do you get frustrated with your children for breaking things?

[InSaneOne]

i was just talking to my 13 year old aabout the mp3 players that the 3 older kids got for xmas from their mum.

she said that adam's was stepped on xmas day and cracked and she doesn't know where it is (he had only had it an hour). hers had a broken battery compartment and was getting fixed by the warranty. and anita had left hers in the sun and it had melted.

now i am not as cranky with them as i would have been had we paid for it but made me think. how many of you out there have kids you don't take care of there things? its not just the mp3 players. a lot of their toys and nice things get damaged just as soon as they get them. (and they wonder why i don't like buying expensive things for them.) the 13 year old was given a mobile phone for her 13th birthday (well 2 weeks before). she took it to school and it got lost/stolen within 10 days. (it wasn't a good phone just a cheap $50 - and she had went through $10.00 credit in 2 days, so it had no credit left anyway - and a nearly flat battery).


what can you do to make them look after their stuff???

[InSaneOne]

yeah that might work for younger children but how does that work with teenagers. especially when they take home stuff they aren't supposed to to their mothers. we have said that things we buy them are to stay here unless we give our permisson first.

[EskimoMumma]

Things happen.

When i was 15 I had a cd player(hey a walkman was cool then) and i left it in the backseat window area when we were in an office getting our passports and being in Houston Texas in the middle of summer..you can only imagine how it looked when i came back. I was so depressed :gloomy: (what 15 year old wnats to listen to the oldies station and their mother singing along with her 14year old brother whinging :D )

Needless to say she did buy another one when we had to drive half way across the country but I had to go without for a few months.

I think that in all honesty, accidents happen. There have been sooo many things ive broken and the likes that I really cannot preach. But if they are being destructive like that then(in younger children) take away the toys and in older I would reduce pocket money/gadgets like that considerably and need to be shown that things can be taken care of.

How. i Do not know, when the time comes im sure iw ill have thought of something :rolleyes:

[Rileys*Daddy]

Kids need to learn that there will be consequences-if you dont look after your stuff,its your problem.If you are forever replacing stuff they wreck,they will never learn to appreciate and take care of their things:no: