MINE!

It seems that sometime during the night this week my daughter was replaced with a "MINE" monster. All of a sudden everything is "MINE". Things she freely shared yesterday are not without a price today. I have tried asking her to share, but she just throws a tantrum crying as if her life depended upon it. She does this with things that she never plays with and things that aren't even hers. Suddenly whatever her brother has is hers, and it is very special to her.

I still ask her to share, but I know the response will be tear soaked checks so I redirect. As quick as I can I happily bring up anything that I can that is not related to the item. This works about half the time or at least for a few minutes. The rest of the time I end up taking the toy away. Due to the fact that Christopher had the toy first he is very hesitant to let it go. So a tug of war match erupts, and never ends well. Evie has become an expert at pushing down her brother. Which I am not to happy about. I use time outs, but they are young and it will take time.

I know that neither of my children are capable of sharing yet. However, I still want to encourage that type of behavior. On good days they do share, and do so without any interventions from me at all.