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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Teacher 'donated' Dds money!

435 replies

WoWoWorrier · 13/10/2017 13:55

My daughter has a knack for 'finding pennies'. She is 8. She collects the 5ps/10ps she finds for sweeties and the 1ps and 2ps go in a piggy bank until it's full. She find a them outside on the floor.

On the way to school yesterday she was saying that she wanted a mini figit spinner from the machine outside our local newsagents.
She had been super good this week and I was already planning on giving her £2 as a reward but she said 'I might find a pound!' So to humour her 'abilities' I dropped a pound a few minutes later and she spotted it.

She was super excited.

When I picked her up from school she was quiet and when we got near the ship I asked her if she wanted to get her toy she told me she had been telling her friend she had found a pound on the way to school and the teacher said it wasn't hers to spend and told her to put it in the classroom charity collection box!!

Aibu to demand it back and be quite pissed off?

OP posts:
llangennith · 13/10/2017 17:16

Tell the teacher the circumstances and leave it at that.
It wasn't her call to decide what to do with your DD's 'find' and, frankly, none of her business.

I'm a retired teacher.

BootHill · 13/10/2017 17:16

I don’t understand why the teacher removed the money from OP’s child and then didn’t discuss it with the OP at home time.

In my school incidents, even small ones, are discussed with the parents at the end of the day.

And the teacher had no right to remove the coin from the child. I would not let it go if I were the OP because now the OPs child will naturally hide things from the teacher as she will think the teacher can take anything from her and it’s caused distrust with her friends.

AndrewJames · 13/10/2017 17:17

I am not hard up enough to pick up small change

I found 50 euro on holiday. Are you hard up enough to pick up that?

soapboxqueen · 13/10/2017 17:19

Your child should not have had random money in school to start with. I'm fairly sure 'finding' any money and keeping it is theft by finding. I would have kept the money until the end of the day incase another child had lost it. I wouldn't have put in into a charity box though.

Ta1kinPeece · 13/10/2017 17:20

I'm not hard up,
I'm just observant and optimistic Grin

Katedotness1963 · 13/10/2017 17:20

My kids have seen me do the right thing often enough, that I feel confident I have not left them morally bankrupt by letting them keep a few coins they found on the street.

mamma2016 · 13/10/2017 17:29

YABU

The teacher can't condone 'finders keepers' in any situation. Otherwise it's confusing for the kids: find someone's Pokemon card on the playground- you can't keep it, find someone else's rubber by the sink- you can't keep it, find an unlocked bike- you can't keep it. Teachers have be consistent and uphold moral values. That's all she tried to do, despite it being ONLY a pound. But since it's ONLY a pound, tell your daughter she was kind to donate to charity and give her another bloody pound yourself. Definitely don't go and demand it back from the teacher. She's probably already worked over 50 hours this week and has several more to work over the weekend. Show respect for the teacher and so will your child. Don't undermine her; it won't help anyone.

becotide · 13/10/2017 17:35

Er, it's not about being hard up. The money you see on the floor is NOT YOURS. I would have to be starving to pick it up. It's just morally wrong to take money and items that do not belong to you.

If I dropped £30, I would damned well go looking for it. Many people are the same, and this means that people who drop money and don't find it aren't finding it because one of you thieving fuckers has picked it up nd taken it home with a happy caw of "Finders keepers!

glitterlips1 · 13/10/2017 17:36

No, the teacher is not right. I would demand the money back. It has nothing to do with the teacher where that money has come from since it happened outside of school!

Katedotness1963 · 13/10/2017 17:36

It wasn't found on school property!

Ta1kinPeece · 13/10/2017 17:41

becotide
If you saw 50p on the pavement of a busy shopping street would you walk past?
Would you expect everybody to walk past?

If, after a busy day of shopping you remembered that you might have dropped 50p hours earlier
would you retrace your steps to find it?

Sorry but a dropped coin on the public highway is NOT THEFT

yes, I read the wikipedia page : all of the examples were on private property or were chattels, NOT coins

Bunnyhipsdontliegrl · 13/10/2017 17:41

Becotide, do you always go to find every penny or pound you lose? When I lose money, I think that at least, I hope someone is enjoying it. Really. I also think I am dumb for having lost it.

But I would give £30 to the police if I found it. Not a pound...

Bunnyhipsdontliegrl · 13/10/2017 17:43

I somehow wish everybody started to go bring to the police every coin they found. Oh the fun they'd have

hippyhippyshake · 13/10/2017 17:43

I think I would find out the words used. Op said she finds them outside 'on the floor'. I think of floor as inside and ground as outside. Teacher may have overheard she found them 'on the floor' and assumed that meant in school. As op's dd didn't correct her she asked for the coin.

LilQueenie · 13/10/2017 17:45

Why shouldn't the child be allowed to keep money she finds. Kids round here chuck their loose change away on the ground because to them its not 'good enough'. the teacher as wrong to take it away.

glitterlips1 · 13/10/2017 17:51

When I lose money I class it as dead money. I am not going to get it back! Finders keepers hey! I wouldn't even bother going to the police station. That's just laughable to me.

OhSoggyBiscuit · 13/10/2017 17:53

Do we need some ladders for all these high horses? 😂 Such sanctimony!!

Once I found £20 and it paid for me to be able to travel between home and school and be able to eat lunch. Not so bad in that case, huh?

chickenowner · 13/10/2017 17:53

Why did you post on here of you are going to ignore any opinions that differ from yours?

Willow2017 · 13/10/2017 17:53

YABU

find an unlocked bike- you can't keep it. Teachers have be consistent and uphold moral values. She's probably already worked over 50 hours this week and has several more to work over the weekend. Show respect for the teacher and so will your child. Don't undermine her; it won't help anyone.

Seriously? You are comparing finding a £1 coin on a pavement to stealing a bike?
How in the hell could the child find out who had dropped a coin on a bike path? It could have been there for hours! Dont be so ridiculous.

It didnt belong to anyone sitting there on the pavement (apart from in this case it was the ops) so it wasnt stealing.

What the hell has the teachers work hours got to do with the fact that SHE took money off a child and decided she could do what she liked with it. Talk about double standards!

AndrewJames · 13/10/2017 17:54

The teacher can't condone 'finders keepers' in any situation

The teacher can't tell you that finders keepers is wrong by stealing the proceeds of that find.

chickenowner · 13/10/2017 17:54

The teacher can't condone 'finders keepers' in any situation. Otherwise it's confusing for the kids: find someone's Pokemon card on the playground- you can't keep it, find someone else's rubber by the sink- you can't keep it, find an unlocked bike- you can't keep it. Teachers have be consistent and uphold moral values. That's all she tried to do, despite it being ONLY a pound. But since it's ONLY a pound, tell your daughter she was kind to donate to charity and give her another bloody pound yourself. Definitely don't go and demand it back from the teacher. She's probably already worked over 50 hours this week and has several more to work over the weekend. Show respect for the teacher and so will your child. Don't undermine her; it won't help anyone.

This.

SoNouveau · 13/10/2017 17:55

DP stopped his van and held up the traffic last week because he thought he saw a tenner lying in the road as he was turning into a side road on his way home.
Other cars were peeping their hooters as he got out and it *was a tenner!
He waved it at the other cars and one guy grinned and gave him the thumbs up, he went and bought me a bottle of wine. Grin

Ta1kinPeece · 13/10/2017 17:56

But the teacher found and kept
so is a hypocrite

chickenowner · 13/10/2017 17:57

The teacher did not keep it!!

It went into the class charity collection.

RTFT!

Pengggwn · 13/10/2017 17:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.