From the moment a new baby enters the home, many changes occur. New rooms are made, safety precautions are taken, and parents attention and time are needed. When a new baby is taken into a home where an older child lives, the older sibling may become jealous of the new baby and the changes that are taking place. The time and attention of parents that was previously devoted to the older sibling is now halved and the older sibling may feel he or she needs to get that attention back. From these feeling, sibling rivalry is rooted. Depending on the severity and longevity of the rivalry between siblings, sibling rivalry could have long term psychological effects.
             "Sibling rivalry is the antagonism or hostility between brothers and/or sisters which manifests itself in circumstances such as a common children's family fights..." (Boyle, 1999). The root of sibling rivalry can be looked at through nature. In nature the problem is due to competition for limited resources. Extreme cases of sibling rivalry that occur in nature are those between shark siblings and between eagle siblings. In the case of the baby shark, the largest shark in the mothers womb eats the other sharks to make sure the largest shark receives all of the food resources. In the case of the eagles, the eaglet that hatches first pushes the other eaglets out of the nest as soon as they hatch to ensure that the food that is brought back the first born receives.
             "A similar competition exists between siblings in human families" (Boyle, 1999). The scarce resources that human siblings fight for are time, love, attention, and approval. "Sibling rivalry is one of humanities oldest problems" (Boyle, 1999). One of the first stories in the Bible (which is the oldest book in Western civilization) deals with sibling rivalry. The story is about two brothers, Cain and Able. Cain, the older brother was tired of having to constantly take...