No that's mine Alien!

So the Caveman spent a good portion of the evening in timeout.

The reason the Caveman was in timeout is that the Alien is impressively crawling and wanting to go after the Caveman’s toys. The Caveman being a typical kid doesn’t want to share.

It goes down like this: the Alien will find a toy that interests her. She starts to play with it, okay puts it in her mouth. The Caveman will take the toy away and then give the Alien another toy and say “here.”

The Caveman could be in another room but he knows if the Alien is messing with his stuff. In this case he will actually take the toy from her hand and not give her another toy. Which makes the Alien cry and then I have to put the Caveman in timeout because he should share with the Alien. Or more likely he should want to share with the Alien.

Sharing I am noticing is a hard concept for the average two year old to understand. To be honest as a twenty eight year old woman I don’t like sharing my stuff. If you let someone borrow your favorite sweater it never returns in the same way. Plus some items are truly special so why should I have to share it with others?

Thinking about this I started to wonder why am I making the Caveman share his toys with his younger sister? Seriously, is it so bad to actually have a kid cherish something to the point where he doesn’t want to share it with anyone? When did the idea of sharing become letting others use your stuff? Yet, I realize that if I don’t teach the kids how to share then how will I raise citizens of the world?

The actual definition of sharing is the act of participation or of being involved. So how is letting other people use my stuff being involved? I think the concept of sharing that I want to teach the Caveman and Alien is that sharing is not only an act but a mindset. It isn’t enough to have things to share- things are simply things. To truly share is to do what the definition says- get involved.

My goal as a mother is that my children understand that their actions matter. That their interactions with other people matter and can make a difference and the people that come across my children leave better.

I guess to teach the two year old Caveman the concept that it is not acceptable to take toys from his sister simply because that particular toy is his is a good thing. The adult Caveman will hopefully thank me someday.