To deal with multiple children is like managing an unruly mob. When you are dressing one, there is another one upsetting dishes in the kitchen. While running to that child you hear screams from the bedroom as the other two of your kids start a fight. If there are any more kids then it will look like the worst punishment. For once, you wish that you had ten hands or pray for laws that would allow you to outsource the parenting duties. This is the situation when your kids don’t have to go to school. Imagine the daily war that parents with multiple children have to go through when they have to send those kids to school. A look at such families would be one of the strongest reasons for celibacy. One thing though, parenting multiple kids is not much different from parenting a single child. And herein lies the success of multiple children parenting. That is to treat each child individually and not in a group. To help you in this, read the article given below to learn more on handling multiple children.
How To Handle Multiple Children
- Schedule is a must when you have to deal with multiple children. It is a very good way of keeping you and the children on track. When you have multiple children, then you may find it difficult to manage time. A schedule will help you to divide time and arrange your workload. It will also help in eliminating confusion.
- Plan all the children activities that you are likely to do together. Select all those activities that children of various age groups can enjoy.
- Also, select those activities that children can do separately at the same time. Make sure to keep enough options ready.
- Draw up a set of rules and regulations. To handle multiple children without any rules and regulations can prove to be quite challenging. While enforcing the rules and limits be consistent with all the children.
- Be patient and calm. Dealing with a single child can be tough and in case of multiple children, tempers are more likely to fly. Be calm when your schedule does not go according to plan or the children throw tantrums. You should also be flexible to go along with the flow. Being patient, calm, and flexible will go a long way in successfully handling multiple children.
- Be fair when dealing with all the children. Sometimes parents, consciously or unconsciously, tend to favor one over the other. This can easily be sensed by the children and its long term effects can be disastrous. It can easily create friction between you and the other children. Also sometimes, some kid may feel that you favor the other child more. So, try to identify such signs and take measures to dispel it. Explain why one of the kids received a reward or a punishment and drive home the fact that all will be treated the same.
- Treat them individually instead of treating them as a group.
- If you sense any sibling rivalry then address the problem instantly. Don’t leave it thinking that it will disappear in time. In case of serious rivalry, time will only foster it. However, don’t go poking your nose into every quarrel and disagreements that they have. It is the normal process of growing up. Learn to identify those disagreements that threaten to blow up.
- Teach responsibility. Make the children aware on what they must and must not do. Make them responsible towards each other. One good way to teach responsibility is to make each one responsible for doing the different chores of the house. Make them feel that everyone is working towards a common goal. The kids will be more responsible when they realize that they are working towards the common good of the house.