostly unintelligible) for getting onto me.

To this day, I have kept every secret I know about my brother and while we may fight like cats and dogs, if anyone did the same to him, they’d have to deal with me.

[Anonymous]

OMG it totally warms my heart when my kids band together and protect each other. I want them to have that kind of relationship with each other. That's the way it should be.

The 4yo's reaction does seem a little over the top - but you know, he's 4!

[Anonymous]

My 3 are like this too and I sort of love it (even though it’s frustrating in the moment). The fight v play well ratio is about 50/50 (they are 5/3/1), but if one of them is in trouble with us for reasons unrelated to fighting with the other two? They are in lockstep against us. My 5 year old also told off another 5 year old who pushed in front of the 3 year old on some playground equipmentand explained that you never do that to a younger kid and especially not to her brother, so he was going to have to let my 3 year old go twice in a row now. And then he did. It made the gang ups worth it

[Anonymous]

When the older DD is stubborn about not doing something, sometimes her younger brother will step in and do it for her, to avoid her getting a punishment. I think his motivation is trying to keep the peace, plus he is a very empathetic person... Unfortunately, this doesn't happen when DS gets in trouble.