My just-turned-2 DD has been experimenting with saying "mine" for a few months. At first we were pretty tough on it. We told her we didn't like it when she said that, took away anything that was claimed as "mine" and had some time outs. The use of mine only seemed to grow. She then moved on to "mine" house, "mine" living room and tried to not let us in. Obviously we didn't go along with that either. Despite our efforts pretty much every sentence now starts with "mine."

Surprisingly, for all her talk of "mine" she isn't too bad about actually sharing things at daycare or with other friends.

The biggest issue at the moment is "mine" mommy. If another kid talks to me at daycare pick up she runs and knocks them down and screams at them. Again, obviously unacceptable and daycare and I reworked the pickup routine.

Last night LO progressed to another level of concerning. When DH opened the front door coming home she jumped in my arms and screamed "mine mommy" more in a scared way then a territorial way.... same thing when DH got up this morning.

I am expecting (due in June) and I'm not sure how much she understands at the moment.

I'm lost as to whether I should be reassuring her when she feels someone is threatening her claim to 'her mommy' or treating it more like when she says a toy or the living room is hers. Since it's just getting worse all around I feel like I'm doing it wrong on both accounts.

Any suggestions or similar experiences? I'm not seeing so much "mine" behavior in other similarly aged LOs so I don't know how bad it is.