To Share Or Not To Share...Okay Not Share

Over the weekend, we celebrated Easter with my entire family at my parents house. I really had a great time even though it was quite exhausting running around with a toddler. My son and nephew (who is three weeks older then my son)played pretty well with the exception of one thing...sharing the "toy of the week".

My Mom and Dad are fantastic about having everything imaginable thing at their household for the boys. They stock up on diapers, wipes, toddler snacks, sippy cups and toys my sister and I played with as children. The only thing they don't have is spare boy clothing, which is fine because it would be a little silly having those with how fast these kids grow. It really makes the "opps I forgot this at home" pretty easy because it is already there. Even if spare clothing was forgotten, I am sure we could scrounge up some awesome 70's/80's girl attire and the boys wouldn't be scarred too heavily (at least at this age). What they don't have is the same sort of toys times two. Can I blame my parents on that? Heck no. I wouldn't have that at my own house unless it was truly apparent that my children would benefit with two toys like a doll or something. We had two of a few toys times two when I was young...hello Rainbow Brite. I admit I was a thief when it came to my sister's Rainbow Brite doll. There was just too much temptation with a popular colorful little doll, so my Mom just got two. I Dolls are just a hard thing to share. However, having two of something in my parents house even though the grand kids frequent there quite a bit would just be silly.

So the hot toy on Easter Sunday was a tiny lawn mower. In fact it was used and graciously given to us by a neighbor last week. Why it became so important after the Tikes Car a few weeks prior was once "the toy", I don't know. In either case, the boy...err I mean my son did not want to share and tried adamantly to take the lawn mower away from my nephew every time he had it. Thankfully my sister was "whatever" with the situation. Not that I let my son take something away (that is a no no) but because there was a bit of a referring back and forth. With referring came small temper tantrums that would be fizzled out with a distraction of another toy or going to a different room. It worked out okay. It was just mind boggling why one toy would look so fantastic in its rather old and tired looking state versus some of the "cooler" stuff my parents had for them to play with.

Again, this just reminds me the life of having a toddler. Small fires need to be extinguished. Temper tantrums happen. They have an exuberant amount of energy that I wish they would share. However sharing is just not one of their greatest fortes.