‘There’s only one kind of toy I always make my kids share at the park’

“I don’t think you should have to share your toys with strange kids, but it’s unhinged and demented if you let your kids keep this toy to themselves,” the mum said in a viral TikTok.

KC Davis isn’t one of those mums who thinks that kids should have to share the toys they bring to the park.

“I don’t think my kids are entitled to your kids’ toys just because you brought them to the park,” she said in a viral TikTok.

“But there is one exception to that rule: sand toys.

“I believe if you bring a giant bag of sand toys and then proceed to scatter them about the communal sandpit at the playground, it is unhinged and unfair to not allow the toddlers and preschoolers who are going into the sandpit and picking up a shovel that isn’t being used to play with that toy.

“To go, ‘Ah ah! That’s actually ours’.”

KC said when her kids bring sand toys, she tells her kids they’re going to have to allow others to play with them

“There’s no possible way that another little toddler is going to understand that although they’re at the playground and allowed to play in the sand, every single toy scattered around the sandpit is off limits.”

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Mum doesn’t force her kids to share toys at playground

KC’s policy is sensible.

Kids don’t often bring toys they don’t care about to the playground. They bring favourite toys, the kinds of toys they can’t bear to part with when they leave the house.

And to force a child to share those precious items is going to guarantee you a tantrum situation, and it isn’t very nice.

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But sand toys tend to come in large quantities. A bag might carry three buckets, a few spades and rakes, some nautical-themed moulds.

And it’s not like kids keep their belongings neatly organised next to them. They move around, forget to pick up things. The sandpit can quickly become littered with a large sand toy collection.

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Policing that makes parents’ lives hard, and life is already hard enough for us without having to snatch a red spade out of a toddler’s chubby hand while his mother glares at you from the swings.

KC said only sand toys should have to be shared at the playground. Photo: iStock

TikTok divided on sharing toys at playground

The comments were divided on KC’s policy.

Some thought sharing was inevitable.

“If you bring more toys than your two hands can play with, you risk having to share them,” one person said.

“I’m not saying you have to share, but if sharing is going to infuriate a parent or child, then the toy is very special and needs to stay home,” said another.

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Others disagreed.

“Nope. Other kids need to learn boundaries,” one mum said.

“Stop feeling entitled to s**t that’s not yours,” said another.”

“Kids do not have to share anything,” a third person said. “It reinforces that their boundaries aren’t secure when a parent forces sharing. And it tells other kids ‘no’ doesn’t mean ‘no’. There’s more to it than just the toy.”

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“I think it depends like you said,” one person commented. “Like a sand toy. But also maybe an abandoned ball. Basically you can’t leave your unused toys laying everywhere without them becoming temporary community toys.”

One woman told the story of when she decided to teach her neighbour a sharing lesson.

“My neighbour got mad at me for not making my daughter give the hoolahoop she was actively using, to share with her boys,” she said. “I went over to her porch the next night and asked for the book she was reading.”

Originally published as ‘There’s only one kind of toy I always make my kids share at the park’