Bohdin went to a friend's house to play yesterday. His friend was a little grumpy due to hunger and tiredness. For most of the visit they played together nicely or played separately. This little boy had a sandwich while Bohdin was playing. After he was done eating, he started playing with a toy that had been out the entire time. They had actually played with it a bit earlier. Bohdin wanted a turn. They took turns. Then the boy moved on to a ball which had been sitting out the whole time. Bohdin asked him to share. The little boy was already grumpy and didn't want to share the ball he had just picked up. The ball ended up going in time out. Both of the boys were upset they couldn't play with the ball. We ended up going home shortly afterwards. On the walk home I tried explaining to Bohdin that while it's nice to share, it's not required. What he should have done was just wait a few minutes before asking for a turn. He had hardly picked the ball up before Bohdin pounced on him. There were several other balls laying around. I told Buddy about it at dinner and he thought it was a difficult message to navigate. How do I promote sharing at the same time saying it's okay not to share? That seems especially hard at 3 when a child can really be pushed to share and judged harshly when not sharing. When an adult doesn't share something it's usually not a big deal. Lots of people don't loan out their cars or money or their time. A ball is even more important for a brief time to a 3 year old.
The post is late today because Bohdin woke up at 6. Nyla ended up waking up also and then we were all up. Buddy, Nyla, and I went back to sleep but it threw off Nyla's day. She was tired at naptime but wouldn't sleep. On the positive side, I've done a lot of work. I finally folded the huge stack of clean clothes that had piled up, I washed the sheets, and we cleaned the bedroom a bit. It was covered in crumbs when Bohdin ate fish crackers on the floor yesterday. On the negative side, we didn't make it to the grocery store. It will be a creative dinner tonight or we'll eat some of the banana bread or fruit cobbler I made yesterday.
1 comment:
Banana bread sounds like a tasty dinner to me.
Sharing is a tough concept at any age. Even Nathan and Zoey have a hard time with it sometimes. I think that's only because they know they don't always have to share.
Since sharing doesn't always mean that both people play with it at the same time, we set a timer for the things they all want. "Right now it's her turn, but in X minutes, they will share and it will be your turn."
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