How do you or did you teach your toddler how to share?...

I did this with my now 3 YO son: I got two different things that I knew he would like/want, one for me and one for him. Sometimes I would do it with bowls of food, with toys, or with books or whatever. I would wait until he asked me for what I had, then I would say, "can I have (whatever he had)?" If he shared his with me, I shared mine with him. I always repeated "that's a good share." whenever he/we succeeded. This also taught him to trade whenever he wanted something else. It helped to introduce the concept of taking turns. If my son throws a tantrum, which is rare now, he looses everything. I also tell him, when he says, "it's mine," - "No it's mommy's and she shares it with you." Don't get me wrong, there are a few things that he absolutely won't share with other children, and in those cases, that item is put away so nobody can play with it. Tell her, it's okay if you don't want to share 2/3 very special things, make a big production out of it, give her the chance to decide, and tell her the special choosen toys will be put away so nobody can touch them. Then explain that everything else is fair game. Good Luck!

Kids will always have a problem sharing. I have 5 kids and most of their fights are over toys, because they won't share. It's worse between my toddler and my 6 year old son. They just eventually get better at it, with constant reminders. Besides that, yours is going through terrible 2's right now. Temper tantrums are a major part of this stage. She's trying to push her boundaries. Be firm and stand your ground. It will eventually pass.

I'm still trying to teach/learn my 3yr old daughter how to share. What I do is ask her if I can have some of her food/snack. She gives me some and I tell her "Thank you, that was so nice of you". The same thing when she is playing, I ask her if I can play with one of the toys and we play together. She is my only child, so there is really no kids around for her to practice sharing with. She does attend Head Start and I'm hoping that she share with the other kids. I haven't asked the teachers if she shares, but if she didn't I'm sure they would have told me.

you just have to have your patience with you... :) in time, she would understand the meaning of sharing... my kids are 9 and 11, but til now i still have to remind them about sharing...

I don't know how to teach them. Before giving the cake to him, slice it to make 2 even the size is smaller. It looks more so that her cousin can have one too.

I just let my daughter go to preschool and she normally shares. I realized she knew how to share at dinner with the family

In my case I have only a son and we taught him to share when he was still small like one year old. We always show him that he has to share, my wife would always give me something and I as well would give to my wife. From then on he would also share anything that we give to him. Now he is six year old and so far he has not shown any signs that the sharing value has faded. but of course there are some traits tends for him to be self centered but then again we always remind him to share things.

How I taught my children to share was taking the thing away from them if they did not share. I then let them cry when they missed out. I would say if you would have shared then you would have gotten some. I would tell them "Look mommy is sharing" when I was sharing something of mine. I think that she will learn I think she is going through the terrible two's. You need to just let her cry and not try to placate her no matter how hard it hurts you to see her cry. It sounded like when she was crying she needed to take a nap or had other issues to deal with.

My son learned most of his learning skills from TV shows, there are a lot of shows out there now that talk about sharing. Also I was always asking him to share. Now whenever someone comes over he tries to give away his toys, cause he likes to share so much..lol. I guess he learned all too well. But he is 5 now and really understands that if you want to keep a friend you have to be nice, take turns, and share.. My trick was TV and it worked for me.... Good Luck

Hello aseretdd, I have the same problem with my son too. I feel like he is very stingy person. Whenever he has something -food or toys, he doesn't want to share it with others, not even the parents sometimes. Every time when I fetch him from the babysitter's house, I will buy some food and a pack of drink for him. He knows it and he always look for it once he enters the car. He will close and lock the door quickly so that none of the babysitter's grandchildren can take his food and drink. But when I tell him that I am not going to buy it anymore, he will give the stuff to me. After a few times with the same tactic, he doesn't care my warning. Every time he gets used to it, I have to find another way to teach him not to be stingy!

I ask my children to share with each other everything they have. But if it something that they need to, then it is okay. Occasional fights is unavoidable. I just tell them again and again that they should learn to share in order to be given by others as well. Law of karma.

I have my son and his early age i started to teach him how to share foods. And he enjoy sharing it to me and his daddy. About your toddler you need to explain to her how to share and the goodness of sharing. Introduce to her the new programs in the television or buy a dvd which is educational which shows sharing to each other. Happy posting.

Hi aseretdd,I fell you are unnecessarily getting concerned,dear.Believe me your daughter is behaving like a typical 2 year old.As she grows older,and starts schooling and mingling with other children ,she will learn to share and to care.At this age children are unpredictable in their behaviour....Some times they appear selfish,at other times very generous.As they grow older,their education will also teach them the value of sharing.They will surely have stories highlighing such things and they gradually learn these things....So rest assured dear.

My nephew and my cousin are of the same age. Often, they do a lot of things together, both by the way are 2 years old. Anyways, there was this one time when they wanted to use the same chair, but the said chair is only one. So what I did to settle the issue between the two of them is have each one use it for 10 seconds, then the other would use it for 10 seconds too. Until, they learn to take turns in using the chair. About your case, I really do not know how to deal with it. But I guess, it would be more of telling her that whenever she is hungry and she has this yearn to eat... just make her understand I guess.

we have 2 kids aged 6 and 2 and when we bring something,they have to share.otherwise they donot get a thing.this has taught them to share. belated happy new year.

She is only two, she may not be ready to share. If she is with you most of the day she is probably used to having things just for her. It might be helpful to get her in a play group where other kids are. That is really the true test of learning to share. Good luck and im sure she will share soon. Make sure you praise her when she does shar even if its an accidetal share. dropping something in your lap perhaps.

Hi, friend. I was getting ready to leave the workplace when my eyes caught this particular discussion. Like you, I also am bothered by my daughter's negative attitude of not sharing what she has. Even if a certain fruit or food was bought by her aunt (my younger sister and her godmother at the same time) and hands it to her, she rarely shares it with anyone. If ever she gives us or anyone of us for that matter, she would make sure that it was a tiny bit or piece. If it were fries, she would give only one piece. And what's worse sometimes, she would even bite at it before giving it to anyone. Or at one time, the piece has initially fell from her hands; and this is the one she would give. And with regards to clothes which are no longer fit for her or those she has outgrown already, she doesn't want to give it to anyone who's younger than her. It's annoying at times. She also has her tantrums. When she wants something and we don't give it to her, she'll resort to crying. I guess her being an only child (still), has affected her attitude. But we're trying to discipline her to share from now on. Hopefully, we both would be successful in this endeavor.

i know it is not a common practice among children to share. not all do it automatically. i know my nephew who used to share with others when we ask her to give one toffee to the uncle/brother who visits our house. but there are others who feel that it is theirs and don't want to share. what we do in our family is first induct the first experience of sharing. so start it by asking the child to give one toffee to the mother or father. say that there is no toffees left and ask for one from the child. first they may hesitate, then they will give. second or third attempts with the parents will also work. then try this with the children from neighbor whom ur child likes much. then slowly improve this habit. all the best.

I don't know much about teaching kids because I don't have any :P But I do have niece and nephews that I look after often. I think that sharing is innate between siblings but is harder to teach if the kid has to play nice with other kids. Right now they won't understand it very well except that it's a rule imposed on them as adults - and I think that's good enough for the time being. Just like how we teach them to say Thank you. They couldn't really grasp it, except that they have to do it and understand it's meaning only later in life :) Thanks for the response on my discussion!

I can imagine that...so funny. Anyway, why not cut the cake in half before giving her her piece of the cake, while explaining that the other one belongs to her cousin? Prepare two bowls of picnic fries before giving one bowl to her? Perhaps, you're right at saying that you should choose the cartoon programs she's going to watch on tv. They really have influence on kids. It takes patience to teach toddlers. I learned somewhere that children develops discernment by the age of 8. So, you still have 6 more years to go. Good luck!