What to do if your child steals?

Children do not have the ability to distinguish right from wrong when they are young. At this time, parents need to give them correct guidance. Many children go through a rebellious period. And parents also neglect to discipline their children. Therefore, many children will not learn well when they are young, and eventually do irreparable bad things. Some children often steal things when they are young, and at this time they need their parents to give them correct guidance. Rather than just forbearing. What should we do if a child so young still steals?

Children of different ages have different purposes for stealing. If parents can identify the reasons first, the handling effect will be much better.

For example, a preschool child has no concept of "stealing" at all. He just thinks that something is good and takes it if he wants it. He doesn't know that he has to pay to take something in the mall, or that he needs to get other people's consent to take something from someone else.

School-age children already know that it is wrong to take things that do not belong to them without permission, but most of the time they cannot control themselves because they are too young and have poor self-control.

During adolescence, stealing behavior can take many forms. One is rebellion. He wants to experience the thrill of stealing. If his friends have such behavior, his desire to imitate will be stronger, because he thinks this is very individual and rebellious enough. The other type is that his family is not well off and he cannot afford what he wants, but he wants to be like his other friends, so he steals.

I want to emphasize that if the first reaction to all acts of theft is beating or scolding, it will not solve the problem at all and may even lead to more parent-child problems. The most natural consequence of stealing is to return the property to its original owner. To accomplish this step, parents need to deal with the stealing behavior correctly and "prescribe the right medicine."

For children who do not have the awareness of stealing, parents can only help them understand that taking things without other people's consent or without paying is wrong, which will hurt the original owner of your things. Then parents can take the children to return the things to the original owner and ask the children to apologize.

For older children who are able to distinguish right from wrong, parents should tell them in a serious manner that stealing can have serious consequences. If they are caught, they will have to pay compensation or even multiple times the amount. Even more serious consequences are that the owner of the item will call the police. After telling him the consequences, the parent asked him to put himself in the boy's shoes and think about whether he would feel bad if his own things were taken away secretly. When parents explain these principles to their children, the children will be touched. At this time, parents can encourage them to apologize to the owner of the item, explain the reason and promise to return the item to the original owner.