to want to boil children who lose things at school and expect me to buy replacements

[TheDullWitch]

Brand new pair of football boots seemingly lost forever on second wearing. Sob. Ds2 is new to secondary school and v distressed. But all the same. Not just the money, but the untold hastle of going to buy the bloody things all over again. At what point do you make them buy the replacements?

I would do now with mine, TDW - they are 12, 14 and 16. Or I would make them do lots of extra chores round the house to make up for the expenditure.

I agree that it is a total pain - ds1 once managed to lose his entire PE kit (there was a 'game' at his school that involved taking someone's kitbag and hiding it - and we didn't get it back until he'd outgrown it all). I calculated that, with the cost of two pairs of trainers (one indoor, one outdoor) plus rugby/football boots, plus all the PE kit (which had to be bought from the school at great expense), plus the kitbag itself, I was looking at a cost of over £100 to replace it all.

I complained to the school because I felt they should be doing something about this 'game' - it wasn't the first time this had happened to ds1's kit (luckily we found it the previous time), and because I thought the school should be providing something more secure than open shelving for kitbags to go on. Frankly I felt that the 'game' came close to theft. The headmaster wasn't at all interested and seemed unable or unwilling to do anything about it.

Most schools have a huge bin of unclaimed football boots that get binned at the end of term.Check the school website for lost property but also get your son to find out if there is a bin full of boots and other kit. I expect they will have been 'borrowed' they may turn up. Have a look on the m and m website thats where I get football boots from for less than £15

If they don t turn up, I think I m going to make him wear his brother's one size too big boots with tissue in the toes for a little while.

Stayingsunnygirl > that sounds a total arseache. I would have been in a rage, ringing up parents of other pupils involved. GRRRR.

What size? We have a cupboard full of hardly worn football / rugby boots, and I'd be happy to see if there's a pair that fits.

I think DS(6.10)'s teacher could cheerfully have boiled him this afternoon when he went into a flat spin about the whereabouts of his jumper, eventually dragging her into the search, only for her to find it - in his drawer.

Boiling's too good for them.

Boiling will make your whole house smell of stewed child, flogging would be better.

Doesn't flogging make quite a lot of mess? You could always boil-wash them, that would be tidier...

Wouldnt boiling take an awful lot of water and use a lot of fossil fuel?

Not very eco friendy - you should be ashamed

Poking soundly with an organic, ethically sourced willow wand would be a far sounder option IMO.

Were they lost or did some nasty bigger boys take a fancy to them and threaten to beat him up unless he handed them over? I?m sure he goes to a nice school and that wouldn?t happen, but after the nasty secondary school I went to that is what springs to mind?anyway he'd probably have told you if that is what happened.

Flogging is fine if you do it on a flowerbed or the lawn (it'll fertilise the plants), hose the child down with (freezing) water and make sure he/she has clotted before allowing back into the house.

It might be worthwhile naming everything with both a visible pen and a UV pen if you think that things get stolen as opposed to just lost.

TheDullWitch - I would have done, but we had no idea which boys were involved. Kitbags were kept on racks around the school in the corridors, and most boys had the school kitbag, so anyone could walk off with someone else's kitbag and no-one would be any the wiser.

The power of Facebook! My ds got on the pooter this morning and located his boots by talking to various classmates. Why are they all online at 8am?