Stealing

Sometimes children and young people steal from you and from other places. It might make you feel stressed, betrayed or overwhelmed, and you might struggle to know what to do. There are some things you can try to help your child change their behaviour, and to help you both continue to build a trusting relationship.

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Stealing

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How to help your child if they are stealing:

Walk the walk. Set a great example of honest behaviour, e.g. hand in the £5 you on the restaurant floor to the waiter.
Give a consequence. When your child steals, give a consequence that can help make amends e.g. return the item with an apology note, or don’t give them pocket money that week to help pay you back for the stolen thing.
Make a plan. Talk with your child about what they want and help them make a plan to save up for it, to give them an alternative to stealing.

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Looking for more?

This podcast talks through some case studies sent in about what to do when your child steals and lies about it. Listen for some advice on how to act in this situation:

Learn from this case study about a child stealing from their parent and how Amanda (a Relationship Counsellor and Sex Therapist) advises them to overcome this issue: https://www.relate.org.uk/relationship-help/help-family-life-and-parenting/parenting-teenagers/behaviour/ask-ammanda-i-think-my-14-year-old-daughter-stealing-me

Time to reflect

When thinking about how to handle your child stealing…

What are you already doing that you want to carry on doing?

What have you learned that you could try today?

What do you want to do next?

Know what you want to do next?

Log into your free account (on the top right-hand side) to set a goal on something that’s important to you and your family – then you can check in to show yourself how far you’ve come.

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