Mealtimes

Children need to be feed every 2 - 3 hours. Feed you children what you are eating and eat up the table with them. Children watch us and learn thei habits, so if you don't like veges why would they? Feed each meal - breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and depending on bedtime supper. Give your child a variety of food, when mealtime is over tip the food out or feed it to the dog and don't feed your child again the next meal (they will eat the things they like so if you are trying to increase their range of foods, keep these foods to a minimum but do not cut them out completely).

Don't bribe or threaten, children on average need a food presented 20 times before they eat it.

If you are having problems with an older child (7 or over) cut out morning and afternoon tea.

Give them water to drink, milk and juice are foods and will fill them up.

Bedtime

Watching your angelic child sleep snoring softly, absolute bliss.  Waiting for your excited, somewhat hyperactive, bouncy child to reach his/her angelic state can be very tiresome.

My children had a bedtime routine, dinner, bath, song, I then kissed them and out I went. Jaimie followed, I tried ignoring her, spanking her (once), not talking and just putting her back to bed. When I turned around there she'd be the cutest grin on earth. In the end I lay down with her till she fell asleep, I read and didn't reply to her.

Thankfully most children aren't this stubborn and will stop coming out if consistently put back in bed for 3 to 4 evenings.

Sibling rivalry

I personally believe sibling rivalry is a result of jealously and/or not feeling unconditionally loved.

Jealousy - Jealousy happens when one child appears to get an unfair amount of attention - they may be younger, be a high need child or are sick or disabled.

Unconditional Love - we all love our children and would do anything for them including giving our lives for them. Sadly our children don't always feel this.

Things that will help both situations.

Eye Contact - Use eye contact positively, look at your kids when they please you, when you hug them and say I love you. Don't stare kids down when they misbehave.

Physical Contact - Hug them, stroke them as you walk past, tickle them.

One on one time - if you have more than one child this is the hardest one to do but there are ways around it - each parent can have a date with each child each month (dates can be anything from going for a walk, a hot chocolate or a meal - a date is not sitting in front of a movie) , read to children individually, do a chore with one child (e.g. chat over the dishes).

As a single mum I didn't have the opportunity to have date nights, what I did was each night I sang to my children on there own (once they were 7/8 they asked me to stop since I can't sing) and I tried very hard each day to speak to each child individually, all my kids knew if they needed me they did need to let me know.