how to teach respect for belongings...

[rummum]

my son is 7 and he has absolutely no respect for anything... recently I brought him
a small clip on fan for his bunkbed... its broken
a small clip on night light ... its now broken
a timer.. yep...it's broken...
I must admit these things were cheap and not the most well made items.. but daughters have managed to survive.

I have told him I won't buy him anything new until he learns to look after things.. and that means he'll be getting very little for xmas...

How did you teach you kids to look after things???

Your plan sounds like a good plan to me, rummum.

Now walk the walk. Honestly, if you tell him you won't buy him anything new until he learns to respect his things, then don't.

The other way we learned was having gift money confiscated to pay for things we'd destroyed or lost through neglect for them.

Harsh? Not when it taught us both to respect our things, ourselves, others, etc.

does he have pocket money? if he breaks things then perhaps you could make him save up for a replacement

I think pocket money's the way forward. If he's actually paid for the stuff, he's more likely to feel ownership of it and want to look after it.

I also think less stuff in general.

I've tried methods like leaving the toys out in the rain (because that's where he's left them), but he has so many, he doesn't care that they get ruined. And anyway, someone will buy him a replacement soon (how many useless bits of plastic can relatives buy for a child?)

I'm convinced that if my children had 10 well-loved toys each instead of the 1000 they have, they'd be more careful about taking responsibility for them.

good thinking.... he had £2 pocket money today from his nan... I will get him to hand it over tomorrow...

Tough Love...

your so right about them having so many toys Caligula... we have a really good car boot sale near us... we go about once a month and give the kids a couple of pounds each and they bring home loads of stuff... Daughter had a really nice cd/walkman thingy for her birthday... Son brought a really nice perfectly working with batteries one for £2!!!