Jealousy in Children and Homoeopathic Treatment
‘Doctor, we don’t know what to do about Prachi. Prachi was so well from birth, no disease, no trouble, behaved well. to play. But for the last two years, she has been annoying, very irritating. Crying for small reasons, sulking, has recently started lagging behind in studies.’
“She treats her younger brother like a Enemy (सात जन्माच्या वैऱ्यासारखे). He is not allowed to touch anything of his own. Sometimes locking him in a dark room without our knowledge, sometimes pinching him slowly, sometimes breaking his toys, tearing the book itself. Hey, our little guy is so smart and relatable; But she has made him want to live.”
Six year old Prachi’s parents had become helpless & tears in their eyes. After the birth of her younger brother, Prachi became restless and insecure.
Prachi was motivated to behave in such a strange way due to her intense Jealousy and Envy towards her brother. As her parents did not realize this, they tried to correct her by punishing her, angering her in various ways.
Be it between siblings and the resulting behavior problems are common in many children these days. It has been found that 20 to 40% of children under three years of age have this problem.
The nature of parents, parenting methods, home environment, children’s temperament, their growth stages are responsible for this problem in their own way.
After the birth of the first child, the baby is showered with immeasurable Caressing, Fondling, Cockering & Pampering by all the families in the house. But after the birth of the second baby, suddenly all these churches turn their attention to the new baby. And the sibling, who has been at the center of the house for so long, does not tolerate a new partner suddenly coming into his coterie and pampering.
Often, at the time of birth of a new baby, the eldest child is only three to four years old. It is precisely at this age that important stages of his Physical and Mental growth occur.
For example, at this age parents expect the child to learn to control his natural actions.
A child leaves the safe environment at home and starts going to school. Along with the development of his personality, easily accessible negativity would have started in him. During all such changes he needs special Emotional support from his parents and at the same time parents are involved in their new baby.
Of course, ‘Donkeys, even though you’re so big, you still wet the mattress’ or ‘Oh, you’re a baby mama; Then you don’t want to cry while going to school’, the words of the elder sibling come.
Suddenly he is expected to understand. The older sibling is still younger. At this age, his ability to think rationally is not yet developed. Therefore, even if the baby does soo-soo (urine), it works; But if we do soo-soo (urine) in the mattress, our parents get angry, why ? He does not understand this.
From that, childish thoughts start coming in their Minds that their parents don’t love them, they don’t want us because of the arrival of a new baby.
A child who takes his parents away from him then gets very angry. But at this young age he neither understands his feelings nor can express them properly. Then the younger sibling starts expressing anger or jealousy towards the younger sibling by hitting, pushing, pinching, making him cry, bothering him or breaking his toys.
The older child starts trying to get everyone’s attention by deliberately insisting and acting aggressively or negatively. But as this Mental condition of these children is not noticed by the parents, they start trying to correct this elder sibling by getting angry, punishing them. But their constant anger reinforces the older sibling’s belief that ‘parents definitely don’t love us’ and the cycle continues.
If the parents deal with their children with awareness, keeping in Mind their Mental needs, their problems, many of these problems can be avoided.
Children always want love, security, stability from their parents. Parents need to be aware that the arrival of a new baby should not make the elder feel lonely, insecure or neglected.
As soon as the baby is expected, if the elder child is properly Mentally prepared, the elder siblings also get excited for the arrival of the baby.
If the elder is also involved in raising the baby, taking care of it, playing with them, then their Emotional relationship with the baby is formed.
The success of the parents lies in sharing this intimacy with the elder brother, ‘the Baby belongs to all of us’. Moreover, if some time of the day is specially reserved for the elder sibling, then his Psychological needs are fulfilled.
Another important thing is that parents should carefully avoid comparing their two children with each other. But often the parents say, ‘Look how he studies even though he is young, how come you don’t UNDERSTAND SIMPLE THINGS !’ Thus compares.
Sometimes grandparents seem to differentiate between their daughter’s children and their son’s children.
In some homes, the son is still cherished as the “light of the clan”. It is overemphasized and discriminated against girls by removing them, neglecting their education, deliberately making them do housework.
Many times there is a difference in temperament, personality, caste even between two siblings. A sibling who is smart in studies, has a good personality, has good looks or fair complexion can obviously have more family affection.
Relatives, neighbors-priests also praise him. But the second sibling with normal ability, normal personality or dark complexion can suffer a lot. Thoughts like ‘what is wrong with our color being black’ or ‘No one approaches me as I am less fortunate’ can sometimes give these children a feeling of intense depression.
Sometimes a boy on a girl’s back is over-loved.
Sometimes a mother prefers the daughter who looks and acts like her among her own two daughters.
In some houses, the father is over-loved & Pampering with the daughter, so the son is reprimanded in the same way.
When a sibling is estranged for one or two myriad reasons, it can leave deep and perhaps never-healing scars. Some people suffer from Mental illness in Adulthood because of these Childhood problems.
Due to such problems in childhood, Psychological vulnerability increases a lot in children. This can lead to problems such as Nail Biting, Finger Sucking, Bed Wetting, Lack of Attention in school, sleep or hunger complaints or Aggression, Destructiveness, Aggression.
Every child’s Temperament, Personality, Intelligence, Abilities can be very different. It is very important for parents to accept this wholeheartedly. We can make children safe in Mind only if we can accept them as they are, with their flaws, and love them unconditionally.
But even with all the care, sometimes the children become fierce towards each other. At that time, without angering the children, calmly and lovingly communicated with the children.
If children are introduced to their feelings without feeling guilty about having them, children can also express their feelings appropriately.
Homoeopathy also has many effective Medicines for Emotional problems in children.
These Medicines are very helpful if they are used properly only under the advice of experts.