37 Weeks!

Now at 37 weeks, I am anxious to greet the newest addition to our family. It's always around this time that I start looking at all the natural ways to help baby along. I can't tell you for example, how much pineapple I have eaten in the last few days.

I recently met with several other moms of closely spaced kids. One common difficulty we all share seems to be keeping sibling rivalry at bay. While having closely spaced children typically helps children create strong bonds and close friendships, while young sharing is still very difficult.

Most children don't reach the developmental capacity to start sharing until they are actually age 4 or older. Until then sharing is really just an abstract concept for children.

Parents approach this problem in many ways. Some feel obligated to share when around other parents. When your children are young however, I encourage you not to worry too much about how much interest your child truly demonstrates in sharing.

That doesn't mean however, you shouldn't set the foundation for sharing. There are many steps you can take to teach your children the value of taking turns.

I do encourage my children to "take turns" with their toys. This suggests that they don't have to play with the same toy at the same time, but they do get equal time with toys. To help facilitate this process, you can set a timer and allow one child to play with a toy until the timer goes off, then switch.

Some parents prefer having duplicate toys around they house so there is always a similar toy a younger or older sibling can play with.

Still others prefer taking away the mutually desired toy until the kids can agree to stop fighting about it. While this is often met with much shock from the kids and a sure bit of pouting, it generally works quite marvelously.

The more kids have time to run around and expend their energy during the day, the more they are also likely to work together and engage in less sibling rivalry.

More on sibling rivalry and jealousy however, in the coming weeks. Be sure to send me your suggestions and thoughts as we continue this thought...

In the meantime, I am off to see if I am dilating and effacing today.

Wish me luck.

I'll try to post the results later (Unless I am in labor, wa hoo!)...