siblings sharing

[GoldBerry]

Hello, Mamas!

I'm looking for some advice. I have a 4 1/2 year old Dd and a 7 month old Dd. Looking into the near future when Dd #2 is mobile, I see a lot of trouble because Dd #1 does not like to share toys and also has a lot of markers, etc. that would not be good for a young babe.

How did you Mamas that lived through this handle this transition? Thanks for the insight!

[MamaBug]

Hi there. My ds are 23 months apart. But what we did was put things like markers and such up where the little one could not get them. We only brought them out when the odlest wanted to use them and I was able to keep a close eye on youngest. As for the sharing, my oldest was very good about this, plus we really talked about how he was the bigger one and that he needed to teach the baby how to share and how much the baby loved him and wanted to be like him and that is why he wanted to use him toys. My oldest was most excellent and took his job of big brother very seriously and still does at 6.5

good luck!

[ALittleBitCrunchy]

I have it easier because mine are 21 months apart which means that he wasn't into toys too much beyond her stage. I did the same as the previous poster about talking about sharing and how is being so helpful and nice to help his baby sister things like sharing. What has also helped is that we have 'nap toys' and they are toys that are special big boy toys that he gets to play with when Meg is napping. He gave up napping right around 2 years and she was a newborn and sleeping half the day. She is 14 months old and down to one 2-3 hour nap, so nap toys don't have as much time as they used to...but she is also older now and some nap toys have been able to become regular toys. It worked really well for us because he loved it - the toys were special and he was also able to spend that time alone with me...the combination always made him happy. When she woke up, I'd invite him to come with me and help me get her up. He'd run upstairs while I'd quickly pick up the nap toys and then I'd go up and bring her downstairs. That distraction was enough that he'd forget about what he had been playing with and was always willing to start something new.

Something else we did was Toy Time Out. Any toy that is involved in a dispute is put into time out. I remove it from the room and without that item around, they each find something else to play with. And Josh would much rather share a toy than lose it, which helps motivate him to share.

Good luck - I hope you can find something that works for you!

Stacy

[MamaBug]

We do toy time out as well and that works pretty well