Being a first-time mother of now two, I did not foresee coming that the baby's new mobility would mean an introduction to toy squabbles. John--as the eldest sibling without competition--is quite delayed in having a sense of ownership and entitlement about toys and, when toys are yanked from him at children's gatherings, until very recently he has stood there rather clueless that he has been offended. Now Mary is creeping, so is keenly interested in whatever John is doing. She creeps over near him and grabs a toy at the periphery of his vast scattering of toys. Suddenly John yanks it back with much protestation of, "Mine! I was playing with that!" (Yes, he was playing with that one Duplo out of his 200 Duplo pieces.) Also, if Mary is playing with a baby toy I gave her, John will walk up and yank it away, declaring it his.
And here all I thought was that Mary was learning to crawl. So much fun lies ahead of us, I'm sure.
Oh, yes. We've been going through this! We THOUGHT we'd been preemptive since from M's birth we've referred to our toys as THE TOYS, OUR TOYS, not YOUR TOYS or M'S TOYS, but the "Don't play with MY shopping cart, barn, ball, tractor, etc." has been rearing its head since N. became mobile. Oh, and it doesn't matter if he wasn't playing with it! As soon as the baby shows interest, "M wants that toy!" It's getting a LITTLE better...maybe...some days, but ugh! Definitely a mediator/referee these days!
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping all the time I've exposed Emma to her friends and cousin and teaching to her to share will help with sibling squabbles such as these when the baby arrives. But I'm probably just fooling myself.
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