Wednesday 15 May 2013

The Boys Who Were Never Made To Share

There were once two boys, and from the time they were tiny their own things belonged to them and they were never made to share. Not ever. Of course this made them grow mean and selfish and they ended up with no friends, and on any given day they could be found scowling alone  in a corner hugging their material possessions to their chests.



Just kidding. Not about the first part - Sprout and Squidge *haven't* ever been made to share - but the second part, the part I was assured would be the case should I not force the concept of generosity on them by taking their things and giving them to other people... well it's just not happened. In fact, the complete opposite has turned out to be the case.

I realised just how much when we were at Cadbury World last week. At the end of the visit, we went in the shop and they each chose a couple of things (not once checking whether they had as much as each other to be 'fair'). One of Sprout's choices was a big bar of Dairy Milk:


On our way out to the car, the first thing he asked was if we could drive to his Grandma and Grandpa's house so he could go and share it with them, Squidge, me and Moppet. Absolutely we could, and once we were there he broke big lines of chocolate and gave them to everyone, and you could see by his huge smile as he did it that he loved doing so.

Every day they're generous with each other, and other people, in all sorts of ways, from sharing their toys to giving each other sweets. Of course there are occasions where Squidge doesn't want Sprout to have his bow and arrow, or Sprout wants his bag of crisps to himself, and that's okay. 

When you think about it, the concept of making children share, taking their possessions and giving them to other people, is a ridiculous notion if what you want to end up with is children who like being generous and thoughtful. 

Sharing with them, on the other hand, and surrounding them with an atmosphere of thoughtfulness and generosity... doesn't that make more sense? I'm glad I trusted in that logic.

No comments:

Post a Comment