My son Tejas and I started playing badminton in the park. All going well.
All of a sudden, a kid zooms near us on his scooter. He was around 4-5 years. He stops near Tejas and asks him to give the racket.
“I want to play badminton. Give me the racket.” That kid was not bullying. But he seemed to be too comfortable as if it is his own racket. I looked for his parents. They seemed to be away.
The problem is not with the kid. No. not even with parents. It is very normal that kids do not understand ownership of things. They do not understand that a thing belongs to someone. To get others’ toys or other things, they need to request for it. If the other kid agrees, they can borrow it and can return later.
Without this what happens? Various things below-
1. Kids steal (Well – they do not steal, but take without asking.) without knowing that they are stealing
2. Kids fight for things which are not theirs
3. Kids do not return borrowed things.
The common to all of these is embarrassment and extra stress for parents.
Your family values, your way of parenting and many more could get ridiculed.
As a dad, I did not know till recently that kids do not understand ownership concept. This is one of the most important thing to teach. It will help on things like toys, books, money and so on. This would help when a kid is dealing with peers. Sooner the better.
This is one reason IKnowItMOM money book covers this subject.
