He Hit Me First

You've heard it all -- and more -- if you happen to be the parent of two or more children. Yet contrary to the opinion of other popular experts on the subject, brothers and sisters do fight, chronically, even violently, in perfectly normal households. Here's the help you've asked for in managing the sibling rivalry in your family -- compassionately and intelligently -- by the associate director of the Gesell Institute of Human Development, the world's foremost authority on child behavior.You'll learn:

-- Why children fight -- because they crave attention, they want to get even, they're too young to share, and, most of all, because they simply like it

-- What to expect from your children's relationships with each other at every stage of development from eighteen months to sixteen years

-- How a set of two children will fight a lot more than a set of three or four

-- When to expect prime fighting time (often just before dinner)

-- Jealousy-coping methods when you bring home the new baby

-- Families and their special personalities, from the time-honored stern father/permissive mother combination to more contemporary models like the working couple, the single-parent family, and the step-family

-- The key to understanding your children as individuals and to recognizing clues to their interactions with each other