My son is 12 and in middle school. I received a phone call from the principle stating that my son had tried to spend $50 in the school lunch line and when asked about it he walked away and threw the money away. When confronted he came up with a story about being paid by an older kid. I took him to the police station to have them help us get to the bottom of this. Evidently he is stealing from me and his stepfather and has been for awhile. The police said that there is nothing they can do. This is the second time he has been caught stealing from me. He did so about 3 years ago and I made him take a theft prevention course. I don't know what else to do. Does anyone have any advice?

Fr_Chuck

Call the Juv services in your area, see if they do a "shock" treatment, with a tour of the jail and talking with some selected inmates
( sometimes these are real prisioners that agree to help kids, and other times it is officers pretending to be prisioners)

Also sometimes the Juv services will allow a tour of the Juv detention center or have even worked out a weekend detention to show him what it is all about.

I am a big fan of boot camps, both state and private.

CaptainForest

And if the boot camp doesn’t work, you can always try teaching him by giving him a taste of his own medicine.

Start “stealing” his things. Things he really likes.

That is 1 idea.

melybum14

okay kids today its all about the mulla (money) so if he sees the more popular kids have money hes gunna try he dosne want for you to see that hes trying to be cool becuse all kids want to be cool in the eyes of there parents so you cant blame him for trying to fit in so just talk to him about it not one of the weird talks just try and raise his alowwance so he can have some money

middleschool214154

Ok, if he does it again, ask him whats ur problem, why are you doing this, is it peer presure, tell him, in the future, if you keep it up, I can't back you up, so stop or your future is in prison

Matt3046

This is only rewarding the bad behavior. I like the Capt. idea of stealing his X-box and Ipod and so forth.

akms

ground him so he cant be with freinds and start the juv thing hows he doing in school

bluerose

I say relax, all kids try this on. Make him pay it back from his allowance. Let the punishment fit the crime. And I say make sure he has enough allowance and is willing to work for more if he needs it by doing chores. Sorry, folks. But we are talking about a 12 year old boy. I think some of your recommendation barbaric.

-radioactive-

i think alot of these answers are terrifying, especially to a 12 year old boy.
no matter how much you yell at a kid and punish them it wont help,
i should know, i'm still a teenager.
when i got yelled at, and punished, i just rebelled even more.
but when my dad spoke to me calmly and tried to get to the bottom of it -sincerely, not faking- i wanted him to still trust me, so i helped myself as well.
don't punish your kid, but if you do, not to severely.
if you do this he may think you don't love him (it's how the childs brain works), and he would just rebel and steal more.
give him a chance to explain himself, don't jump to conclusions that he wants to be a 30 year old drug dealer as his career.

Live_backwards

He is your son you shouldn't be getting the police involved, that is ridiculous. My best friend stole from me constantly when we were ten years old and now she's studying to be a medical student, people change. Love him, show him your kind heart and good will, hold high moral, whip him with a belt when he steals from you, teach him right from wrong eventually he'll stop. My parents don't leave any spare cash in the house because they think I'l lsteal from them and I'm 22 years old... I resent them for their disrespectful attitude but I can't afford to live on my own. I've also decided I will have nothing to do with them, absolutely nothing once I become independent.