Okay, so this one is a pretty specific question here, Dr. Skinner.
How do you handle an almost 10-year-old female who has a repetitive stealing issue without having to involve the police?
This is going to take a little bit more concept of teaching our child about consequences.
If there's a repeated stealing experience, it's probably taking a child to the place where they stole something and having them self-report, helping them understand that there are consequences.
Again, you're trying to create an environment where your child understands there are consequences.
So having them go back and return something and tell the owner or someone else would be what I would do—because to not do that, I think, is a problem.
We can't just talk with the child; we want to show them that in life there are consequences.
We teach our children about the importance of honesty and truth.
These are really important things we want to teach our children.
As difficult as this sounds, it's an important component to help our children understand consequences.
In some situations, we might try to understand the root of the behavior.
As a parent, I would want to ask, "I wonder what's driving this?"
Where did they learn this? Is it for attention? What’s actually occurring in this child?
So that kind of curiosity—wondering why they’re doing this—would be something I’d contemplate as well.
Those are just some simple things I would start with.
But if a 10-year-old is repeatedly doing something, there needs to be some kind of appropriate consequence where they understand that it's not acceptable to do that.
