Why do children steal & how to overcome it?

[ChiefKiasu]

Jeremy:

... We had a family talk earlier on, we asked him is he a happy child. The answer is no. he claims that he is always lonely in school no one eats with him during breaks. Other than that he is ok...

Jeremy, the fact that you were able to sit down as a family and talk to work things out already speaks volumes about the closeness of your family. You are doing fine as a daddy, and I'm sure your son appreciates these talks. Continue to do so regularly and I'm sure he will respect you very much as his father. That is fundamental to him taking your advice.

[Jeremy]

tutormum:

Could he be suffering from some disorder which you are not aware of? One example is bipolar disorder and the other is Kleptomania. I'm not trying to scare you but hope you will be open to all possibilities so that your son can be helped. As you have said that this is not his first time, it could also be that as he has got off scot free before and the thrill of doing it again is there. In the end, it may be that he is just being playful and did it for the fun or as tankee has mentioned - for attention or peer pressure. Stay calm and have a good talk with him. If he doesn't open up (and from my experience, there are certain things that most kids would not tell their parents) you may get someone else whom your son is comfortable with to talk to him. I have many students confiding in me and sworn me to secrecy. \"cross my heart\"

I'll send him to a child counselor & probably look into some health ministry that provides such services as well. Both wife and me are going all out to explore what is the root of the problems and how can we fix it in the shortest time.

It hurts to see him facing all these but i just hope he is strong enough to face his teachers and pals. FYI the bookshop has ban him from visiting their shop & i'm not sure what kind of impact he will face. Childrens at his age loves to visit bookshop during breaktime.

[Jeremy]

ChiefKiasu:

Jeremy:

... We had a family talk earlier on, we asked him is he a happy child. The answer is no. he claims that he is always lonely in school no one eats with him during breaks. Other than that he is ok...

Jeremy, the fact that you were able to sit down as a family and talk to work things out already speaks volumes about the closeness of your family. You are doing fine as a daddy, and I'm sure your son appreciates these talks. Continue to do so regularly and I'm sure he will respect you very much as his father. That is fundamental to him taking your advice.

Thanks for your advice & motivation Chief, i really hope i can find ways to turn things round and share with parents who face the same issues as us too.

[girlmum]

Hi Jeremy,


Don't be despair. Can fully understand the stress that u & ur family r going thru right now. Give ur child more time, things will work out fine eventually since u know the root of the problem. U may want to talk to his form teacher on his unhappiness at school.

Take care.

[daisyt]

Jeremy:

We had a family talk earlier on, we asked him is he a happy child. The answer is no. he claims that he is always lonely in school no one eats with him during breaks. Other than that he is ok.

I think its a way he release his stress and unhappiness in school. Maybe you can try to teach him other ways of releasing stress/unhappiness. Since his problem now is the lonley issue, tackle on this, and naturally he would be a happy child in school.

[thumbelina]

My DS has on and off brought back stationeries which according to him, he found them in school. Most of them are used ones and when we ask him, he said he picked them up from the floor and forgotten to put them in the "lost and found".


There were times he said teacher gave him and when we prompted further, he admitted he picked the erasers/pencils/rulers and didn’t hv time to put it in the lost and found.

We hv often told him not to take things that dun belong to him and he said he knows but he forgot… So the 3rd time when he again brought back stationeries, we took away his privileges for that week.

Does yr child has this problem? Would be grateful if you hv any useful tips on handling this?

He never hv this problem before but since started P1, he start to weave stories and bringing stationeries home.

[thumbelina]

Forgot to mention that we hv given him ample stationeries to bring to school. he is also rewarded with fanciful stationeries for his good behavior. So we are puzzled as to why he is still bringing things back. :?

[samuelarnold]

Stealing is a habit which they form in childhood when parents fail to reprimand the child for taking something that does not belong to him or her.

[daddybear]

Hmm, I think you should take some time to explain to him how things work. Example the bookshop owner works very hard to bring food to the table for his family etc. Sometimes, kids do not realise exactly what they are doing.

[usaik]

I agree that kids sometimes do not realize what they are doing. The first and foremost thing to do is help the child to realize right from wrong. Help the child to learn about the important fact that we do not need to have and own everything we see and like. Forgive him/her. Do not judge the child but help the child learn from the mistake and NOT to make the same mistake again.