Any strategies for dealing with the "mine!" phase? LO is claiming everything as "MINE!". This includes toys at the neighbors house.
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Save me too.
The toilet is hers, the front door mat her is hers. All toys are definitely hers. Mine, mine, mine. Oye.
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We haven't gone through this stage yet, but we know a family with seven children who have handled it in a way we want to emulate.
When the child says "Mine!" they lean down and make sure they have the child's full attention. Then they calmly say:
"You do not say 'mine.' Share with your brothers and sisters, or it will be taken away. Do you understand?"
If it happens again, the toy (or whatever) gets taken away immediately for the rest of the day. I think they only had one kid who didn't quickly learn that saying "mine" wasn't in his best interest--he said mine repeatedly even if it got taken away, almost as a show of defiance more than anything else. So "mine" became a spankable offense with him and he learned the hard way.
But I think most kids would quickly respond to taking away things that they claim as "mine."
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There's a book called "Mine-O-Saur" that helped D during preschool.
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@Skadi: good idea. We've been saying "I don't like that word" but that hasn't been doing much. Taking the toy away is more straightforward.
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My BFF is going through this with her 22 month old son. She consistently replies "We don't say mine, we say share. What do we say?" and he says "Share". It makes me laugh though because saying it doesn't always equal doing it! Earlier today, my little 14 month old picked up a balloon BFF's LO had been playing with and he snatched it back, exclaiming " mine". His mum said her usual piece and he replied "share" so earnestly whilst clutching the balloon tightly, the opposite side of his body to E!! Really funny!
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Sorry but all I can think about are the seagulls in Finding Nemo!
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It depends on what it is...if he says that about one of his own toys, I say "you're right! That's yours!". If he says it about soemthing that isn't his, like someone else's toy, I say, "no, that's x's toy." My LO hasn't said it in a grabby way though--more like he's actually trying to figure out what is his and what isn't, testing boundaries, etc.
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@hilsy85: My LO is using "mine" in the grabby way for sure. Yesterday she looked down my shirt and shouted "mine" at my boobs. Um, no. We weaned three months ago. Not yours.
She taught a friend "mine" at a play date yesterday. I felt awful, as if it's a contagious disease. We did see LO say "please" before grabbing one toy. That seems like an improvement.
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@Corduroy: haha!
We talked about sharing early on and I gave her a timeout twice during play dates at our house for not sharing. She learned quick. Maybe it was because the correction happened on our territory. I always prepped her before a friend came over that she would need to share or she gets a timeout. She is very social so even though it was hard at first, she understood that is what helps her to make friends. It is also hard if we go to a house and the parents don't enforce the sharing rule. It is a little confusing. If they are younger than her, I can just say it is because she or he is a baby but if we are guests of a same age kid and the parent hasn't or doesn't teach the kid to share it is kind of weird. -
@ScarletBegonia: LMAO!!!
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Depends on the toy, usually it is not hers and she's just testing us, and I say "no that's XYZ's." And if someone else is playing with her toys and she takes I say "we share with our friends" or the corny phrase "sharing is caring, and we share our toys because we care about our friends."
But I think most kids would quickly respond to taking away things that they claim as "mine."
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