Article: Should You Teach Kids to Share?

musicalsilver

Should You Teach Kids to Share?  Why I Don't Make My Son Share

What do you think?

I hadn't given it a lot of thought, this really made me think about how I'm going to deal with LO's interactions with other LOs.

ilovemarfa

I saw this the other day in Facebook and I agree to an extent. I always tell my son (3yrs) to wait his turn if he wants to play with something that a child has. I don't always necessarily make him share his toys if he was playing with them first. If he has a friend over and he's monopolizing a certain toy, I'll say that he should let his friend play soon. I won't ever just take it away from him and hand it to his friend. I'm pretty lucky because ds1 is pretty polite and he will gladly share if I just mention it. If it's something like food, and he's eating in front of someone I'll make him offer some because my mom always taught me it's rude to eat in front of somebody.

nikel13

I teach sharing, but in the idea process of "you can't take a something from someone else". Lily is really big on taking toys from other kids if she wants them, so I take the toy and give it back to the child who was playing with it, tell her that we don't take things from people, and then give her another toy.

I do know that I would have a problem with other moms doing what was mentioned in the article. It is not another parent's responsibility to teach a child what they think is right. I wouldn't deal with a parent or another child taking a toy from my daughter, just as I expect her not to take anything from others.

Side story: I put Lily in the kids center at the gym while I swim. The other day I walked in and Lily was being held by the worker and was screaming bloody murder. I asked what happened. Turned out, there was a little older girl who was bigger who wanted the same toy as Lily. The worker took the toy from Lily, gave it to the other girl, and then took Lily away from the situation. She didn't want Lily to get hurt in the struggle over the toy because she is smaller. I don't agree with what she did because it is teaching that bigger girl that she can just run over the little ones and get what she wants. It's also giving my daughter that taste of being shorted because she is small.

ASmallWonder

Things that are public need to be shared, IMO. Very personal items do not like lovies. Other stuff I don't think you should force but should explain being a nice friend/not always getting your way depending on which side your kid is on

bumpuser8448316

I do teach my kids to share and take turns. I don't teach them to give things up right away when someone else wants it in the name of sharing. Likewise, if my kid wants something that ps being used I tell him he needs to wait until it's free.

MorganWP

We teach DD to share and so far she's been really good about it. But we also teach her that what someone else is playing with isnt hers and she has to wait to have a turn. This she hasn't been so good about but she's only little so she has time to get there. 

My auntie did this thing with her kids that I'm going to do as well. When the kids have playdates she asks them, before the friend/cousin/whoever gets there, which toys they would like to play with and which ones they should put away. Like if they had a certain toy that they didn't want to share, it would be put away just to prevent any future meltdowns and fights. I thought it was a good idea and it seemed to work a lot of the time

PinkPuffyHeart2

That article made me a little stabby. I will be teaching my daughter to share her things and definitely public things that do not belong to her. But if anyone talked to my kid like those other mothers, I would not be a nice person to deal with. I can raise my child without your help, stranger ladies. Thanks.

bumpuser8448316

MorganWP said:

We teach DD to share and so far she's been really good about it. But we also teach her that what someone else is playing with isnt hers and she has to wait to have a turn. This she hasn't been so good about but she's only little so she has time to get there. 

My auntie did this thing with her kids that I'm going to do as well. When the kids have playdates she asks them, before the friend/cousin/whoever gets there, which toys they would like to play with and which ones they should put away. Like if they had a certain toy that they didn't want to share, it would be put away just to prevent any future meltdowns and fights. I thought it was a good idea and it seemed to work a lot of the time

We do this too. Just because we invite people into our home doesn't mean they get free reign. So before people come over I let DS put away anything he isn't willing to share with his friends