Stealing-how to handle it

[Tillylils]

My daughter is 7. After she went to sleep tonight, I looked in her school bag and found a pack of stock cubes. Now there might be a reasonable explanation for this but I'm thinking that they have come from the harvest festival table in school. I can't think where else she would have got them.

I was going to take her into school tomorrow and make her give them back and say sorry. I know this is the right thing to do but I'm concerned about how horrible she's going to feel and I don't want her teachers to think bad of her. Am I doing the right thing or am I being too harsh?

I think you need to ask her where she got them from and why she has them and judge her by the way she answers. If you definately know she took them deliberately and knew it was stealing, then I agree with your plan. You need to find out from her what they are doing in her bag first and take it from there. Stock cubes is a pretty weird thing to steal, in my book...

You are making assumptions before hearing her side of the story - could be a simple explanation. Another child could have put them in her bag? Accusing her of stealing right off the bat is not going to foster trust