the overzealous sharer

Is there such thing as sharing too much? I like to think not. Rather maybe it's THE WAY something's shared that can seem off-putting.

Yesterday, after the little man had big-boy slept his way to the orange spot on his chart, I took him to Choo Choo Bobs. This is a haven full of little train-loving little boys who swarm around six train tables in the back like little ants. The boy LOVES Choo Choo Bobs. And he declared this love loudly and proudly several times while he was playing with the trains.

We always stress the importance of sharing. And after witnessing many of his encounters with other children, I'm beginning to think maybe we stress it a little too much. More than a few times, I saw him thrust a train car into a unsuspecting child's face and ask, "Do you wanna SHARE?!?! Do you wanna play with THIS!?!?!?" Clearly four out of five of them didn't because they looked at him as if he had just dangled a piece of poop in their face and walked away.

But it takes more than that kind of rejection to deter his sharing self. He just moves on, holding the Percy engine two inches from the next child's face, cocks his head to one side, looks them straight in the eye and says, "Do you wanna SHARE?!?!?" Even after he's been playing with the same train for a good five minutes, he'll point to the train and ask the child next to him, "Can I play with this?!?!?" Of course, to another child, that's just an invitation to grab that train right out of my little boy's hands. And when that happens there's never an argument, never a tear. He just goes on his merry way looking for a new train. At one point, his invitation to share was met with a sharp, "NO!" He looked at me and said, "Mama, he said 'No!'" and we both laughed. Oh, poor silly child who doesn't like to share. Then he declared, "Mama, I'm teaching the other kids to share!" (I'm sure the other moms loved that one).

I'd like to think we are entirely responsible for his "willingness" to share. But I have a feeling it's just part of his nature. The kid has a heart the size of a beachball.