Stealing

[Naetha]

I'm not sure this is exactly the right place to post this, but I wanted to conduct a straw poll on peoples' experiences of their children stealing.

At what age did it start?
Overall, how much (money) do you think they've stolen over time?
Have they stolen from shops?
If caught, has it stopped them?
Any thoughts on the reasoning behind them stealing?

I'm asking because I stole a lot as a child. I started when I was about 7 or 8 years old, and carried on until I was about 14 or 15, and over that time I probably stole a couple of hundred points. I was found out several times, but it didn't really stop me. What stopped me, was my parents always hiding their money. I stole money from wherever I could - parents, siblings, grandparents, parents' friends etc. I also stole small items from shops (namely pens, lip gloss, nail varnish and sweets).

I had a chat with my mum (who didn't bring me up) the other day, and she seemed to think that this sort of behaviour, to this extent was perfectly normal.

I was a bit at your post initially... I was like stealing as kids? Why, I never did that or even consider doing it as a child... But thinking back, I actually did. I remember my dad having a whole wallet full of $50 notes (different country, hence $). He's a cash man and on the rare occasion, I have helped myself to one. Maybe once or twice when I would have been about 13? On a smaller scale, my parents used to keep bowls full of change and I remember helping myself to that on an everyday basis. Not technically stealing but I never asked for permission! It was such a small amount...

BTW, I never considered it stealing... I just thought what he doesn't know won't hurt him!