When Alanya Kolberg's son Carson was approached by a group of boys on the playground demanding he share his super cool toys,he turned to his Mom completely overwhelmed. "You can tell them no, Carson," she said to him. "Just say no. You don't have to say anything else."
Alanya's reaction earned a few dirty looks from nearby parents but she didn't care. She took to Facebook to explain herself and break it down for all the critical parents out there. "If I, an adult, walked into the park eating a sandwich, am I required to share my sandwich with strangers in the park? No!" she wrote. "Would any well-mannered adult, a stranger, reach out to help themselves to my sandwich, and get huffy if I pulled it away? No again."
It's a good analogy, but even better are Kolberg's comments on teaching your child self-care, and how to function as adults. Putting yourself first is in no means rude, but grabbing a toy most certainly is. "While you're giving me dirty looks, presumably thinking my son and I are rude, whose manners are lacking here?" Kolberg asked. "The person reluctant to give his 3 toys away to 6 strangers, or the 6 strangers demanding to be given something that doesn't belong to them, even when the owner is obviously uncomfortable?"
And, as it turns out, Carson was trying to share — just not with the horde of kids that demanded a turn with his Transformer. "In any case, Carson only brought the toys to share with my friend's little girl, who we were meeting at the park," his mom wrote. "He only didn't want to share with the greedy boys because he was excited to surprise her with them."
Kolberg's post resonated with tons of parents over the world- with over 200,000 shares and 237,000 likes, it looks like our definition of 'sharing' is changing!