Heather Shumaker wrote an enlightening post on sharing and taking turns at her personal website. Our kids are becoming used to waiting for the other to finish with whatever they’re playing with before they can have a turn, waiting for the other to “get their fill.” If they both want to use something of mine, than I’ll work with them to create a reasonable turn time. Other kids will look at me and expect me to force my kids to share with them, but instead I tell them, “They are not done with it. You’ll have to wait for them to finish.” They’ll then sit and watch and wait, or decide they don’t want a turn and find something else to do. Either way they’ve made a choice and bear the consequences. IMO, there’s value in learning that.
And she followed it up with a post on looong turns. Must read. I love her idea on making a waiting list.
Skyler.
