All sorts of monster thoughts rake up your mind and the ‘good’ image of your child starts to collapse if you catch your child stealing. The first thing that comes to the mind is, “Where have we failed in our up-bringing?” But nothing will come out of blaming yourself and your child. Stealing can be a lesson for lifetime for your child, depending upon how you deal with it.

Try to understand why your child took to stealing: May be he doesn’t understand the difference between ‘your’ and ‘mine’. May be he knows but did it due to lack of self-control, peer pressure, need for money or for sheer thrill.

Stealing may be a way of rebelling: Lack of love and attention at home or because of emotional trauma, the child may resort to stealing just to get back at his parents. Look if your child is stressed out and if you are responsible for it.

Take appropriate action: Counsel your child, revise his pocket money if required, tell him about your as well as his limitations. But never ever punish him because it’ll never make him realize his mistake.

Condemn the action of stealing, not your child: Tackle the situation in a way that your child doesn’t feel guilty or ashamed. Make him realize that stealing is a mistake, give him the courage to apologize and motivate him to never repeat it.

Instill the strong sense of right and wrong: Strengthen his conscience and self-confidence so much that he is undeterred by peer pressure or doesn’t fear to admit if he makes a mistake. And this will only come when you show your child that an incident of stealing cannot reduce the love or shake your trust for him.