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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Many people will say to ignore, but I think that's not fair if there is a power differential that one sibling knows how to exploit at the expense of the other.

I have decreed that in our family we do not ignore one another (assuming the other sibling is being polite).  I have also decreed that one person is not allowed to purposefully and repeatedly annoy another person.  Anyone doing that will get a consequence, but not a huge deal, just enough to get past that rocky stage.

If you see it coming you can try to head it off by intervening indirectly to try to change the dynamic.  If I see them starting to get on each others nerves, then i might ask one to help me with the dishwasher or I might decide it's reading time, or hey, let's take a walk.  Also, humor helps sometimes if you can catch them early enough.  Sometimes I'll playfully threaten -- If you guys keep going like this, I'm going to make you give each other a great big hug and kiss!  Sometimes I'll get pissed off and tell them they must separate for 20 minutes (despite the bickering, this seems to be a fate worse than death).[/quote]

Me again, another thing that can help is making them do a quick burst of something active, even jumping jacks for 3 minutes (you do it, too).  Reading this, I see my theme is just trying to jump in and break the dynamic before it really gets going.[/quote]

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