Lost Property Dilemma

Losing things, unfortunately, is developmentally appropriate for kids. During some rapid times of growth, many kids have a hard time keeping track of themselves, let alone anything else. Children are more likely to lose things if there is no incentive for them to remember, and no consequences if they don’t. Short of duct-taping everything to your kids, how do you get them to hang onto what matters?

Parents can help them by:

• Encouraging good habits, like telling them to sort out their stuff for the next day before bed
• Encouraging them to write down lists of stuff they need to remember
• Making a clearly visible timetable of what they need each day
• Helping kids learn that actions have consequences
• Not replacing lost items too quickly
• Labelling their belongings and avoiding buying expensive items.

As parents we also need to take a step back as remembering everything for them isn’t going to help in the long run. As kids get older it is more helpful to the child’s sense of independence to let them take more responsibility for remembering their own things.

I have an almost 8 yr old and he is always loosing things and lately I’m beginning to wonder if it’s really all his fault. We have been very strict on taking care of your belongings and he has been quite upset that his things are being lost at school.I have told him to put his Jumpers in his bag but he always says his teacher tells them to put them in their tote trays. We have lost 6 jumpers THIS year and I just don’t know what else to do.

My son has brought home other children’s jumpers which I have washed and returned without batting an eye lid. It seems though some parents must either be oblivious to the fact their child has someone else’s property or they simply don’t care? The last jacket I just brought and he wore it one day and it never came home! The teacher says they aren’t in the class room, the office lost property does not have them so obviously someone has them right?

If your child brought something home from school that did not belong to them what do you do as a parent?

I learnt when he was in kinder that writing on the tags was useless because they get ripped off, I’ve tried iron-on label’s but they get ripped off too. I’ve tried permanent marker on the collar and even embroidered name on the front and the last 3 I have resorted to LARGE BOLD TEXT in permanent on the inside back part of the jackets and they STILL have gone missing!!

I know uniforms can be expensive and some people may be tempted to keep that jacket little Johnny came home with that is missing a name or heck even has a name but they can peel the tag off but think of the parents who are forking out money for that uniform! We aren’t wealthy and I too have bills to pay so why should I have to keep buying them because others are taking them? (I hate saying it but there is no other explanation for them being missing)

So to all of you parents, what do you do with property your child brings home that is not theirs? Do you teach them to return it?

Are kids learning to take what isn’t theirs or is it simply done by mistake?

If it’s a mistake why aren’t the parent’s getting their children to return the property?

What do you do to combat lost property?

How do you combat the dreaded “lost property” when you are labelling everything? If the children are told to put their property in their trays whould the teachers be responsible for ensuring their students only take what is their property?