here is a scenario:
5 year old female child (E) has a ball. Her older sibling (S) would like to use a ball. The ball is a house ball that might have been given to E originally, but is used by the household. S takes the ball. E throws a fit, "MY BALL!!!" and grabs it back. S says she wants to use is for baseball. E refuses. This may or may not devolve into the children hitting each other.
Oh and E did not originally have the ball, it was just lying around.
Not weighing in on the discussion but just had to chuckle at this becasue I swear this scenario is played out in my house with my two boys almost every day. LOL. I admit that I have used similar way to deal with it (not borrowing - b/c really how embarassing, LOL - but actually buying another ball
) not for any breaking spirit reasons but just to keep the peace and just because I can't take it anymore. Unfortunately, obtaining another ball (or whatever said item at issue is) usually does not solve the problem. The two of them just move on to something else to have the exact same fight over. Somedays I am on top of my game and I effectively referee while teaching a lesson in problem solving and keeping peace. Other days - not so much. Both older DS and I have recently realized that younger DS lately pulls the "MY BALL" stunt described above just to antogonize. A few minutes of pretending to not be interested in said ball (or whatever toy) usually means younger DS moves on to doing something else abandoning the ball he insisted he couldn't bear to part with. And older DS smiles knowingly at me and realizes leassons of patience and reverse psychology. LOL. This happened just tonight and DS 7 remarked "Hmmm, this is a VERY effective method!" My other way of dealing with it? Keep the seperate - Older Ds goes to aftercare at school !
