What To Do When Your Grown Child Steals From You

-10 Options To Help Restore The Relationship;

You may not know what to do when your grown child steals from you, it can be a difficult and heart-wrenching experience. You may feel betrayed, hurt, and disappointed. While it’s natural to want to punish your child, there are other options that can help you restore the relationship.

Here are 10 things you can do when your grown child steals from you:

1. Talk to your child about what happened.

It’s important to have an open and honest conversation with your child about what happened and why it was wrong. This can be a difficult conversation, but it’s important to try to understand why your child felt the need to steal in the first place. They may be feeling like you owe them something, mixed with anger and resentment. If these feeling are harboring within them, it needs to be talked about before they become worse and stealing from you becomes stealing from other people.

2. Establish or reinforce rules and consequences.

If you haven’t already, now is the time to establish rules and consequences for stealing. Make it clear that stealing is not acceptable under any circumstances and that there will be consequences this time and more severe consequences if it happens again. These consequences could include grounding, loss of privileges, or even being removed from any sports or extracurricular activates they may enjoy.

3. Seek professional help.

If you feel like you can’t handle the situation on your own, or if your child is stealing frequently, it may be time to seek professional help. A therapist or counselor can help you and your child work through the underlying issues that are causing the stealing. Sometimes we cannot see how to handle the situation because we are stuck inside of it, an outside perspective from someone who has experience can be just what you need.

4. Require restitution.

If your child has stolen something from you, require that they pay you back for it. This will help them to understand the seriousness of what they did and the financial impact it had on you. If they don’t have the money to pay you back right away, require that they work for you until the debt is paid off. This could be continually doing house chores everyday, folding laundry, doing the dishes, walking to school instead of being driven, there are a lot of opportunities to help them pay it back. The side benefit will be that they can learn some helpful life skills as well.

5. Have them perform community service.

Another way to have your child make amends for their stealing is to require them to do some form of community service. This could be picking up trash in a park, volunteering at a local food bank, or helping out at an animal shelter. Community service is a great way to teach kids the importance of giving back and helping those in need. They don’t need to tell anyone why they are doing the community service, it can become an opportunity to build selflessness within them, they may choose to go above and beyond when they realize how good it feels to help other people.

6. Donate the item they stole to charity.

If your child has stolen something that you don’t necessarily need or want back, have them donate it to charity. This will help them to understand that there are people who are less fortunate than them and that they should be grateful for what they have. It can also be a teachable moment about the importance of giving to those in need. With every negative experience in your child’s life, there will be an opportunity to turn it into a positive, we just have to create it.

7. Get involved in their life.

If your child has been stealing from you, it’s likely that there are other areas of their life where they feel neglected or unsupported. Spend more time with them, get involved in their hobbies and interests, and let them know that you are there for them. They may be acting out because they feel like they are not getting the attention they need from you. Showing them that you care about them and their life can help to prevent future incidents of stealing.

8. Talk about your own values.

If you haven’t already, sit down with your child and talk about your own values. Discuss why being honest is important to you and how stealing goes against everything you believe in. This could be a good opportunity to share your own experiences with honesty and theft, if you have any. Help them to understand that everyone makes mistakes, but it’s important to learn from them and move on.

9. Seek help from a family member or friend.

If you are struggling to deal with your child’s stealing on your own, reach out to a trusted family member or friend for support. This person can provide you with an objective perspective and offer advice on how to best handle the situation. Sometimes it can be helpful to have someone to talk to who understands what you’re going through.

10. Be patient and understanding.

As much as it hurts to be stolen from by your own child, try to be patient and understand that they may be going through a tough time in their life. They may not have the best coping mechanisms, but with your love and support, they will get through this difficult period. Be there for them, offer guidance and advice, and let them know that you will always be there for them, no matter what.

-If your grown child steals from you, it can be a difficult and hurtful experience. However, there are some things you can do to help restore the relationship. We hope these 10 options help you to restore the relationship.