How adorable is this?
Now aside from this being just a really cute porcupine who just wants to eat his damned corn, I think this illustrates a topic I'm really a big proponent of - not forcing anyone to share.
This isn't something necessarily everyone agrees with, but I don't make my son share. To me, it's a double standard. I would be totally miffed if someone said I had been driving my car long enough and it was time for me to share with my neighbor. Like hell I'm sharing, that's mine!
This all depends on your views child of ownership I'm sure, but in our house, what we buy for our son is his - it's not on loan, and the only say we get in it is safety concerned, and of course, with helping him protect and maintain his toys, so they last longer.
When we're at a play date, if August (our 17 month old) is playing with a toy and another kid wants it, we don't make him give it up. We tell the other child, 'I'm sorry, he's playing with that right now, maybe he'll let you play with it when he's done.' Then we ask him when he's done, and more often that not, he's happy to share, and smiles and crouches down and babbles with joy as he watches the other kid play with it.
We don't make him relinquish anything just because someone asks (unless of course it's something unsanitary or unsafe), and we always give him the choice. If it's an issue of public property, like the swings at the park, where they are limited and lots of kids like to play on them, I'll give him a time limit, with lots of reminders -
'Okay, in five minutes we're going to get off the swing so other kids can play on them.'
At that point, sometimes he understands and accepts it without complaint, other times, it's a meltdown, but we think it's a fair rule to be courteous to others when something doesn't belong to him and there are lots of kids in line.
What about you guys, what are your thoughts on sharing? Poor Teddy Bear, he just wants to eat his damned corn!
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