Sharing

Toddlers aren't supposed to be able to share, or so they say. Certainly Son finds it terribly hard.

He had a friend over from school the other day and every time the friend touched one of his toys he'd cry "No, it's MINE Max!" I tried to explain that yes, the toys are his, but it's okay for his friends to play with them when they visit just like he enjoys playing with their toys at their houses. He didn't want to know and restricted poor max to playing with toys from Baby M's toy box.

For consolation, or perhaps to add to my helpful stock phrases, I Googled sharing. Here's what I got: the realization that we might be a lot further from the good sharing place than I'd hoped. "Children develop altruism and the desire for things to be fair by the time they are 7 or 8", according to a Swiss study.

Just then, Son came home from school with a freshly baked Kitka and proudly declared "I made it for sharing". So take THAT Swiss study.

And what's more, he is even allowing baby M to play with his train tracks as I write this. At first he wasn't too keen (read: he totally freaked out), but he was okay when I said we could re-build the tracks together when he was ready to play with them again.

So, with luck, the next 5 or 6 years might not be as socially frustrating as the Swiss had me fearing