The habit of sharing in your child can be inculcated in the initial years with ease. This is not only beneficial for the society, but the child also.
From when can the child start sharing?
You must be kidding when you expect very young children to share. Children below the age of three shouldn’t be expected to share their things. These very young kids usually play alongside the other children, they hardly get engaged with the other children. You cannot expect them to bother about other children, they think and care about themselves only.
When these kids are given proper guidance, in about a year’s time they learn to share with other children. Notice whether your child likes to share things with a stranger or a sibling. The children who are more attached to their parents either share easily with other children or are reserved in nature.
You will find that children often prefer to share with some people or children rather than everyone. This is known as selective sharing. There are some things, which a child would not want to share with anyone. It could be a toy, his clothes or anything that he loves. That is hundred percent all right. Like we adults also would not like to share some things with anyone.
Using time as a referee
You can define a time frame for the children to play with a particular toy at a given time. Let us say that you want to teach two kids how to share, especially when both don’t want to share. You need a buzzer for it, time it for 3 to 4 minutes and allow one child to play with the toy.
After the time is up, pass the toy to the other child, and when the buzzer sounds again pass it to the kid who got it first. This way, both the kids could play several rounds. Now, who goes first? You can decide it with the help of a draw. Alternatively, keep a small pebble in one hand, roll both the fists, and then ask both the children to guess the hand where the pebble is.
The one who guesses it correctly, gets to play first. If the children do not want to follow the sharing method, take the toy away. Tell them, both of them will not be allowed to play until the time they agree to share the toy. This way they will learn to share and play, in some time each of them will start offering the toy to the other child.
Forcing to share is not correct
The children are attached to their belongings just like us. We are hooked to our iPhones, cars, watches, they are attached to their toys, colors and other things. Forcing them to share will not help them in learning to share. Observe your child’s behavior, when he is playing with other toddlers.
Teach the child if he gets hold of the things of other children, they will not want to play with them. On the other hand, when other children take away the possession of your child, teach him to be assertive. By not forcing, the child to share their prized possession and gradually showing the child the benefits of sharing will draw his interest in sharing.
It has been observed by the experts that the children, who got attachment parenting in the initial years, share easily. Instead of sticking to their toy or favorite object, they would like to be with either of his parent.
You can teach the child the quality to share with your affections, gradually. Make the child understand the virtue of sharing without forcing him to do so.
