HeroMe is an AI-powered platform that creates personalized bedtime stories for children ages 4-12. Each story is designed to help children overcome specific challenges like anxiety, fears, and big emotions through engaging adventures where they are the hero.

How does HeroMe work?

HeroMe works in 3 simple steps: 1) Tell us about your child and their challenges, 2) Our AI creates a unique 12-chapter adventure with research-informed storytelling elements, 3) Read one chapter each night at bedtime and watch your child grow.

Is HeroMe safe for children?

Yes, HeroMe is fully COPPA compliant and designed with child safety as a top priority. All content is reviewed for age-appropriateness and quality. We use child-safe AI that never collects personal information from children.

What age range is HeroMe designed for?

HeroMe is designed for children ages 4-12. Our AI adapts the story complexity, vocabulary, and themes based on your child's specific age to ensure the content is engaging and appropriate.

What causes sibling rivalry?

Sibling rivalry is driven by competition for limited resources—primarily parental attention, but also possessions, space, and perceived fairness. Children are developmentally wired to monitor equity intensely, and any perceived imbalance triggers a threat response. The conflict is real, not manufactured: each child genuinely experiences their needs as unmet and their sibling as the obstacle.

How is normal sibling conflict different from rivalry that needs intervention?

Normal sibling conflict is intermittent, resolves without lasting hurt, and doesn’t dominate the household atmosphere. Rivalry that warrants closer attention is constant or escalating, involves physical harm, causes one child to consistently feel inferior or unloved, or significantly affects each child’s wellbeing and development. The key indicator is whether both children can return to positive interaction between conflicts.

What should I do when my children are actively fighting?

Separate children briefly if emotions are high, then return to facilitate when both are calm enough to listen. Resist the urge to assign blame or determine who was right. Instead, help each child articulate what they needed and what they felt, then guide them toward a solution that addresses both sets of needs. The goal is teaching the process of resolution, not delivering a verdict.

Does sibling rivalry get better as children get older?

For most families, sibling relationships improve significantly as children develop greater emotional regulation, empathy, and communication skills—typically through middle childhood and into adolescence. However, unaddressed rivalry patterns can persist into adulthood. Children who learn collaborative problem-solving skills early tend to develop strong sibling bonds that outlast the childhood conflicts.

When should I seek professional help for sibling conflict?

Seek professional guidance if conflict involves regular physical aggression, if one child is consistently victimized or bullied by a sibling, if the rivalry is causing significant anxiety or depression in either child, or if family conflict has escalated beyond sibling disagreements to include parental stress or marital strain. A family therapist or child psychologist can provide structured intervention that supports the whole family system.

How do personalized stories help with sibling rivalry?

Personalized therapeutic stories work by offering children a new narrative identity—one where they are the hero who discovers the power of cooperation rather than competition. When a child’s specific sibling dynamic is mirrored in a story and resolved through collaborative problem-solving, it creates an experiential template they can draw on in real conflict. Stories reach children emotionally in ways that direct instruction rarely does.

From Rivals to Allies

When Siblings Can’t Stop Fighting

Constant sibling conflict is exhausting—and normal. But it doesn’t have to define your household. Learn what drives rivalry and how to shift your children from competition to cooperation.

80% of children grow up with at least one sibling

Conflict resolution is a learnable skill

Learn the signs first

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What Are Signs of Sibling Rivalry Beyond Normal Conflict?

Sibling rivalry escalates beyond normal conflict when it involves constant competition, physical aggression, deliberate provocation, tattling as a weapon, one child consistently dominating the other, and emotional distress that persists after conflicts resolve. Intensity and frequency distinguish normal disagreements from concerning patterns.

Some sibling conflict is healthy and developmentally normal. But when it becomes constant, escalating, or deeply distressing, it signals that children are struggling with core skills around fairness, empathy, and sharing resources.

Conflict Patterns

Fighting that starts immediately when siblings are together
Physical aggression including hitting, pushing, or grabbing
Arguments that escalate quickly and are hard to de-escalate
Conflict over the same recurring triggers (toys, seats, screen time)
Inability to play together for more than a few minutes without adult intervention

Emotional Signs

Intense jealousy when a sibling receives attention or praise
Persistent belief that a sibling is favored by parents
Emotional distress (tears, rage) at perceived unfairness
Refusing to celebrate or share in a sibling’s achievements
Verbal put-downs, name-calling, or deliberate exclusion

Behavioral Signs

Tattling on a sibling as a regular strategy rather than genuine safety concern
Deliberate destruction or taking of a sibling’s possessions
Competing for parental attention through misbehavior
Difficulty sharing space, toys, or time with a sibling
Blaming the sibling for every conflict, even when clearly shared

Remember: Sibling conflict is not a sign of bad parenting or bad children. It reflects normal developmental needs for autonomy, fairness, and connection. With the right support, siblings can learn to be each other’s greatest allies.

Research-Backed

How Can Parents Reduce Sibling Rivalry?

Reduce sibling rivalry by avoiding comparisons between children, giving each child individual attention, teaching conflict resolution skills, staying neutral during disputes when safe, celebrating cooperation, and creating shared positive experiences like reading stories together.

Your instinct to fix it is understandable—but the most effective role is mediator, not judge. These strategies help children build the conflict-resolution skills they’ll use for a lifetime.

Act as Mediator, Not Judge

When you assign blame and declare a winner, you reinforce the zero-sum mindset at the heart of rivalry. Instead, position yourself as a neutral facilitator: "I’m here to help you both figure this out." This signals that your goal is a solution, not a verdict—and keeps both children engaged in finding one.

Avoid: 'Stop fighting.' Try: 'I can see you’re both upset. Let’s figure out what each of you needs.'

Help Children Articulate Their Needs

Most sibling conflict is actually a communication failure. Children know they want something but lack the vocabulary to express the underlying need. Teaching them to say "I feel hurt when you take my toy without asking" rather than "You’re mean!" transforms the conflict from an attack to a solvable problem.

Practice the formula during calm moments: 'I feel ___ when ___ because ___. I need ___.'

Avoid Determining Right and Wrong

The question "Who started it?" is almost never answerable and always counterproductive. Each child has a subjective experience of the conflict as justified. Focusing on what happened rather than who was wrong keeps energy directed toward repair and solution rather than blame and punishment.

Replace 'Who started it?' with 'What does each of you need to feel okay right now?'

Praise Cooperation Explicitly

Children repeat behaviors that get attention. If conflict consistently earns your engagement and cooperation goes unnoticed, conflict will win. Make a habit of specifically naming cooperative moments: "I noticed you let your brother choose the show tonight. That was genuinely generous." Specific praise is far more effective than general praise.

Catch them cooperating at least once a day and name it specifically—even small moments count.

Create Structured Shared Time

Unstructured time with no shared goal often defaults to conflict. Brief, structured cooperative activities—building something together, cooking a simple recipe, working toward a shared reward—create the experience of winning together. The Bridge of Ours approach: shift from "Islands of Me" thinking to collaborative problem-solving through shared success.

Keep shared activities short (10–15 minutes) and end on a high note before conflict escalates.

Ensure Each Child Has Individual Time

Much sibling conflict is actually a competition for parental attention. When each child has predictable, guaranteed one-on-one time with a parent—even 10–15 minutes daily—the scarcity mindset that drives rivalry diminishes. Children fight less for what they know they will reliably receive.

Put individual time on the visual schedule so children can see it’s coming. Predictability reduces anxiety about fairness.

The Power of Stories

How Stories Shift Children from Rivals to Allies

Sibling rivalry is fundamentally a story problem: each child is the hero of their own narrative, and the sibling is cast as the obstacle. Until that story changes, the conflict continues.

Therapeutic storytelling works by offering a new narrative—one where siblings are co-heroes facing a shared challenge. In the Islands of Me metaphor, each child lives on a separate island, protecting their resources and fighting anyone who comes close. The hero’s journey is building the Bridge of Ours: discovering that cooperation unlocks possibilities that competition never could.

When a child hears this story about a character who looks and feels like them, and watches that character discover the power of collaboration, the psychological template shifts. They’re not just hearing a lesson—they’re experiencing a different identity. The child who was the rival becomes capable of imagining themselves as the ally.

chapters across a full therapeutic story arc

5min

to create a story personalized to your child

What Makes HeroMe Different

Reframes the Sibling Relationship

Stories shift the narrative from zero-sum competition to collaborative adventure—giving your child a new way to see their sibling that isn’t built on scarcity.

Builds Perspective-Taking Skills

Through the hero’s journey, children practice understanding another character’s point of view—the foundational skill that transforms conflict into cooperation.

Evidence-Based Framework

Every story arc applies Collaborative Problem-Solving principles—the evidence-based approach grounded in child psychology research—woven invisibly into engaging narrative.

Creates Family Shared Language

"Are we building a bridge or staying on our islands?" becomes a playful, non-shaming way to redirect conflict—a vocabulary your whole family develops together.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions parents ask about sibling rivalry and how to help.

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Help your children become each other’s allies

In just 5 minutes, create a personalized story that teaches your child the power of cooperation—one chapter at a time.

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