Forcing Children to Share

I'm just going to come right out and say it. I don't make my kid share any of his stuff with any other kid...EVER.

Now I'm not saying he doesn't share, I just refuse to force it on him. It would just be hypocritical of me to make my little guy share, when I wouldn't normally do it myself.

I run across parents touting the benefits of making children share, in my parenting classes, all the time. I give them all this homework assignment, you do this too if you like, but I bet you wont and it proves my point perfectly.

Go home and pick something from your house, maybe your big screen TV, your computer, your car, how about your DVD player, that iPod you got for Christmas, or that perfect set of dishes you just adore. Now take whatever you have chosen, put it into your car, and drive it to a house somewhere, any house, doesn't matter where, but make sure you don't know the people who live there.
Now give your chosen item to them, not permanently, just to borrow for awhile. Go on just do it, your supposed to share right? Not sharing is just wrong isn't it?

Of course your not going to hand your stuff over to someone you don't know. Its your stuff, you worked for it, and earned it. Why on earth should you have to give it to someone else?
Because they want it?
Because they don't have one nearly as awesome as yours?
Because they don't have one at all?

And yet we do this very scenario to our children on a daily basis, and proclaim its so they can be prepared for the real world. The real world doesn't share like this, any sharing is forced upon us as adults in the form of taxes, laws and mandates, and none of us like those.

If the adult world were to share everything, as we make our children do with all of their things like snacks, toys, treats, and the such, it would essentially be the perfect form of communism. I can't remember the last time I heard someone talking up communism in a grand way.

Children as it turns out, can learn to share as they please, and make their own decisions who to share with, all on their own. No need for parental intervention, or forced sharing tactics. My son is a great example of this. Even though I have never made him share with anyone, he does anyway. He will share with children he plays with and has no problem doing. Not because I made him, but because I have taught him, compassion, understanding, and empathy towards other people.

He has learned this not only through our talks, but through my actions. I share certain things with friends, and certain other things with family. What I share depends greatly on the Who I'm sharing it with.

No one in the adult world (hopefully) will ever make us hand over our whole paychecks, and items we have bought to someone else and call it sharing.

So why is it that we force it so hard on our little ones, and say its in their best interest.