If your 15 year old found some money.

[QueenOfIce]

Say £20 in the street what would you hope their reaction would be?

Dsd found £20 was very pleased with herself, asked her if she had checked around her to see if anyone might have lost it no she said if someone loses it that's their problem.

So I asked her what if someone who really needed that had lost it, if that was their last £20 until payday. Again she shrugged and said 'so what, not my problem'

I'm a little taken aback by the attitude to be honest. Is it me?!

You can't expect her to go round asking people if they dropped £20, I bet someone who didn't would quickly say they did to get the money anyway.
Its not her problem who lost it, it was likely someone really wealthy with a wallet full of notes that mean nothing to them than somone who needed it to survive as you think they would take better care of it
If you can afford to then it would be nice to donate loose money you to charity but I wouldn't expect that from a 15 year old.

If I just find loose money

My dd found £20 outside school and I said so did you take it to the office? No of course not. She just didn’t even think of it. I honestly think most kids would be the same.

I’d have been pleased as anything to have found £20. Could you ask her to post on a local fb page saying I’ve found something at x place, contact me if you’re missing anything. That’s pretty much all you can do.

Without actually knowing, honestly, I think Dd17 would keep random money, but I know she'd hand in a purse as she has a couple of times with money still in there.
Make of that what you will.

My 14 year old dd recently found a £10 note, she put it on a post “incase they came back” told her friends, they were walking to the school bus. One friend ran back grabbed it and spent the whole lot on sweets. They had a big fall, both were complete drama queens. Took ages to get their friendship back on track.

*The person who lost it came back.

I don't expect her to chase around after anyone asking if they'd lost it, it was more the couldn't give a shit attitude that shocked me a little.

Purse definitely hand in, though where these days is a problem unless it's outside a shop, our nearest police station is miles away.
Random cash in the street is different. Keep or charity, very unlikely it would get back to its rightful owner. I think most kids would keep.

Meh. I was broke about 11/12 years ago and delivery yellow pages for extra Christmas money. I found £80 on the road having blown out of a car window. They didn’t stop and never came back looking so I kept it. 🤷‍♀️

My dd did this once found £20 honestly she looked around and then put it on a shop window ledge under a small stone in case someone came back.
I would have been furious if she had expressed that attitude of 'so what?'
As for actually keeping it, well I don't think that was a particular issue I mean giving it to charity or something would be nice but I wouldn't be cross at her for keeping it.....but the attitude stinks.

Both of mine have gone out of their way to return stuff, including money, to people over the years. They are more honest and responsible than I was at their age, must be their father’s influence.

My friend and I found a fiver on a bus back in the 80s. We handed it in to the bus driver who took our names in case it wasn't claimed. My parents gave me a fiver as a reward for being so honest.

My teen gives it in to someone (shopkeeper etc), or puts it into charity collection (on the street).

I know this because it's happened near her a couple of times recently.

She hasn't had a sanctimonious attitude about it; only mentioned them afterwards belatedly and randomly.

I'd be horrified and disgusted sorry with a selfish "so what?" attitude.

If my dd found a purse I'd hope she'd try and find somewhere to hand it in.

If she found a £20 note I'd hope she'd think about the person who lost it and would expect her to probably stick it in a pocket and ask me what she should do when she got home.

I'd be really disappointed by her lack of empathy if she had a selfish "not my problem" attitude.

So you want her to feel gutted for an entirely theoretical skint person? Give over.

I discussed this hypothetically with dd2 the other day. Agreed we would donate it to charity. Though if it became reality prising it out of her hands might be hard .

My DS would keep it and I wouldn't have a problem with it.
I once found £50 when out with him, no-one around. I kept it and shared it out between the family.

I think dsd is typical.
I used to do training with 16/19 year olds. Did one which involved a wwyd task. Find cash, wwyd from random bank notes up to envelope with name on it, "rent money" etc.
Overall, apart from those who had certain faiths, anonymous money found in the street was fair game.

How can you identify whose money it is? It’s not like a purse that you can describe. Cash could be anyone’s and people will lie to get it. If you find cash you keep it. I might feel sorry for the person who lost it but realistically there’s no way to find them to give it back, so you might as well keep it.

For £20, I wouldn't expect them to do any different, unless it was in a wallet or similar. What else can you do? You can't even hand stuff in at the police anymore (ours shut down anyway, its a long car drive to the next) and only a fool would put up an ad. I am not raising my kids to be naive.

I would always hand in a purse / wallet with contents but not cash if i randomly found it on the street. If I saw who dropped it for sure I would go after them but if I didnt see then I would keep it. I would say im a very honest person by nature and feel this is reasonable.

Purse/wallet would hand in but not money on its own. Since there is no way of identifying who lost it there's no point worrying that it hypothetically might be someone poor and starving, its statistically likely not to be. Certainly wouldn't leave it nearby for some other lucky buggars to pick up.

I find all the children I know have this kind of attitude. Makes me sad.

But finding a purse, which could be handed in, is totally different to finding a single note.

A lost note in the street is never going to find it’s way back to the rightful owner so the keeping it part isn’t unreasonable - I would however be really disappointed with the ‘not my problem’ attitude

Why does it matter that she’s 15? I would hope she’d have the same attitude as a normal adult. As in if there was someone nearby obviously tearing their hair out looking for it, hand it over. If not, keep it and smile. I would never make an effort to return money i’ve found, too much hassle.