How do you deal with a kid that is stealing

Question

My wife found out yesterday that one of our kids has been stealing money from us, we think we know which one it is but how do we go about it without blaming her outright and making the situation worse?

How can we be sure?

Answer 1

Stick a note where the money normally would be that says 'I know who you and and what you've been doing, cut it out' or something else like that, it did the trick for me.

Answer 2

Set the child up.

Answer 3

keep stealing her stuff without telling her but make it really obvious and deny it until she admits she stole

Answer 4

It depends on how old they are, but if they are older, I would confront them directly. If younger, I'd probably just mention little hints about it, like having money troubles due to the recession in the economy, to make them feel guilty without saying anything directly.

Answer 5

If she's 15 then she clearly knows the difference between right and wrong so here's what I would do (which might sound harsh but if it stops her stealing from anyone else I don't care). I would set her up. Let her steal your money and set her up so that you or your wife catch her red handed. Then drag her butt down to the cop shop. You don't actually have to press charges, the idea is to scare her into 'not stealing.' The police will tell her what will happen next time she is caught thieving and hopefully she won't do it again!  

Answer 6

leave money out somewhere the child will spot it. and make it when others are out from home. Handle it with kid gloves though, no ranting and raving, because this can go seriously wrong. and there is a reason, i would say they are stealing for attention, you need to get to the bottom of it.  

Answer 7

you don't mention the child's age, etc.  stealing -regardless of the relationship- is theft.  if your standard discipline solutions haven't worked, counseling hasn't helped, and having a conversation with the thief was unsuccessful -it might be time to press charges.

Answer 8

Easy.

Get a fresh copy of an exercise book.

With a piece of pencil, pencil sharpner and eraser.

Get the culprit.

To do writing home-work punishment.

Writing out " Thou shalt not steal"

Starting with 100 lines.

For kicking the butts of God.

In brealing the code of honour of the Ten Commandments.

Since it's not a school home-work.

Must hand over the next morning.

Before mum or dad leave for work.

No hand over of the home-work.

Come home in the evening.

To top it up with another 100 lines.

Until one get sore finger tip.

Will never do it again.

With practices make it perfect.

No stripes on the backsides.

Just sore finger tip like ET.

Exodus 20.15

What do you think?

Answer 9

put some dye on the money. culprit will be caught redhanded.

Answer 10

You could leave something that stains the fingers on some of the money.  Yea, it could be a problem for your fingers but it's worth a shot.

When you catch the person doing it, you could make them write an essay about how would they feel if someone stole from them and why stealing is wrong.  Our kids never stole again because they hate anything that resembles school work.

Answer 11

well first off

u have the right idea of not singling out one of them

and you can never be sure to be honest

if you want ur kids

to not feel victimized

and want to keep the trusting family environment

have a family meeting

calmly explain what you guys know (without picking out details that would make point to one child)

and ask them to be mature and admit it if they're comfortable

if no one does

explain how you feel hurt that the trust within ur family and home is tainted

tell them that if they need something

they can always ask because you are their loving caring parents

and you guys can be flexible and figure out a plan to attain whatever it is they wanted to begin with

it's a mature guilt treatment if you ask me

Answer 12

As you are not sure which of your children it is, you should get all your children together and tell them all that you are aware of what has been going on and that if they need any money they should do the right thing and come and ask you and tell them that you are not angry but whoever it is that is doing it they should stop and think - do they really want to lead a life of crime?

I had a friend whose son was stealing small items from our local shop and he was caught. The shop did not press charges but they did ban him from going in there and my friend took her son down to the police station to ask a police officer to tell her son what the implications would be if he were to carry on doing this. I really hope that you get this sorted. Good luck.

Answer 13

Do they have things that they have been begging you for,but you told them that they had to save up for?

You could always say nobody gets a allowance until the guilty party comes forward.Then see who is spending money,and who isn't.