<<If they get involved enough they will ignore one another.>>

That's at least something - I'm trying to look on the bright side for you!

The constant bickering sounds stressful to me.

We used to sit around a table of 6 each night - 4 kids (the last one was born a bit later, so by the time he was old enough to bicker, I was at college, LOL)....and there was a lot of bickering too. I can't remember a meal where at least one glass of milk didn't end up on the floor, seriously - goofing around, shoving each other, etc.

I often wonder how my parents managed with all of it and then I remembered that they were in their twenties and early thirties during this period. From what I recall, they seemed to brush off kid stress better than my husband and I do now (mid-40s)

MP