The summer holidays can be a stressful time for families with young brothers and sisters having to spend weeks in each other’s company. So, as part of our series asking for your top parenting tips, we asked for your advice for managing the behaviour of children, and how you teach them to share.

This is what you told us:

Fighting childrenLiz had plenty of ideas, suggesting “I think it really helps if you can separate the behaviour you don't like from the person (big or small!) and help them to understand that it’s the behaviour that you don't like and not them.....this can be a hard one for children to understand so it becomes personal - it also makes it easier for you to see it through, however you decide to deal with the behaviour.”

Christine added, “Look out for the triggers. Little people are just like us adults. What’s pushing the buttons? Try to look beyond the behaviour to the root cause, children instinctively want to please us so try to find out what’s getting in the way.”

But it’s important not just to talk about bad behaviour, but that you recognise what children do well. Liz added: “Praise the good behaviour and make sure they know exactly what you are praising - it's easy to say ‘well done’ but they need to know exactly what they have done well so that they can repeat it. So a better response would be ‘that was really good sharing’”.

When it came to sharing Liz advised: “My children seemed to get it through modelling – [I make] a point of saying "this is mine and I'm going to share it with......." ...emphasising the word "share" and what it means. Their world is often very egocentric so you need to help them to feel the effect on themselves. Worked for me but all children are different!”

Danielle’s advice was based on keeping things predictable. “The best thing that works is being consistent,” she wrote. “With time out one minute for each age. Two year olds = two mins . Explain to them why they've given time out, then big kisses.”

Finally, as with all of our questions so far, the advice was not to worry about everything. Lucy’s top tip was “Don't sweat the small stuff, pick your battles”, with Liz finishing up with “One more tip - hold on to and remind yourself of all the ‘goods’ - the times you and they get it right. It's so easy to focus on the ‘bads’”.

You can find out what you said about how to make mealtimes more fun by clicking here, or click here for advice on getting your children ready for bed.