DD left shopping on the bus. WWYD?

[TequilaMockinBird]

DD got her monthly pocket money today and went into town with a friend to buy new leggings.

She's just rang to ask me to ring the bus company as she left the leggings on the bus in a carrier bag. Ive rang but they are closed until tomorrow now.

The receipt was also in the bag so Im not holding out much hope that they'll be handed in, but I could be wrong.

The leggings were half of her monthly allowance and she's upset because if she doesn't get them back and has to buy more she will have nothing left for the rest of the month.

So, WWYD if they haven't been handed in? Replace them for her or let her face the consequences of having left them on the bus?

She's been shopping in town on her own for about 2 years now and this is the first time she's lost something.

I'm tempted to just replace them but does that give the wrong message?

Really quirrel? Surely people learn this when they're 4 or 5, and leave their crisps in the playground or whatever. I would have been really annoyed at 13 if someone implied I thought there was a magic portal to my house from the bus...

Lots of teenager don't get to learn through consequences at home. They leave their clothes all over the floor, Mum or Dad pick them up for them and wash them and iron them and put them back in their wardrobe. They don't learn that throwing clothes on the floor means no clean clothes when they need them.

How many teens refuse one meal and then get another meal made by Mum or Dad? Natural consequence is that they would go hungry, in this case, though the parents are stopping the natural consequence, so they never learn.

If the parent in this case is the sort of parent who picks up clothes, cooks extra meals etc., then this teen is unlikely to learn that leaving something on the bus means going without. The teen might know that if her parents don't bale her out, then she goes without the leggings but actually experiencing the feeling of loss and guilt will help her to learn her lesson far more than a lecture and a new pair of leggings if she is used to not learning natural consequences.

However, as I said before, if her parents are good at letting her learn natural consequences, and she is apologetic and upset because of her own absent mindedness, then if Mum wants to help out, then I see no reason not to.