I think the only good time to express opinions on a friends parenting style is if they ask for that opinion. Otherwise they probably don't want and most likely won't appreciate the advice.

I don't think i would tell her what to do, obviously lol it is her child. But what kind of friend is it if you can't express yourself? i think it would be completely appropriate for you to discuss what happened. But i wouldn't tell her how to parent her child. Just say you didn't like how the little girl treated yours. If she doesn't want to make it a requirement to share, then she should have told you, and next time bring your daughter her own toys. And they can each play with their own. I don't think its such a big deal. Everyone can parent the way they want. It isn't your responsibility to tell her she is doing it wrong. Just say i would have appreciated a warning so i could have brought toys for my daughter. 

I think maybe you're being a smidge sensitive. I can understand being angry when you see your child being deprived- even in a very minor fashion- through the actions of others.... believe me I do understand that. I'm a mom.

Still, try to see it from the other woman's point of view. 15-month-olds can be VERY destructive towards objects. If she made her 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter share her toys with your daughter, and your daughter had ended up breaking a toy or the baby doll (a very large possibility for any object put into the tiny hands of a toddler) ... that would have created some nasty trust issues between your friend and her daughter. "I can't trust Mommy when she tells me to share because it will always end badly for me when I obey." I can see your friend being wary of creating a bad psychological situation this way. Putting her daughter's baby doll in another room so your daughter would forget about the toy seems pretty reasonable in my opinion. My outrage meter isn't ticking high over this.

If your friend had yelled at your daughter, slapped her or allowed a pothead neighbor to babysit then yeah, ... cut off relations. This situation though... nah. Agree to disagree and move on. This is not something worth breaking a friendship.

My two cents.

Considering you don't see this friend often, you will probably rarely have issues like this.  However, if you criticize her parenting style...you may lose her as a friend completely.  I would say just do your best to ignore it unless it escalates to her child being physically abusive and your friend reacts the same way.

However, if she were a neighbor/ someone you saw often...I would be more inclined to mention it as gently as possible.

It sounds like your friend's daughter has some sharing issues...
But in all honesty, if her daughter did not want your daughter to play with the baby/stroller, then the mom did the right thing by putting it away.
We have toys like that in our house, and when other children come over those toys get put away.
I wouldn't take it too personally, and I would not let this ruin your friendship. Chances are both kids forgot about it pretty quickly anyway.
I have a friend like this as well, and I always bring toys for my kids when we go visit. After a couple of visits I did end up talking to her about what what going on... Her son was constantly taking toys from mine.. And I said right out to him "Its hard to learn to share, but it so much more fun to play with friends when we do!" (mine was 3 and her son was almost 4). So we sat on the floor for like 2 hours and talked about sharing. It turns out that when my friend was growing up she had nothing that was just "her's",  with 5 sisters they had to share everything all the time. She did not want her son feeling the same way. So now, he does have special toys that get put away when friends come, but he has come a heck of a long way when it comes to sharing.

@ everyone -thank you for your comments!  I think the idea of bringing our own toys for my daughter is a great one and I will make sure to do so.  I think we may even have had toys in the car (I never travel with my young one w/ out bringing things to keep her entertained), I think I probably just overlooked the concept of going to the car to get something for her.  Blonde moment!  

I appreciate all of your thoughts!

@quidam2010@xanga - I was in your friend's position... and on her behalf I want to thank you for not just dropping her. I wasn't so lucky.. I went through a lot with a friend, and when I moved back to town we started hanging out again. Unfortunately, she hated that I am a foster parent, and told me to my face I had no business taking other people's babies, that I should just have one of my own. Thats the last time she spoke to me.
So thank you for being a real friend and sticking it out.

 Maybe it's just me, but I don't see why you should have to bring toys with you. One would think that if you both have kids, and you'll be at her house, she could share her toys. Like you said, that was a good opportunity for her to learn how to share. I know kids aren't great about sharing, but they need to learn. Period. If my daughter has friends over, I don't expect them to cart over a bunch of toys so my daughter can be selfish with hers. that's just ridiculous. She shares. She doesn't always like it, but tough. lol

@Alle_in_Ashe@xanga - I think this explains it perfectly! I second what she said.

@nachita86@xanga -   Its called having courtesy, and being nice. While growing up I was taught to share with people that didn't have cause it was the nice thing to do, especially when I am just letting them use for time being in my home. I mean it wont hurt your child to let someone use/play with something of theirs, especially when they are not using it, but if you want to raise a stingy brat that is cool too.

@nachita86@xanga - Maybe the people your hang around don't share things, but I know me and my friends do share things whether it be money if they need, food,car ride, etc.. And I wasn't calling for people to give up their prized personal possessions or things that they are currently using. Another thing, I dont even understand the situation you proposed, sharing with anybody usually goes like this,person A has something,  person B that wants/needs said thing asks(politely) to use the thing, person A then shares or not upon discretion. The situation you described sounds more like stealing and I would agree that nobody likes that. I dont know how your statement relates to what blogger said, what she described was she went to her friends house with her daughter. The two adults wanted to have time to themselves and sat their daughters down to play 

. And now we find ourselves at the disagreeing point, I see the situation as both the girls being at a pretty non communication age, would need their mothers to show them the right way to do things( I feel right thing would be, if you have a guest you should show hospitality and share your stuff with

, you feel people dont have to share if they don't want to, which comes off as stingy).

I am sure when you invite your friends w/children over, and you sit them down to play together  you don't just let your son use all their own things and leave the other child not entertained, but maybe you do since you don't teach your kid that in

sharing is the right thing to do.

@Alle_in_Ashe@xanga - Exactly what I was thinking. Because the older child picked up the toys AFTER the younger child put it down. Even if she is annoyed her toys are being played with, she waited it out and then cleaned it up. That, and I think as parents we should give our children a choice in some matters. Great comment!

Hey everybody, you all have some great thoughts and I really appreciate the comments.

I didn't even realize that I left an important detail out of this entirely, and that detail is this:  both my friend and I are religious/spiritual people.  We believe in God and are professing Christians, and we have talked about it extensively throughout the course of our relationship.  Our beliefs would generally mean that we desire to teach our children to approach others with love and that would include sharing toys.  We even had theoretical discussions about that before either of us had babies.  Now, I totally understand that a 2.5 yr-old child is just at the very beginning stages of learning these types of things.  But like I said, you have to start somewhere and I felt it could have been a great learning opportunity.  This is a big part of why my friend's lack of response to her daughter was confusing to me. 

I don't want to make this comment thread hairy, so please don't take offense to the above.  Whatever your beliefs are, it's cool, and there's no judgment intended if you have a different opinion or feel a different way is best for you.  This is also not meant to imply that just because you have certain beliefs that it means you must be a doormat or let someone else walk all over you.  Not what I mean either. 

I just realized this morning that I had left out that bit of information so, of course, it would be confusing as to why I seem to expect a specific thing from my friend.

All in all I do appreciate your thoughts and will plan ahead next time to try out some of these suggestions.