How to teach a child to share? – In the news

2023-10-18 14:14:25

October 18, 2023

Learn to share. This is one of the many skills to teach our children. But how to proceed? Is being part of a sibling enough to acquire this ability? Sophie Maretto, psychologist in Paris, provides some food for thought for parents.

A widely held idea holds that having brothers and sisters is enough to naturally teach children the joys of sharing. Indeed, unlike an only child, siblings quickly discover that they must, above all, share their parents. And also the toys, the food, the room… But depending on the position in the siblings, this learning can be more or less easy. “Because he has spent time alone with his parents, the eldest often has more difficulty sharing than the next ones,” explained Sophie Maretto.

How should we proceed to encourage sharing?

“It is interesting to tell a child that he must share, lend, in order to take away his natural feeling of omnipotence”, validates Sophie Maretto. But there is more important according to her. “Sharing is knowing how to give, to please”, she continues. This is why, to transmit a deep capacity to share with others, the best way remains to “ share time, good times with the child », advises the psychologist. It’s this way of showing him that we “gives a part of yourself to another”. Through mimicry and reproduction, the child will naturally do this with others, if his parents give him this shared attention. Whether he is an only child or one of siblings.

So, don’t hesitate to spend special moments with each child, so that they keep precious memories of non-material sharing. Going to the cinema, playing tennis or a board game, reading stories together, eating at a restaurant, depending on the child’s age, will show them that sharing will give them more pleasure than keeping everything to themselves.

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  Source : interview with Sophie Maretto, psychologist in Paris

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  Written by : Dominique Salomon – Edited by: Emmanuel Ducreuzet

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