It’s been said that our siblings are our first and oldest friends. Raising a family built by any combination of foster care, kinship caregiving, or adoption means that sibling dynamics may look different for each child in your home. Several factors can impact how your kids experience their sibling relationships, including:

• Disrupted birth order
• Virtual twinning (multiple children who are close to the same age)
• Combining children by birth, adoption, foster, or kinship care
• Welcoming sibling groups

For example, your resident children (those who lived in your home before you welcomed others by foster care, adoption, or kinship caregiving) need to understand what to expect from their new siblings. Helping a resident child understand how trauma impacts a child’s behavior can be challenging. But it’s a crucial tool that prepares your family for success in these new relationships. Supporting these sibling relationships in your home with understanding and compassion offers them the opportunity to build life-ling friendships between them.

Your children’s new dynamics can lead to big feelings and challenging behaviors for everyone. Learning how to meet the needs of each child in your home and helping them build healthy, safe relationships within your family takes preparation and support. Experts used to advise against actions like disrupting birth order or virtual twinning. However, in recent years, we’ve gained greater insight into how to prepare families and kids before embarking on these paths. And we have excellent education and support to help families as they grow and learn once the new siblings are home together.