One of the things I struggle with raising an only child is whether or not she's being "socialized" enough. I fear she's not interacting with other kids on a frequent enough basis, and usually when she is with other kids, I can't watch her to see how she's acting around them (church nursery etc.) I've wanted to do more playdates with younger kids and their moms, (because let's face it, we all need some socialization, too!) but until recently, I didn't really have any friends with kids.
The past couple months, I have made several new friends, and the majority of them have kids or will have them shortly! This is a wonderful new development for not only me as a mom, but for Aria as well. She finally has people to play with! I mentioned last week how we have started on Wednesdays going to a local gymnastics studio for play time and lunch, and it's been really nice the couple times we've gone. While Aria still prefers playing and running around by herself, she is definitely showing improvement in the tolerance-of-other-kids-in-her-personal-space issue she's had since birth. In fact, she's even given one little boy (her #1 admirer, at that) a hug twice now.
We're also still working on the "share" issue. It was one of the first words we taught her, and she does really well with "sharing daddy's phone" with him or "sharing the piece of trash on the ground" with the trash can etc. We had just never been able to put it into practice with other kids and toys. But today, she shared. A toy. With another child. I was so proud. :) I will say, she was not thrilled to give up one of her bright yellow balls to this new kid, but she did. And I was beaming with pride.
Hopefully, Aria won't be an only child forever. Unless your child is a twin, they've also been an only child at one time. How did you teach them how to share with others? Did you do organized play dates as well? Do they have cousins close to their age to play with (a luxury Aria will never have, I'm afraid)? I would love to hear your ideas and solutions!
The past couple months, I have made several new friends, and the majority of them have kids or will have them shortly! This is a wonderful new development for not only me as a mom, but for Aria as well. She finally has people to play with! I mentioned last week how we have started on Wednesdays going to a local gymnastics studio for play time and lunch, and it's been really nice the couple times we've gone. While Aria still prefers playing and running around by herself, she is definitely showing improvement in the tolerance-of-other-kids-in-her-personal-space issue she's had since birth. In fact, she's even given one little boy (her #1 admirer, at that) a hug twice now.
We're also still working on the "share" issue. It was one of the first words we taught her, and she does really well with "sharing daddy's phone" with him or "sharing the piece of trash on the ground" with the trash can etc. We had just never been able to put it into practice with other kids and toys. But today, she shared. A toy. With another child. I was so proud. :) I will say, she was not thrilled to give up one of her bright yellow balls to this new kid, but she did. And I was beaming with pride.
Hopefully, Aria won't be an only child forever. Unless your child is a twin, they've also been an only child at one time. How did you teach them how to share with others? Did you do organized play dates as well? Do they have cousins close to their age to play with (a luxury Aria will never have, I'm afraid)? I would love to hear your ideas and solutions!
That's exactly where I am with my daughter right now :) She's the only one for the foreseeable future. I noticed the same thing with her not understanding sharing when we'd occasionally take her to our babysitter who has a child around the same age. Our babysitter said her daughter was having a hard time sharing. I thought, "why does her daughter have to do all the sharing?" So at home, when she was playing with a toy, we'd ask her to "share with daddy" or mommy. We never forced her, but when she decided to share, we went crazy with affirmation and love. She still has a lot of practice to do, but that's what we've been doing so far with our only child.
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