Should our 10-year-old contribute to replacing the broken car charge cover?

[Bdayupset]

Hi. Dd, 10, broke the cover off the electric charge point on our lease car. She was playing football right next to the car, even though there is a field joined onto our driveway. Literally, 2 steps away. Where they usually play football.

I suggested she could help me around the house today, but she just sulked off. Also, she didnt tell us about the breakage, we had to find it ourselves.

She gets £5 a week pocket money. Should we make her pay for the replacement? It will be bloody £118! We've already had a lot of expenses come up this month, and spent a lot of money ok them (2 ds also) as it's been half term.

What would you do?

Thanks!

What issue ?

Maybe if all of these people had been taught that their actions have consequences at a younger age, they wouldn’t have grown up to be such vile people

It was carelessness and she isn't sorry. How do you expect children to grow into responsible adults if there are no consequences?

But many of us see it differently. She was too scared to own up to it because of being worried about how her parents would react. My kids would have fessed up straight away as they know I would go through with them what happened and how can we mitigate it for the future so it won’t happen again. I would tell them how much it is costing me so they understand the consequence. Wouldn’t expect it to happen again. That would be the end of it.

i would never would have wanted to put a punishment on my child that meant they were ever scared in the future no not want to be honest.

Indeed. But I think it says a lot about us that we barely even consider making rich and powerful people like them pay for the damage they cause. Is it because we know it’s too expensive or difficult to impose consequences on somebody rich and powerful, so we don’t bother chasing them, and instead, we as a society pick on those who cannot fight back? The postmasters were ruthlessly prosecuted because the establishment knew (and probably made sure) they could not fight back. Now that the truth has been revealed, will the perpetrators face justice? People are still being pursued by the courts for alleged lockdown breaches; will Boris Johnson ever be brought to justice for his crimes? Similarly, we take away children’s pocket money, because we can, and they cannot fight back; but do we dock an employee’s pay if they make a costly mistake?

And don’t get me started on the bankers in 2008, who wrecked the country, grinned and said “sorry”, and paid NOTHING.

I think doing chores would e more appropriate than docking pocket money - it will teach her that you need to take responsibility, even for accidents...

So why didn’t she tell you? Was it because she felt scared or just didn’t care? The answer depends on what you do

I was replying to a pp who said the kids attitude was the bigger issue

I accidently damaged my car but shockingly, the garage made me pay for the repair, even though it was an accident....

My son once threw the remote control at the TV in anger and smashed the screen.

I took all his birthday money away to pay for a new one. Made him go to his money box and remove it.

He never did it again

We actually didn’t use this money I put it into his savings account but he didn’t and still doesn’t know and frequently talks about how I used all his 7th Birthday Money to buy a new TV after he broke it. He’s 13 now.