handing things down to younger siblings - Page 2

[Shera971]

I'm going through this right now. DS1 is 4.5 and DS2 is 3 weeks. When I took out all the baby toys, we explained to DS1 that the toys were his old baby ones and now DS2 can play with them. He spent the whole evening re-discovering them and having a hoot. At the end he wanted to keep one of the toys in his room and we let him. I also let him play with the old toys whenever he wants... which is not often at all. He's mostly excited to see when he can and his baby brother can start playing together.

[lilyka]

I alsp wanted to add that since all toys are communal my older children were always free to play with the baby toys as well. I think this helped.

[jillmamma]

Not really an issue with my older two as they are 2.5 years apart and boy/girl. But when I was pg with my youngest and we knew she was a girl, my 4 year old was a little concerned at first. I explained that yes, these clothes/toys used to be hers, and what a nice big sister she was to share them with the baby, because sharing is nice, and older DD likes it when people share with her, right? Now, half the time she wants to pick out the baby's outfit, and wants the baby to wear one that used to be hers. Of course there are some things that are just hers (especially stuff with small pieces that the baby can't have), and that helps too.

[confustication]

Originally Posted by lilyka

I alsp wanted to add that since all toys are communal my older children were always free to play with the baby toys as well. I think this helped.

Absolutely. My 8.5 year old will often play with the baby/toddler toys- the great thing is that she's modeling how to play with them very naturally for her brothers. She is the one who taught our middle child to stack blocks- for example- he watched her building a complex castle, and started stacking his own.

[daytripper75]

I make it a point that everything in our house belongs to our family with the exception of a few special things. My jewelry is mine. My childrens lovies are theirs. Toys belong to the family, we share everything.