I have long wondered what prompts the teenagers in my life to share everything. You know, food, drinks, utensils, clothing, makeup, chap stick, other icky stuff that I wish I didn't know about...
Then I look around at moms of young children who do nothing but "share" with their kids.
At some point very early on, I think we need to teach our children that sharing personal items is not OK. Sometime after nursing but before preschool. If kids are taught that it's OK to share drinks and food and chap stick with mommy, how will they know it's bad to share the juice box with Johnny at school?
I don't think kids differentiate between family and outsiders until a very mature age. When I object to my teenage students sharing, they say things like "it's OK... we share everything at my house." Then they are surprised when they catch everything from colds to cold sores from their friends.
Teach them early. Some things are just personal.
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2 comments:
So sitting in Michael's cubicle and giving him laryngitis (and him giving it to you) was not appropriate? Can I claim it's cultural and that we Koreans share everything? A little piece of Korean never hurt anyone. Actually I guess it hurt everyone.
For the record: Jessica is banned from my cubicle.
Also for the record: Rodents are banned from my home.
The rodents are better at following directions than is Jessica.
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