Are you having problems with your stubborn sibling? Are you wondering how to deal with it? To solve the issue, you need to go deep into the problem first. Let us first look into the factors that can bring up the characteristic in your sibling:
1. Your sibling tends to defend his opinion
Your sibling might feel that their opinions and ideas are not being liked by you and your parents. This is the reason why they try to make themselves important to other people just by imposing their opinion on you.
2. Belief in them
Your siblings might tend to believe that whatever they think or believe is the ultimate truth. They are in the habit of hence opposing to anyone who does not agree with them.
3. Pride
Your stubborn sibling would be opposing anyone who is of the opinion that they are wrong. Stubborn people usually tend to stick to whatever they think just for the sake of their pride.
4. Inner feelings of inferiority – Your sibling might be stubborn because deep within they feel that they are inferior when compared with others. They try to cover this weakness just by screaming and trying to impose his opinion upon others. This would make them feel that they are better than everybody around them.
In case you are not sure what the reason is, follow the following ways to handle it.
- Ask your sibling why they are behaving like that. They might have their reasons. Might be, if they are younger than you, they wish to spend more time with their elders. You must talk with them in the most caring manner.
- Vey cautiously try to talk things out with your guardians. Make sue that you do not upset them. Because your sibling is younger than you, your parents might be overprotective towards them.
- Try to talk things out with your siblings – first you, then your parents.
- Be nice to them and make them feel special. Read books to them, help them with their homework etc.
- Do not just ignore them; tell them that you are busy. Be understanding with the. If you shove them off, it will only worsen the situation.
- If you cannot attend to them immediately, tell them that you will go out together when you are free – have a match together or watch television. It will make them feel special.
- With the help of your parents, set some rule for all the siblings, like you should not be disturbing each other when you are studying. DO not bother each other when anyone of you is on the phone etc.
- Act as if nothing has happened and tell them politely that you are busy.
- If this does not work, you can ignore them completely. They will lose all the interest to bother you. They will either leave or find someone else to bug.
- Act as if your sibling does not exist.
- Try to logically argue with them without making them realize that they are wrong. Don’t tell your stubborn sibling that he or she is wrong. As they are stubborn they would not like it if you tell them that they are wrong. It might so happen that they will close all the doors of understanding and will refuse to accept your opinion fully. To make your stubborn sibling accept your opinion, you cannot under any circumstances attack him. Try to make them understand through discussions what you feel about a particular issue and try to have your idea based on what they are saying.
- Try and be flexible – Be flexible and do not try to impose your view on your stubborn sibling. As soon as you impose your opinion on them, it would lead to arguments. Try to identify the common logic in the argument between both and do not make it apparent that you know more than them.
- Agree to disagree – Under such circumstances when the conversation gets heated, then learn that it is better to agree to disagree. If you already know that your sibling would not agree with you, then what is the point in carrying on the conversation further?
- Be patient – When you have a stubborn sibling around, you must definitely keep your calm. You will not ever give them the chance to make you feel irritated and upset. In case you give your stubborn sibling the chance to make you feel irritated, it will definitely affect your mood.
- Avoid rushing into speeches – When you talk, you must be very careful about your choice for words. If you react with an adamant attitude yourself without listening to them, and refuse to listen to their idea, they might just put you in a difficult position which you shall not be able to handle. If you are the elder sibling, it is definitely a good gesture from your pat to mention something good about your sibling’s ideas once a while. This would not only encourage him to understand you better, but might in one way or the other help to their attitude towards you for the better.This might not be an exhaustive set of suggestions, but you might also learn from your experiences and one action can lead to the other and situations might just get better between the two of you.
