Have you ever noticed how your child grabs his childrens wood toy box whenever his playmate tries to take a toy from it? You have probably seen him yell no when a friend asks to borrow his toy cars. Why is it difficult for your child to share?
You are probably wondering what went wrong because you have already addressed his behavior towards sharing his things with playmates. At times, he remembers what you taught him, but there are instances such as these when he is irritated by the sight of his toys on someone else’s hands.
You have to understand where this behavior is coming from. Your child is used to getting his way and having his things on his own. For instance, when he was younger, he had his toy
box chest and everything in it to himself. He never had to share it with someone. It is difficult for him to get use to the idea of sharing some things he had for himself before.
But this does not mean that your child is selfish. He just needs someone to show him that giving someone the opportunity to play with what he has is fun. You can have an activity where you can share some of your things with him. You can color an image together and ask permission to use his crayons during the activity. You can also teach him to share while you are organizing his toys in his toy
chest. You can take turns in piling his toys and tell him that what you are doing is sharing the chore to get it done faster.
If your child is not comfortable with sharing his things, ask him why. He may have his reasons why he is not sharing it. It can be because it is his favorite toy and he is not comfortable entrusting it to others. The people around him has to respect his belongings as well. Respect it when he says no. To avoid this from happening, talk to him before having some of his friends over. Ask him which toys his friends can play with. You can organize the toys he is willing to share and those that have special value to him in different wooden toy chest.
Encourage him to share but don’t force him to do it. Don’t punish him because he doesn’t want to share. If they share something because they fear of what you are going to do, they won’t be able to genuinely share. This will only develop fear on your child’s part.
You can also teach your child to take up the issue with his pals. If the two of them wants to play with the same toy at the same time, teach them to compromise. They can agree on who will go first while the other scouts for other toys to play with from the toy treasure chest. They can also think of a game that will allow them to play with the toy together.
Just like the adults, there are important items that they want to keep for themselves. Teach your child to share but respect their right to say no.
|