A small child steals: what to do?

If the child steals, the parents first of all you need to pull yourself together, calm down and try to take a sober look at the situation. Your two year old baby brought from the playgroundsomeone else's toy? Then it is hardly possible to call this theft, because young children can not distinguish between "one's own" and "another's". Most often, a child's acute desire to possess a certain thing provokes him to commit "theft".

So, if a child really wants to have a toy, and parents can not buy such a toy for him, he will take this toy without a twinge of conscienceanother child. In addition, a child can steal if he wants to make a present to his relatives, and he still does not understand that it is bad to steal. In some cases, small children steal more and then to attract attention, and also to punish their abusers.

If a child steals in preschool age, thenTo combat this phenomenon follows, with terms that are accessible to the child. As already mentioned, two-three-year-old children are not yet able to distinguish "their" from "someone else's" and do not understand why one can not take any favorite thing. Therefore, if a child without permission took someone else's toy, should try to make him understand, how much will worry a person who has lost a stolen thing.

It is possible for this purpose to cite as an example to the child hishimself: will he be pleased if someone without a demand takes his beloved bear or bunny? In order for a child to feel that he has acted badly, one can also offer him that he does not just return the stolen goods, but also for a time gives his thing to the victim.

Many small children are beginning to steal, when they notice that usually so busy parents after this start paying a lot of attention to them. And the child does not care that they scold him, punish him, because he has achieved his: Mom and Dad are next to, they have forgotten about all their affairs, and their attention is entirely focused on the child.

To help the child cope with this problem, you need to try to pay more attention to it, and in the performance of any misconduct - notarrange a "concert with the orchestra", then the child simply will not need to steal, because he will know that this way he will not get attention.

If a small child steals, then scream at him, appeal to his conscience, label "thief" or "criminal" is useless and even harmful. Further unrestrained behavior of parentscan lead to serious consequences: the child will firmly learn that he is bad, that he "one road - to prison", and can begin to steal already knowingly. In no case should physical punishment be applied to a child. The belt can lead only to the fact that the child will try to "work" as unobtrusively as possible and never confess to what he has done.

If a child stole a thing for the first time and after a review of the situation and an accessible explanationthat you can not steal, stopped your attempts to take someone else's, then usually you should not worry: the kid really did not understand how bad his deed was. If a small child does not steal for the first time, then this is more than a serious reason to turn to a child psychologist.

After finding a case of theft it is very important for parents to behave correctlyso that such cases do not recur in the future, butthe child did not have complexes. So, there is no need to constantly discuss the current situation, to remind the child of his misconduct at every opportunity, or rhetorically exclaim: "How could you!". Do not also give publicity to the case of theft: the stress of public humiliation can cause serious harm to the mental health of the child.

If parents suspect that the child steals, then one of the strictly observed rulesthere should be a rule of trust: if the fact of stealing is absolutely certain, you can not blame the child for theft. It is better to give the child a chance to confess himself to the misconduct and try to improve the situation together. Remember that your love will help you along with the child to overcome all difficulties!