His friend might be stealing?

[momgonecrazy]

About a week ago my son's grandmother's camera disappeared off her dresser. Sometimes my son will bring a friend up there with him. She tore the house apart and can not find it. She was reluctant to make any accusations because one of her toddler-aged grandchildren may have gotten ahold of it.

Now insert gameboy advance from my son's room. Sigh.

There is one boy my son and his father are highly suspicious of. They said he became fidgety and asked why he was looking for it when DS mentioned it. I'm sick at heart over the possibility he may have taken one or both.

Any advice?

(For the time being I've told DS that he can't have friends in the house until he finds his gameboy. Giving him the incentive to really search for it, if lost, OR insuring nothing else gets taken if its gone, sigh.)

[3boysmom]

When my oldest ds was younger, like 2nd grade, his best friend was stealing from us. He stole toys mostly. We actually caught him red-handed (trying to leave with items in his pockets) a few times before I finally called his parents. His dad was not phased in the least and laughingly said "Oh, I guess these cool Italian toy cars he was racing around the kitchen the other day must be yours." Yes, indeed they did belong to ds and were a special gift from his grandmother The dad didn't even apologize or offer to talk to his ds - nor did he make the kid return the cars...I had to go to their home and ask for them a few days later.

This kid was my son's very best friend. He was very sad and hurt that his friend would steal from him. We explained to him that we can't spend our time around people that treat us like that and that friend was no longer welcome in our home and ds was not allowed to play with him anymore.

These kids are now 15...the "thief" is totally messed up, kicked out of school off and on, and a vey sad child. I feel sorry for him, we all deserve a better upbringing than he got.

Good luck to you, it's not easy.