Question for those with children close in age....

jackyann

When they do need to share or take turns, explain, in language they understand, what you want them to do. They don't yet understand these vague terms, or how to put them into practice.
You may say "A has the digger until the beeper goes, then B has it until the beeper goes" (they soon lose interest anyway)
You may say "this pile of bricks is X's, this pile is Y's; you can each play with your own pile, or you can mix them & play together".
You can play with them, and show them how to co-operate in building a really high tower, taking it in turns to put on a brick, or each pushing a train once around the track, taking turns.
When they do co-operate, praise them, and make sure you tell other people "A & B took turns at pushing the truck round the garden, they worked really well together".

Redouble

My kids are 6.5 , 4.5 and 3
Sometimes they share, sometimes they don't.
Sharing is a tough concept to understand and so we play it by ear, I try to encourage them to figure things out for themselves and at Christmas, if we are buying something that we know is going to be super popular (cost dependent obviously!) we will buy 3 so they can enjoy themselves without feeling like they have to protect it from being grabbed by siblings

onlyroz

My problem is trying to stop my daughter from destroying all of my son's toys - so even though he's quite capable of playing nicely with his lego, paints, crayons etc I have to restrict his use of them otherwise my daughter will go into his room and smash it all up. I'm currently trying reward charts for good behaviour - but it's difficult not to get sooooo mad with her.

VikkiiKawaii

As probably said above, some things are good to share. The kinds of things that aren't (might not apply in this case) are things like DS games or tamigotchis. My parents tried to get me and my sister to share a game and it didn't work so well as we used to hide it from each other. In that case two would be better to play together. Same with dolls.

Pennywise2012

stiltwalker wrote: »

Same rule in our house when I was a kid - one cuts the other chooses!

Me and my sister had that too! I'm pretty sure I can split an irregularly shaped foodstuff into two portions that weigh within a tenth of a gram of each other now. I should have become a surgeon (or a drug dealer)...

I overheard this conversation between two of my nephews (who are cousins)

DN1 (aged 9) - Give me a go of your truck.

DN2 (aged 4) - No, it's mine!

DN1 - You have to. My mum says you've been learning sharing at school. (picks up truck)

DN2 - I've only been going to school for a week! It takes longer than a week to learn sharing (snatches back truck and triumphantly waltzes away)

madison-nyc

No , i would never buy duplicates toys instead of them sharing, what would tha teach them? they take turns with the toys or i take it of them, simple. It's mainly the younger one (3) that kicks off and doesn't want to share but when he realises it's share it or lose it he gives in and shares.

KME91

Honestly? I'm 31 and my sister is 15 months younger and we still struggle to share sometimes! We're more civilised about it now but it still drives me mad sometimes, and her too.

Savvy_Sue

ziggy2004 wrote: »

where I do happen to have two the same they will still want the one the other has

This. My eldest was like this: you could have two identical things but he always wanted the one he didn't have!

loopylass

plus if you buy 2 exactly the same and 1 gets broken..... another fight as they always say ''but its not my one thats broken'':rotfl:

If you have/want to buy 2 then id get similar but not the same for that reason but then you might have a fight ''her one is better than mine'' :rotfl:

So really what im saying is your damned if you do and damned if you dont lol, just thank your lucky stars when your little darlings are tucked up in bed and you put your feet up with a cuppa and get some well earned peace :T

Mr_Toad

My two, a boy and a girl, fought like cat and dog all the time, constantly, day in, day out, they never let up.

Then they left to go to Uni and we thought that they'd never speak to one another ever again.

They are so close it's almost unbelievable, they talk and text every day, they meet and go out with their respective partner/husband and each would give the other their last Rolo!

After all those years of fighting I still cant believe all the grief they put us through only to end up as best friends!