Sharing

[kristatwin]

I have 18 month old twins and at the moment i am having real diffculty with dd, everything ds is playing with she is snatching and pinching off him, he will be playing peacefully and in she wades, and grabs he then screams, but this is everything he picks up, any advice much appreciated !!

[twinmam]

Also hoping for advice on this one.... My two are 14 months and as soon as one DD has a toy the other DD seems to want it, even when provided with an identical toy. They have also started to push each other over when playing!

[faeriefruitcake]

It's normal toddler behaviour, my oldest who is a singleton does it with her friends when they come to visit. She's the same with the twins.

I just insist they take turns or resort to distraction with a different toy, occasionaly the've just been told tough it's not their turn.

[kathryn2804]

Be extremely consistent and strict. Take it away from dd and say 'NO' in a frim tone, give her something else to play with. Then you can say, 'find ds something else so you can swap' She'll soon get the hang of finding another toy and offering it to swap.

If they are both playing with something, count to 10 and say 'swap', then do it again a few minutes later, etc, etc. It's a really good game and really helps sharing too.

If there is any extreme behaviour, such as pushing, biting, wrestling etc, remove offending twin and put somewhere else, ie 'naughty corner' or strap in the buggy or higchair for 1 minute. Or if you don't know who's fault it was, take away the toy they are fighting over. They will lose interest quite quickly!

It's a really trying time with twins, it comes a lot earlier than with singletons and it's 24hrs a day!! But, they get a lot more practice so they tend to learn how to share a lot earlier than singletons and when they're playing with other children, you'll be rewarded for your hard work beacuse they will be able to share without as many public tantrums!

[twinmam]

Thanks K2804 - really useful advice. I asked similar question on behaviour thread and a very lovely lady suggested lots of one to one time with difficult toddler, plenty of attention, etc, before I pointed out that this was impossible unless DH home from work! She did also suggest some time playing with crayons in highchairs so they each had some time to play in their own space which I thought was a good idea so have armed myself with 2 pack of jumbo crayons!