Do your kids lose jackets at school?

[depreciator]

One of mine does.

Last winter I went to the school's lost property room and grabbed four school jackets that had no names on them and appropriated them.

They've all been lost again.

So this winter I've offered $3 for every orphan jacket that comes home. (And $1.50 for every one that has her name on it that might have been languishing behind a cupboard or something at school.)

Got two so far. Another couple and it will see us through winter.

Having little kids for whom $3 is a big deal helps, of course.

To encourage some entrepreneurial spirit, I suggested she might use her friends as scouts and cut them in on the action by buying then an ice block or something.

 

[pennyk]

one of my children loses EVERYTHING!
When he went into middle school, I bought him a blazer, which cost several hundred dollars. Lost after a week or so........ miraculously found after about 5 months.....lost a week later. No more blazers for him! Next year, its compulsory for him to wear one.. I'm feeling nervous already
2 x guitars left at the bus stop, never found.
multiple uniform items lost.
mobile phone lost after 1 week...... he just found it this morning after 6 months...... and realised he cant find his replacement one.

It does our head in. I buy second hand clothes almost exclusively for him.
But your idea of paying for lost items sounds good.
We dock his pocket money now to buy replacements, but perhaps we need some positive reinforcement as well.

 

[Aaron Sice]

positive re-inforcement doesn't work - trust me, i was one of those kids.

 

[pennyk]

positive re-inforcement doesn't work - trust me, i was one of those kids.

So any suggestions on what might work?
we're pretty desperate, as is he.

 

[Aaron Sice]

tell him that if he loses it, you wont replace it.

so if he loses his guitar - say goodbye.
phone? bye!
jacket? go cold.
wallet? get a job.

it only takes once or twice to sink in.

 

[virgo]

Lost Jackets

Hiya

My 10 year old has lost 3 school hats which were handed down from his older brother..yesterday i bought a new hat which costs $8.50 but i took out $17 from his bank account (my policy is to match dollar for every dollar of their savings but i also double any money taken out from their bank account)

Today, i saw him going to school with his name written right in front of his hat (and i am sure it is also written INSIDE his hat).

I bet he won't be losing his new hat in a hurry; every hat costs double ! And i intend to continue doing that.....considering he gets paid $3 every week, it takes him about 1 and a half months for that bloody hat!

 

[BuildingBlocks]

Hiya

My 10 year old has lost 3 school hats which were handed down from his older brother..yesterday i bought a new hat which costs $8.50 but i took out $17 from his bank account (my policy is to match dollar for every dollar of their savings but i also double any money taken out from their bank account)

Today, i saw him going to school with his name written right in front of his hat (and i am sure it is also written INSIDE his hat).

I bet he won't be losing his new hat in a hurry; every hat costs double ! And i intend to continue doing that.....considering he gets paid $3 every week, it takes him about 1 and a half months for that bloody hat!

It is now in your best financial interest for him to lose them!

 

[lizzie]

tell him that if he loses it, you wont replace it.

so if he loses his guitar - say goodbye.
phone? bye!
jacket? go cold.
wallet? get a job.

it only takes once or twice to sink in.

That was my childhood - now I am very strict on "a place for everything and everything in it's place"

 

[Strannik]

jackets - no, hats and bags - yes

although i wouldn't call it 'losing' cause when you come back to where they left them it's gone.

so obviously someone has 'found' it

 

[VYBerlinaV8]

My sister was like this, because my mother simply replaced things when she lost them. In her case, it was pure brainlessness.

 

[Tuppence]

tell him that if he loses it, you wont replace it.

so if he loses his guitar - say goodbye.
phone? bye!
jacket? go cold.
wallet? get a job.

it only takes once or twice to sink in.

hah, my partner was like this as a kid. His mother made him go to school in the middle of winter in NZ's central North Island (less than an hour from skifields) with no shoes because he continually lost one (just one) from each pair.
Has made no difference, he's still hopeless - and now he doesn't feel the cold either. No 1 son is the same - loses everything and doesn't feel the cold. He will agree to wear his school jacket about once or twice a year. The rest of the time I'm glad to have it in the wardrobe, at least I know where it is then . I'm also dreading the blazer years that are looming.

 

[RumpledElf]

Jackets, hats, lunchboxes, drink bottles, tupperware containers, books, pencils, anything. Last week she 'lost' a helmet at her friend's place, turned their place upside-down looking for it, turned out she didn't even wear it there and it was on her bed at home all along.

The losing things wasn't a problem at her first school, there were only 18 students and 5 staff so she got waited on hand and foot. Changed schools and she lost everything on day 1. Religiously labeling everything has really helped.

Pick the other child up from childcare and you get "MUM I NEEEED to get my bottle/bag/etc" and she scurries around and gathers them all up and hauls you off to the car ...

They're both much the same at home too. One loses everything, the other either knows where everything is or is deliberately obtuse and refuses to do something like get the socks she just took off. Which is kinda normal for a 3yo ...

 

[RumpledElf]

jacket? go cold.

Child left every jacket, hat and pair of gloves that she owned at school once, a few years ago at her old school.

So one morning she had none and insisted I drive her to school. Well, I'm not really into driving a car with no antifreeze in it on a -5 degree morning when I can't even see through the layer of ice on the window. So, she claimed it was "not cold" and crunched off through the snow in her t-shirt.

And brought all her jackets/hats/gloves home that evening.

 

[travelbug]

Last winter I went to the school's lost property room and grabbed four school jackets that had no names on them and appropriated them.

Isn't that called stealing?

They've all been lost again.

So this winter I've offered $3 for every orphan jacket that comes home. (And $1.50 for every one that has her name on it that might have been languishing behind a cupboard or something at school.)

Got two so far. Another couple and it will see us through winter.

Having little kids for whom $3 is a big deal helps, of course.

To encourage some entrepreneurial spirit, I suggested she might use her friends as scouts and cut them in on the action by buying then an ice block or something.

Doesn't anyone else see something wrong with this??

You are paying your child to grab jackets that belong to someone else.
So a parent washes their kids jacket and the name comes off. Never mind I'll get it tomorrow. Oh no- I can't because someone else has taken it to sell to their dad.

 

[cdremy]

Doesn't anyone else see something wrong with this??

I do - what's worse is he takes 4 lots of blazers/jackets, not just one.

 

[depreciator]

Doesn't anyone else see something wrong with this??

Obviously nobody does. It's just you. Unnamed jackets languish in lost property for months and every now and then the school bundles them up and either sells them at the fete or sends them off to a charity where they are made into rags.

 

[jaycee]

How did rencouraging kids into the act work ?

I got confused with that too and thought it was quite a strange thign to do

Did you say also something about jackets with names on them, meaning you know who's they are ?

 

[depreciator]

Oh for goodness sake. Get a grip. Jaycee, these are as I said unclaimed jackets with no names on them. Not sure how I could make that point any more clear. The school, like all schools, hates storing that stuff and they periodically toss it out or flog at a fete. They warn parents in the weekly newsletter when there is going to be a throw out. I feel quite comfortable with my actions given I contribute every year about a dozen items of clothing (with names) to the pool of stuff that circulates the school.

 

[jaycee]

Oh for goodness sake. Get a grip. Jaycee, these are as I said unclaimed jackets with no names on them. Not sure how I could make that point any more clear. The school, like all schools, hates storing that stuff and they periodically toss it out or flog at a fete. They warn parents in the weekly newsletter when there is going to be a throw out. I feel quite comfortable with my actions given I contribute every year about a dozen items of clothing (with names) to the pool of stuff that circulates the school.

I dunno man, I'm not that worried about it

I just got confused despite how clearly for the sake of goodness you tried to explain it

 

[Belbo]

Kids? Way out of my league. Suffocate them all, I say!

(But I'm not a certified medical practiioner or parent so my comments should not necessarily be considered relevant by normal people.)