I have no idea how to get my kids to look after things. I've tried so many things.
They break and lose absolutely everything.
Already 2 days after Christmas they've lost and broken most of their presents.
I got them that pop up pirate game, they've already lost all the swords. Wooden toy pizza, lost all the toppings and 2 slices. Lost half of the Melissa and doug ice cream set.
Broken the ends of their puzzles completely off.
I've tried reducing the amount of things they have so they care about it more since they don't have very much stuff. I've tried explaining to put things away and showing them, plus putting it away with them. I take my eyes off them for 2 seconds and they destroy everything.
I've tried saying I'll throw their toys in the bin if they don't look after them. They just tell me fine, throw them away. I've actually followed through on that threat before so they know I'm not just saying it without ever following through.
They genuinely just don't care about anything, and they're just as bad with things that don't even belong to them. What do I do? How do you teach a child to care about their and others belongings? I'm sick to death of every toy they own being broken or most of the pieces lost within seconds of them having it. I may as well not have gotten them anything for Christmas because most of it isn't even usable now anyway.
I see other people's kids actually care about their things and treat them carefully and put them away, how do you even do that? At this point I'm so sick of it (daughter who had her birthday in December has also broken absolutely every toy she got and it was only 2 weeks ago). I'm half tempted to just bag up every toy they own while they're in bed and put it in the shed so they only have one thing to play with and don't get anything else until they can learn to look after it. A bit drastic yes, but they destroy everything. (not even just toys, furniture, clothes, etc).
How on earth do I get them to respect things? I've tried the calm and gentle approach and they genuinely just laugh in my face.