The trick is to let them choose a limited number of “favorite” toys they don’t have to share.
Then if they complain, say you share the house, beds, food, etc.
Worked on me when I was a kid.

I can relate. 3 boys here. 2 young ones and one after 30.

The trick is to not have kids in the first place. I wish someone told me this before I had my four children…

The hardest part comes when they want to play on your video games. I’m terrified my kids will overwrite that 100-hour save…

tim, it’s out of the box so it’s not in mint condition anymore lol

more afraid that they’d destroy a pad or the switch

Children are wonderful, but they have a rather nasty habit:

“Hey, that item over there – my mom/dad really cares about that. Let’s DESTROY it!”

Adorable little munchkins. XD

To be fair…

You know damn well it would not remain in pristine condition if you did share that one. Children rarely care about keeping their toys in good condition until they’re already broken!

There are many people out there that buy multiple copies of single items, just so that they can have their cake AND eat it too.
In other words, they buy at least one that is never ever going to be taken out of it’s box, no way, no how and one that is for ‘playing’ with but carefully of course.

Those are figurines – not toys.

My four year old Nephew used to show me the cars on the shelf in his room and say “They’re for looking at, not touching”.
Strategy: My sister uses this because she runs a daycare in the house – If you don’t want to share a toy, keep it in your room (Also help keep the clutter in the house under control).

Thought this was going to be about the controversy surrounding the Borderlands 3 PC launch plans for a minute there.

Therefor you make the list of toys and put them on a board to see. They get it, but kids are like politicians: “They will talk, bully and cry to get their way if you let them”

I have the same experience with my pitbulls. Whomever doesn’t have the bed/bone/ Kong wants said item.

Pick a favorite child each week that wins mediation. Rotate on a set schedule. Maybe they’ll learn trolling results in getting trolled back and begin to cooperate, maybe not.

This strip and the past one about the hypocrisy of saying don’t play with guns whilst being a room full of toys with guns resonate, given that I have a three year old and ten month old and deal with these as well. “No, don’t take your big brother’s toy…Wait, don’t take Daddy’s Boba Fett either!”

How about this strategy: “I would love to share this toy with you – but it’s not mine. This toy is being shared with Daddy by a friend of his, and that friend didn’t give him permission to share with anyone else. You wouldn’t like it if you shared your toy with a friend, and then they shared it with someone else without asking, right? Next time I see my friend, I’ll ask if you can play with it – but if he says No, we have to respect that, okay?” Teaches puts things in terms they can understand, frames… Read more »

If your not confusing your children you’re doing it wrong. I do it all the time with my 4 boys. I also agree favorite toy changes based on who has it.

Nah, just explain the difference between a toy and a collectible. Personally, I’ve never been fond of the general concept of sharing. If you give a kid a toy, it’s his, right? Why should he share it? Should I share my lawn mower with my neighbor? What if I know my neighbor isn’t going to take care of it? What if I know my neighbor will, without a doubt, never return it? No, I’d rather teach my kid the concept of personal property, responsibility, and kindness. “This is yours. Take good care of it, because if it breaks, you have… Read more »

It’s simple, it’s like how you can drive the car, and they can wait until they’re 18 and out of the house.

Easy.

“These aren’t toys. They’re collectibles.”

My sons generally stay out of my office.

It’s an odd balance.

I must have been 9 or 10 and my brother absolutely refused to let me use the Sega Genesis assuming I’d “break it” somehow.

Cue my finding it where he hid it, plugging all the wires in correctly and playing Sonic Spinball while he isn’t home and him throwing controllers like they’re boomerangs and breaking them.

To this day I take better care of my things than he does.

I thought this felt kind of familiar.. lol..

https://cad-comic.com/comic/my-hypocrisy-is-palpable/

Should probably keep those in a display case with a lock or something.

Nice… same problem here in germany with my Star Wars Lego collection…

My three boys allready knows that these models are MY toys.

But invited friends are allways like “Woooah! That’s your LEGO?!? And you don’t play with it?!?” XD

Kids dont understand that those aren’t toys but statuettes. Best luck with your loveable hellions

In Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey an Maturin novels, at one point the naval captain Jack Aubrey reflects that “he never was a hypocrite until he was a father.”

I dunno why, but the drawings of your kids seem to give off more realism to regular human bodies to me then the other characters.I think it’s cause the facial features for them are smaller proportionally to their face.

My parents always said “Do as I say, not as I do.”

So yeah, forcing kids to share things is wrong. It teaches them that the world can take things from them whenever it wants and they have no autonomy and when something bad happens to them, you won’t care. I’m not exaggerating. There is a huge difference between teaching kids how (and why, and more importantly, when) to share and forcing them to. If they’re not old enough to understand how, why, and when to share, then just leave it alone. Forcing them to share, especially when they are too young to understand, does more harm than good. Google it if… Read more »

Maybe try dropping an egg and a golf ball or something, showing that one breaks easier than the other. (Obviously somewhere it can be cleaned up) to show that no matter how similar things may look from a distance, not everything is necessarily a toy to be played with.

I dunno, probably too much though xD

For me and my brothers, we were all given our own specific toys and then there were some toys that were for all of us. I.E. when we were kids, we were into Ninja Turtles. We each had our own ninja turtles that were our own and we can play with the others toys if they weren’t playing with it but would have to give that toy back if the one it belongs to wanted it back to play with. Then there were also some things like the Turtle Van and the Sewer Lair playset were for all of us… Read more »

Honestly, if you’re confusing the kids with this, then you’re doing a bad job at communicating the difference.

Yeah, I have to make a real effort to not do this. Incidentally I have to re-glue a lot of Warhammer 40k figures from time to time.

F that. I teach my kids that what’s theirs is theirs, and it’s good for them to choose to share. Some toys are communal property, and the kid currently playing with it has dibs. Late comers need to ask to play, and then the first kid with that toy can choose to share or not. If they choose not to share, I’ll usually say “OK, you can play 2 more minutes, and then it’s your sister’s turn.” I try hard to never tell them they *have* to share.

It’s like a primal response: someone else has it? You want it. You have it? You don’t want it anymore. Psychology is weird