E-Mail 'Second child syndrome..and hand me downs' To A Friend

I am so with you about giving each child his *own* things; Children need to know that their stuff is THEIRS; It’s an important part of being a human being and of learning to respect the property of others, and to take care of your own.
That said, I grew up in my older brother’s hand-me-down clothing and came off without major hang-ups about it.
Back on the subject of kids and their stuff, though, if you’re going to give a child something, it MUST be HIS/HERS. If you were to be given something, you wouldn’t expect for the person who gave it to you to come and take it back from you a year or two later, to give to someone else, would you?