Jealousy among children is an emotion that can be confidentially entered into your child’s life. The feeling can arise from his siblings, friends, or colleagues, and something as simple as a new bike for his friend can arouse the envy and jealousy of your child, and you must do. All you can do to remove these negative emotions from your child before he takes a sharp turn that is difficult to deal with later.
In our article, we tried to address this feeling that children have in a way that may be normal, as well as talk about the reasons for this feeling, so that you can deal with it before the child reaches the stage of danger, so continue reading ..
Parental mistakes cause jealousy among children
Jealousy begins in childhood itself because a specific behavior for parents may spark competition between their children. Here are some of the worst parenting mistakes that may cause jealousy so beware of them.
Spoil the child with excessive pampering
If you spoil the child with a lot of pampering, he may feel that he has no competitor at home, and when a new child comes to the family or when he encounters a friend who is stronger than him, he feels insecure, and of course, the boy or friend sees the reason for this, he may suffer from depression when he does not get What he wants and feels lacking as it develops, which may cause jealousy among children.
Overprotection
Excessive protection of the child and then suddenly abandoning this protection means that you suddenly leave him in the wild. Of course, from his point of view, he may become conservative and shy in dealing with others as a result, which leads to jealousy among children when he sees a child confident in himself in front of him.
Authoritarian parenting and child control
Excessive control is also another major mistake committed by parents, and it may be the opposite of what was mentioned above, which raises jealousy among children. The establishment of strict rules and regulations without explaining the reason will affect the child, grow with a lack of self-confidence, and feel that it is less than the rest of his brothers or companions.
Comparison with others
Another serious mistake on the part of parents is to compare their children with each other, or even with other children of almost the same age. Comparisons can only lead to jealousy between children, competition, and lack of self-confidence.
Create an unhealthy competition
Having children do the same activity and comparing their results would create an unhealthy competition between them, one of the children may be more talented than the other, but insisting on doing the same activity with similar accuracy can prove wrong, which leads to a sense of jealousy among children.
Dealing differently with siblings depending on age
Sometimes, parents may pay more attention to the child depending on the order of his birth, for example, the first brother may feel jealous of his newly born sister when he sees parents care more about them, and with the arrival of the new baby, older children may feel the displacement that may lead To jealousy among children.
How to deal with jealousy in children
Before dealing with jealousy among children, make sure that you do not feel jealous of your brothers, friends, neighbors or any other person, this will, of course, be reflected in your behavior, which your children learn without knowing, unless you remove this feeling from your heart and your life, you cannot Dealing with it effectively in your child. Here are ways to deal with jealousy among children:
Turn envy into ambition
Giving your child the energies of a positive channel is a great way to help him reduce his negative feelings, as well as work to achieve rich and positive goals, for example, if your child is sad because his friend has good grades and is jealous about it, encourage him and urge him to study more and get better grades.
You’ll find that, once your child starts trying to study, he won’t focus on how someone is supposed to get past his jealousy, shifting his focus in the right direction.
Listen to the baby and what he feels
In most cases, jealous behavior and envy are profound within the child, as they have a specific problem or concern behind such behavior.
Talk to your child, find out the reason for his jealousy of a particular person, and then listen to his feelings without intruding on his feelings and fears with your comments.
There may be situations in which your child is less self-esteem and confident, he may not be sure enough of his positive aspects, which may prompt him to show jealousy towards another person, and here you may reinforce these positive aspects.
Read for your child’s old stories
Classical stories and myths contain many moral messages that are conveyed between the lines, and even if you do not stress them, your child will learn through the crucial stages of his development what you want to talk about.
Make bedtime reading a daily routine, get more books for your child’s morals that talk about such qualities as providing help, caring for others, and good intentions. This will help your child understand that what he is doing is not correct and is a good way for you to overcome jealousy among children.
Be a good example for your child
Another great trick to emphasize the importance of having positive feelings for everyone is to set yourself as an example, praise others for humor, good behavior, or any other quality that they may have, be tactful, and not arrogant in such compliments in front of your child.
Teach your child the importance of sharing
Some children tend to hold a grudge against other children for no reason. If this is the case, teach your child the importance of sharing, caring for others, dealing with them, and having fun together. This will help him remove any kind of insecurity, sooner or later, you will find your child enjoying the company of a child who was feeling Jealous of him once.
Make your child feel in love with you
We don’t say you don’t like your son but this is to confirm that he needs all the love and affection he can get during this stage of his life, no matter the reason, directing parents to the side of love and care can always fix things and make them the right way faster Cover your child with your love, as this increases his self-confidence.
Don’t compare your child performance
Do not try to compare the performance of a child to another, because it lowers its value in front of itself, it could be the cause of the development of many long-term problems, these comparisons will make the children conclude “you love them more than me” or “you think it is better” and thus is a good way To avoid jealousy among children.
Do not compare school work
Avoid comparing the child about the homework of one child, report cards, and test results with his siblings or friends, will not help your child to work hard, but instead, this will increase the jealousy among the children.
Every child loves to hear from parents about their strengths. Talking about these specific strengths will increase his self-esteem, and you must foster a unique strength in each child individually depending on his interests and mood.
Reinforce the strengths of every child
One of the most important ways that you can avoid jealousy when the child is to identify the strengths of your child and work to strengthen them in order to increase the child’s self-confidence, which is what you want to be able to project a feeling of jealousy from within him.