Anyone out there a parent of a teenager?

Question

My 17 year old daughter told me today that she found a wallet of a 'classmate' at the bus stop and there was $28.00 in it, but she kept $20.00 and gave the wallet to another friend to tell her she found it at the bus stop. I was appalled! I did not raise her that way, and since she doesn't live with me (she's a runaway, but I know where she stays), all I could tell her was how wrong it was, and that it's very bad Karma. She told me that the girl (who's wallet it was) will just spend it on drugs anyway, and I told her that's beside the point...what she did was wrong. I have been thinking about it all day. Does anyone think I should've handled it differently or something that I can still do? I could use the input, because I'm too embarrassed to tell anyone in my family.

Answer 1

Sort of had the same scenario here.
My son and I were at the gas station when I found some guys wallet. It had pretty much cash in it. My son kept saying "Keep it". (17 BTW).
I got on the net and found the guys father who got me in touch with the owner. My son couldn't believe I would go through so much effort.

Well, the guy was too far away so he had me take it to his work and give it to his boss. When I handed it to him the boss pulled out all the cash and handed it to me. Which I refused.

The next month, my son lost his wallet with a lot of cash. No one ever called to return it.

I had the tremendous pleasure of reminding him why someone wouldn't.

All you can do is hope that they are listening. (and they are.) and turn out to be decent people. (And most of them do.)

Answer 2

that's a tough 1. Im not a parent of a teenager, but i am a teenager.

On 1 hand she may hav stopped some1 from buying drugs, on the other hand, she stole money.

I think that no matter what the girl was going 2 spend her money on, it was wrong 4 her 2 steal, and if she thinks that her classmate has a problem with drugs she should confront her.

Yeah, i know what ur thinking, easier said than done, i dont know if i personally could do it, but it is the right thing 2 do.

Answer 3

Honey, I have teenage boys and have raised them to return things they find that don't belong to them, so far so good. You, handled it to the best of your ability in regards to your views and what you wanted to express to your daughter. I'm not surprised she did what she did though. When you said she was a runaway, and you know where she is staying, I had to question why she wasn't being picked up as a runaway? Why is she allowed to be somewhere else rather than home where she belongs? What kind of parent does that? A parent who then wants to worry about Karma. Honey, this is your Karma. Your daughter, no matter how independent she may be, needs to be home being taught how to make better choices for herself. She can only act out what she has learned from her parents and if you didn't care, heck, why should she? I don't mean to tear apart your parenting skills, I just think that it's easy to place blame on her for not doing what you wanted her to, than it would be to place blame on yourself for raising her in a way that led up to this.

Answer 4

if she doent live w/ u you really cant do any thing i know its embarressing to see our kids do things we know we taught them is wrong but the only thing we can do is pray God will open their eyes to the wrong and make it right and let them know how we fill maybe a few times till it get in their heads and their hearts God Bless they dont come w/ with a rewind button!!LOL

Answer 5

you should deal with the run away problem first and have her living with you you are her mother you should be more embarrassed you failed as a mother in more ways then one

Answer 6

first off, she is your daughter and is under 18, you can make her do anything you want, but i think you handeled it pretty well. theres not much you can do since kids have became so good at lying.

Answer 7

She is almost an adult...too little too late.