How to Give Your Children Equal Attention

It's been really tough lately with the two kids.  Every time we try and engage Dean with his toys, Faith decides she wants to play with said toys.  We try explaining to her that they are baby toys and only for Dean just as she has big girl toys and they are only for her.  I understand that she sees it as a way of gaining our attention, but it's really frustrating since she'll completely monopolize the toy.

Separate Play Does The Trick

Today we divided and conquered the kids.  Mark played with Dean and his pounding bench (featured in Dean Does Lately) and I played princesses with Faith.  It was very effective and gave each of them one-on-one time.  Not that Dean knows any different, but Faith was happy to have someone's undivided attention.  We used the Disney MagiClip princesses for our pretend play.  These dolls are really nice since they're small and can be thrown in your diaper bag to bust out at a restaurant or food shopping.

Buy Set 1 here, Buy Belle here

The dresses can be swapped among the princesses and if you buy the individual princesses, they come with extra dresses.  I discovered these dolls by accident when I overheard Faith watching Disney Collector Youtube channel – for a while she was obsessed with watching this woman playing with the MagiClip dolls and remaking their dresses from Play Doh.  She received a few as Christmas presents when she was 2.  She was a little young for them at the time as she had difficulty getting the princesses in the dress; however, she picked it up over a month or so.  The dresses can break in half depending on how hard your child is trying to jam the feet and legs back in, but the two halves simply to click back together.  Anyway, I digress.

Pretend Play

Faith brought over the princesses - she picked Arielle and gave me Sleeping Beauty (which worked for me since she was my fav from my childhood).  I thought it hilarious when we start playing and the scenario she acted out was Arielle and Sleeping Beauty going to the chocolate store, but first they have find Arielle's keys to her car.  This was too funny since she was acting out a common scenario that happens with Mark - he misplaces his keys all the time and will ask us if we've seen them.

What the future will hold

It will be interesting to see what happens once Dean starts walking.  That will definitely be a game changer; I just don't know in what way.  Right now he likes to take all the toys and throw them, smash them against a flat surface, or put them in his mouth.  I hope that Faith will show him how to use the toy without taking over and solely playing with it.  I have a feeling there will be a lot of yelling and crying in my future as Dean has more accessibility to Faith’s big girl toys and starts playing with them.  Hopefully with the changing seasons and upcoming warm weather, we can avoid these tantrums and screaming matches all together and get outside.  We’re lucky to have a pool and swing set that we can take advantage of and avoid the tug of war over toys.  Do any of you have tips on keeping the peace among your kiddos?  How do they do with sharing toys?

Love, Candace Jean

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