ParentWithPassion.com

All kids steal money at some point in their lives. I can remember when I was about 8 years old. We were on holiday and I saw a pair of shoes with a 5 cent coin in them. Now back then 5 cents was alot of money. It could get me a ride on the train at the park. I remember struggling with the thought that it was someone else’s money but that I really wanted it for myself.

I can remember walking up to the shoes and crouching down like I was going to tie up my shoes, then quickly picking up the 5 cents, even though I knew it would be stealing. Then I ran to the train and had my ride, feeling bad but good all at the same time. I kind of numbed my conscience.

I can also remember the time I got very brave and stole one whole dollar from my mother’s purse. I spent it all on lollies – and back then it was a whole grocery bag full of lollies. I made up a lie to cover my tracks and told mum that I found the dollar at the shops. She believed me, at least I think she did. Twenty years later I told her the truth.

Here’s the thing, kids are tempted when they see money lying around so the best advice I can give to parents is do yourself a favour and don’t leave money lying around. If you do, expect it to go missing. But how do we deal with kids once we know they have stolen money from us?

The trouble is often we don’t know exactly what has been taken, but we just know they have taken something. When you know that some money has gone missing and you pin point the culprit, you need to hold them accountable to repay the money, with interest, just like if they were to borrow money from a bank. Now this is fine if your child earns their own money, not so good if your child is younger. But I have a plan…

If your child steals $5.00 from you, they should always repay with interest. So let’s say Lucy owes you $6.00 now. And that weekend you go out to the Mall and she wants you to buy her an ice cream. Well, if Lucy hadn’t taken your money you would have the money for an ice cream, right? So you say to her, “Lucy, the ice cream costs $4.00 so now you can miss out on it because you are paying me back what you stole from me. That takes your total owing down to $2.00″.

This helps Lucy know that she is being inconvenienced big time for taking what did not belong to her in the first place. For second time offenders, I make them pay back an extra 50% on top of what they took from me. If there is a third time, that means the person pays back 100% extra. The idea is that we want to make it inconvenient for the child to continue to steal and they will only stop if it is inconvenient to them in a big way.

This is how I deal with kids when they steal money. For more great child raising techniques, please go to www.mychildcanbehave.com