5 Top Tips To Teach Your Child To Share

As young children are naturally self-centred, the idea of handing their belongings to someone else is certainly not natural behaviour.

This is a skill that needs to be learned over time.

With younger children it becomes an easier understood concept if items are 'swopped'.

If Billy can have a turn with your train, then you can have a go with his bike.

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The importance of teaching your child to share at an early age cannot be stressed too strongly.

Encourage your child to share belongings and their time, do not force them; 'forced' sharing and generosity can build resentment.

An ability to share is a crucially important part of making friends and being sociably accepted by their peers.

Using teamwork and co-operation activities at school helps older children to refine their 'sharing' skills.

Although a young child sharing their toys with friends is good, it is not realistic to expect him to feel happy to share everything.

When his friends do come to play it can be a practical idea to remove his favourite toys and put out playthings with duplicates, such as paper, crayons, playdough or building blocks.

Remember to praise him for his generosity, your approval will make him feel confident and bolster his self-esteem.

Most parents can recall funny family memories of 'sharing' before their child actually understood what sharing meant.

Let us know your interesting stories below...

Sharing can become a naturally learned skill in a home with siblings, but for an 'only' child it can be a bewildering concept.

It is vital in this case for a parent to take the part of the person who needs to be shared with... one cookie for you, one cookie for mom!

Your child will do what he 'sees' you do, not so much what you 'tell' him to do.

So make sure that you model sharing and giving.

If trouble breaks out and sharing ‘issues’ arise; try to encourage the children to sort out the trouble between themselves.

If this is impractical, make sure that praise is given where deserved.

Then dish out appropriate consequences (ie: withdrawal of a toy) and explain any discomfort or unhappiness caused to others due to this behaviour.

The trouble with learning to parent on the job is that your child is the teacher! ~Robert Brault,

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