I am facing legal battle where my ex-wife is claiming that my 5-yr old son should not be in same Kindergarten class as my 5-yr old step-son. She claims that there is research which highlights problems of same-age brothers being in same classroom that don’t develop their own identities and suffer from sibling competition. My ex-wife is trying to form a narrative that ignores many facts, such as:
1. My son and step-son share no DNA and are of very different identities/personalities. While my son grew up only with older females (i.e., his sister and neighbor girls) for several years of his life, which influenced his risk-adverseness and sense of adventure, my step-son was around two older boys that modeled male adventurism and risk-taking. Therefore, I believe my son greatly benefits from the complementary personality of my step-son.
2.. My step-son lives with us 100% of the time and my son only lives with us 40% of the time. They wish they could see more of each other and call each other “best friends”. Given the choice, they would each desire to be together.
3. The “sibling rivalry” concern from my ex-wife seems to only apply to my son and step-son. When my ex-wife has my son and daughter, she isn’t concerned about any type of sibling rivalry. Instead, she calls it collaboration!
Please give me ideas of how you think you can help. Thank you!