Kids Saying Sorry

The kids are fighting for the 3rdtime that day, you’re in the middle of making dinner, and frankly are at your wits ends. The easiest thing to do (and something I’ve done many a time as a parent) is to just have both kids apologize to each other and send them to opposite sides of the house. But is that forced apology actually sincere? More likely than not, it isn’t and it’s probably detrimental to their conflict resolution. So why do we do it? Why do we force an insincere apology that will just complicate things down the road? And what can we do instead? Here to answer these questions is Seattle-based parent coach, speaker, and founder of Childproof Parenting, Melissa Benaroya.