sticky fingers

Oh the joys of parenting. Where do we go so wrong? One of my sweet kids found saving money is a lot easier when they can find the money in their parents' room (sticky fingers) At first we weren't sure who had swiped the money but we had our suspicions. Then last night, I caught "this one" eyeballing a $20 on my dresser. I called them on it and they quickly stated they were just admiring the bill. But, this morning the bill was gone. After a search around their room while they were away, I found a stash of money. It appears they'd been "saving" for a while...to the tune of $95 or so.

I sought several peoples advice. They were all good but I had to go with what I thought was the right way. When we got home, I sat everyone on the couch. In the silence and wonder of why the kids were on the couch, the guilty party was already squirming. I asked about the $20 and one of the kids spoke up that they found it in the kitchen and quickly produced the bill, hmmmm.

I continued to question if anyone would fess up to stealing the other missing money from my room. Silence. I gave a quick lesson on the 10 commandments and how those are sins when we don't keep the commandments and that we should confess when we sin. I thought I was doing a good thing getting this individual to think all that through...but nothing.

I called them out to let them know I knew who stole the money but wanted this "someone" to confess. Nothing. I asked individually, only denials. One child was quick to try and convince the others that they might have taken the money. Under the pressure, a non-guilty party caved and said they had stolen it. I knew better and talked to this child about not admitting to stealing just because someone told them to. Wow, another issue I'll have to work on!

Eventually, I had to call the child who had taken the money to their room where they confessed they had taken some money. The chile produced $25 after some "search" in their room. I gave several opportunities to fess up on if there was anymore but they stuck to his story that that was it. I climbed up to the hiding place and located $50 more! The child finally caved but I had hoped they would have confessed way before I had to show the evidence! So, I did take away every bit of money in the child's room, including money they had "earned" as a consequence.

Any suggestions on how to keep this from happening again? I need this child to know that even though they may have easy access to money, it is not ok to steal it. We are going to implement a system for all the kids to earn an allowance so maybe they feel they can earn money and not need to take it. The reason given for stealing the money was because they liked looking at it.