Inside Fatherhood

When Kids Squabble Over The Toy Box

by steve on March 16th, 2007

When I first began having kids it was great to give my kids toys to play with. When it was just my oldest she could come and go as she pleased. The toy box was hers. Then after our 2nd started playing with toys it was all about sharing with your little brother. Toys were sort of “claimed” as their own maybe for an afternoon or for the entire day until they were bored and the next day you might have seen the other child with the toy.

But as time has gone on and now there are 4, soon to be 5 of them battling over toys I see a lot of interesting things happening. For instance, sometimes you will see the kids taking toys and hiding them. Maybe in a corner behind the couch for later, or in the pocket. My wife and I have tried to let everybody know that whatever is in the toy box is something for all to share and take turns with. There are items they may get for their birthday and those things need to remain in their room. But toy box stuff is where the battle is. And it goes on every day.

I used to feel strongly about making the kids share but I am getting tired and run ragged over the little fights I want to just label each of the toys by name and who is allowed to have them. But I guess that would be the easy way out. It is a hard job to teach the kids how to share. Naturally they are very caring kids but they are little. So the fighting and squabbling over who had what toy when is very persistent. It seems harder because there are 4 kids. So the amount of non-sharing going on is continuous.

Do you have kids and are they into sharing? Do you have to break up and referee squabbles often?

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POSTED IN: Parenting, Stay at Home Dads