Do you make your teen pay for lost items?

[Anonymous]

My kids are not careless, so no.

[Anonymous]

Have her write her name on the next one, don’t make her pay for it. Other people steal things so she may not have lost it.

[Anonymous]

Truthfully it depends on the kid. My youngest would leave his head if it weren't attached to his body. So occasionally when he's been particularly careless or repeatedly careless, he ponies up the cash to have some skin in the game.

[Anonymous]

No, but I would make sure she had a plan to avoid losing it again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD lost her graphing calculator. She’s generally fairly organized and loses something (usually a water bottle) only maybe once a year. We paid for the original one. Should we make her pay for a replacement?

No, because it’s a graphing calculator and they’re expensive and thus it’s just as likely stolen as it is lost.

Buy her another one and put her name in permanent marker on the cover and the back of the calculator itself.

Better yet, put an Air Tag on it!

[Anonymous]

No. Kids get spacy in puberty/hs for biological reasons.

If a kid continually loses a water bottle---or sports jacket...then, yeah, possibly.

But, if my kid loses something once or twice ---no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Buy one on Ebay.

Yep. When my generally responsible kid lost his graphing calculator, I bought him another one, but a used one. And I put his name on & phone number on the replacement.

Basically, if you lose something you need, I will buy you another one, but it will be a less-nice version. If a kid wants a replacement as nice as the original, they can pay the difference.

[Anonymous]

If this were the worst thing happening I would happily replace.

[Anonymous]

My 15-year-old always loses things, so yes, we will make her pay for replacements. I don't even know how many water bottles she's lost and they are not cheap. So now if she wants an expensive water bottle, she must buy it. She recently lost one of her AirPods and she had to buy the replacement. She doesn't have a job, so the money comes out of her allowance.

If she didn't consistently lose things then we wouldn't do this. It seems to have helped so far in that she hasn't lost as many items since we instituted this rule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t make her pay because she’s usually responsible. Tell her if she loses it again she’ll have to pay for it. Make sure she labels the next one.

+ 1 Everyone should have a 2nd chance... Not a 3rd.

[Anonymous]

If it's a one off, I would just replace. My kids are younger and used to lose quite a bit. Thankfully in elementary school kids are pretty clueless about labels so their pricier coats etc. were found in the lost and found. My general rule has been that they work off the replacement item as money is pretty meaningless to them. Examples: they lost a beach hat which costs $50 so my DD will do chores to make up the replacement cost. For a $10 item, I might just have DS take it out of his savings.

[Anonymous]

I would only if it was a pattern

[Anonymous]

Thanks all, helpful to see a consensus. - OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD lost her graphing calculator. She’s generally fairly organized and loses something (usually a water bottle) only maybe once a year. We paid for the original one. Should we make her pay for a replacement?

Of course.

How is this a question?

Shit happens stop making this a big deal.

If for some reason it is a hardship then yes let her help like walk dogs or something. Don't make her pay for the whole thing.

[Anonymous]

Of course! And if we go out to eat as a family and she wants anything other than one entree and water, she has to put it on her own bill. One time she forgot to bring her wallet so we told the restaurant she'd stay and wash dishes. They wouldn't accept that because she was only 13 and actually offered to comp her Coke but that's not how kids learn so we made her walk home. We followed her in our car to make sure she didn't call anyone for a ride or hitchhike. Now she never forgets her wallet!