Is your kid a loser???
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Is your kid a loser???
| Tue, 08-21-2007 - 8:55pm |
BOTH of my kids are! Of course I refer to them as "losers" very tongue and cheek because they seem to lose EVERYTHING! Any tips for me? last year both of them lost several lunchboxes, water bottles, jackets and my DD even lost a pair of SHOES! Now that school is about to be back in session I'm getting scared! They both have a lot of new stuff that is just the kind of thing to be left behind. How many waterbottles and lunchboxes do you guys go through in a typical school year?? How many jackets need to be replaced before they learn to keep track of their things?
Melanie

I have 1 "loser" and one who's pretty good at keeping track of things. I think it is partly genetic or "hardwired" into them. Here are a few thoughts... the more they have, the more they can lose. It's harder to keep track of things when there is soooo much to keep track of. I've also found that once they have to pay to replace something once or twice (or go without (can't find your water bottle, I'm really sorry, guess you'll be really thirsty after practice today), things don't get lost as often.
My son is a swimmer and used to lose or forget goggles, suits, towels, you name it, all the time. We cleaned out the bag and kept it down to 3 things and he always runs through the list (suit, towel, goggles... suit, towel, goggles... suit, towel, goggles)in his head before he leaves the house and before he leaves the locker room. For school, I actually put an index card in a pocket in his backpack that had a short list on it. Every day before leaving school he'd peek at the card and make sure he had everything (in theory anyway).
Good luck!!!
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Ramona Mom to 2 great kids and wife to one wonderful hubby since 1990!
Yes, both DDs are "losers" but have greatly improved once I stopped buying replacements for everything. Waterbottles and lunch bags are the worse. So now I purchase one for each at the beginning of school year that they want (i.e. color, style -- as long as in my price range). If it is lost, I will replace "once" from my own pocket. But the style, color, etc. is MY choice. Which is usually a plain style, boring color item as replacement. If that is lost, then the girls pay for replacement but I still chose color, style. So far, I've only had to replace for each girl once for them to learn that if they want something in their style, color, etc. they had better hang on to it because the replacement is not something they are going to enjoy. Before doing this, I would allow them to choose the replacement and they usually got that they wanted (within price range) so they never suffered any "consequences" for having lost the items. it was like "oh well, mom will replace it".
Oldest DD is now buying a lot of her clothes from summer earnings and birthday money so she is much more responsible with her things that she paid for than when I bought her something...
I'm sure I've bought my share of lunchboxes! I got so angry a couple of years ago that I told em I wasn't buying anymore until the new school year...my son carried his lunch in Walmart bags for a few months! Would you believe the lunchbox I bought at the beginning of that next school year has never been lost? I guess because I've always let them pick their coats, getting the one they REALLY want (within $$$ reason of course) they've kept pretty good track of them. They know if its lost they're wearing whatever they have until the next year. If you're careful to mark their names in them you should be able to go to the lost and found at school and hopefully get them back!
Denise