Mine, Mine, MINE!!! {The Ordinary Moments}

We have got to another phase in LP’s life. A phase we knew would come eventually. It feels like only yesterday we were well and truly in the ‘No’ phase, where the answer to everything was No and even a simple instruction was refused.

We have progressed onto the ‘Mine’ phase. Anyone that has lived through the ‘Mine Phase’ knows that it is just a phase. Like everything in the world of parenting, most things are ‘just a phase’ and we tell ourselves that often to get through each day and if we didn’t see everything as a phase all parents would only ever have one child.

This phase, for those who haven’t reached it yet is very simple. From LP’s perspective, everything that is her is ‘mine’, everything that is ours is ‘mine’ and everything that is anyone else’s is ‘mine’. LP thinks that every single item in the whole of her world belongs to her and that she can have it at any time.

I was prompted to write this post as Little Man was playing happily on the floor with LP’s lego. He was having a great time, pulling the lego box over, chewing on a piece of lego, picking up another piece of lego and smacking it against the floor. LM was well and truly in his element.

Then we go and get LP from upstairs where she’s been having her quiet time. She comes down and the first things she says is ‘My Lego. Mine’, We try and placate her, tell her that he’s borrowing it, that she has to share and are met with ‘My Lego, MINE!!!!’. It’s normally at this point where LP snatches whatever LM is playing with away from him. LP hasn’t learnt to share yet and it’s something that we are trying to get her to understand but it’s very slow going.

When we’re in shops everything is LP’s – ‘My basket’ was a favourite day of mine as she held the basket for me in the pushchair on a quick dash around Sainsburys. Unfortunately, LP wanted to keep the basket and we had a huge meltdown, firstly when I took ‘My bread’ from the basket and secondly when I took ‘My basket’ away.

I don’t mind trying to teach LP that everything isn’t hers – it’s something she has t          o learn gradually. The thing I do mind is the pitying looks you get from strangers when your child has a meltdown over something that is trivial to you but obviously huge to them. The pitying looks, the comments, the frowns. LP is 2. LP has meltdowns in public – as do most other 2 year olds. It’s incredibly hard being 2.