Children and other's property?

[cappuccinosmom]

Question that's been on my mind, especially in regards to library/borrowed items.

What are your rules for your children regarding things that do not belong to them?

Do they handle breakable items? What do you do if the item breaks?

I have gotten *so* frustrated because a good number of dvds we get from the children's library are badly scratched, or fingerprinted all over, or even have food on them. Last week one of the ones we checked out was snapped in half when I opened the case at home. Obviously, the library needs a better system, or something. But I just can't believe that so many of these dvd's are so badly treated. My kids don't handle library dvd's *at all*. They're off limits because they're so easily ruined. I also can't imagine returning a broken one and not saying anything about it--the one that we found broken I told the librarians and figured I'd be taking responsibility since we were the last ones to have it out, even though it was already broken, we were just the ones to notice it. They told me I wasn't responsible, and they have seen much, much worse. Some of the dvd's you'd almost think a kid had put it inbetween the bread in a pb&j sandwich, or that perhaps the parents gave it to the baby as a teether or something. :

[sisteeesmama]

I can anwer the breakables question.

I do let dd18mos handle breakables if I am ok with it getting broken and it could not hurt her. Fortunately we shop the goodwill/salvarmy etc. so nothing in our house is precious. She has broken things, but it's not big deal to me. Life happens, broken things happen, I just pick up the pieces and move on

[Snuzzmom]

DS threw a truck he loves down our stairs and broke part of it. He was upset. Now when I see him being rough with something, I show him the truck and it seems to cool his behavior a bit, but not all the time.

DS is pretty good about how he treats library books; we don't get DVDs from the library usually. If we did and he broke one, I'd certainly replace it and tell the library! It is represensible that someone returned an obviously broken DVD. I would also try to talk to DS about being gentle with things, especially borrowed things, but he's only 2.5 so I wouldn't expect him to totally get it.

[phathui5]

My 8 year old is allowed to handle putting on a DVD, because he knows how to do it carefully. The other kids wouldn't be allowed to touch it (maybe dd, with supervision).

To answer your question, if they broke or damaged someone else's property (past the age of three, I suppose), I would require them to pay for it.

[Just Elsa]

When he was too young to be careful, I didn't let him handle other people's breakables. If I had, I'd have been obliged to pay for damage. Now that he's old enough to be careful... I guess it would depend on how the damage was caused. An honest accident I'd probably pay for. Willful or truly careless behavior and he'd be figuring out how to pay me back.

Small children should not be handling library DVDs. They simply don't have the small motor control to treat them properly. The most careful 4 year old in the world is stilll a hazard to fragile items. They can't help it.