Kids fight. Hurt feelings linger. What’s a parent to do?

Teach forgiveness. (It really works!)

by: The GreatSchools Editorial Team

Illustrations by Aimee Sicuro

If you love this, check out our animated videos about teaching your child to be generous, grateful, diligent, curious, and honest — and check out our collection of articles, videos, and infographics about how to teach your child six important character virtues: honesty, curiosity, grit, generosity, gratitude, and forgiveness.

Links and Resources

By teaching squabbling siblings how to forgive each other, experts say, you’re giving them a valuable skill and strengthening their bond later in life.

Here’s how to teach kids to say “I’m sorry” — and mean it.

Forgiveness: it’s good for the forgiver.

International Forgiveness Institute

About the author

The GreatSchools Editorial Team

GreatSchools.org is a national nonprofit with a mission to help every child obtain a high-quality education that values their unique abilities, identities, and aspirations. We believe in the power of research-backed, actionable information to empower parents, family members, and educators to help make this happen. For 25 years, the GreatSchools Editorial Team has been working to make the latest, most important, and most actionable research in education, learning, and child development accessible and actionable for parents through articles, videos, podcasts, hands-on learning resources, email and text messaging programs, and more. Our team consists of journalists, researchers, academics, former teachers and education leaders — most of whom are also dedicated parents and family members — who not only research, fact check, and write or produce this information, but who use it in our daily lives as well. We welcome your feedback at editorial@greatschools.org.