Moral dilemma - I need help!

My 9-year old son and 3 of his friends start playing footie (soccer!) at the front of the house. I ask them if they can go and play somewhere else because if anyone breaks a light (beside the garage door / aka the net) it will cost them $50. Just 3 minutes later, guess what? Said boy then rushes home and comes back with $50. Do I 1) accept the $50, 2) give it all back, 3) go halves, 4) Something else? What to do, anyone?

 

Crafty little git's put you behind the 8 ball ...you'll just have to put up with it or you'll look a right miserable sod now...hand it to the kid he's good...or his dad is who was p****d off at them playing at the side of his house....look on the bright side, where i live they just come and smash all your windows out.

 

Will it really cost $50 ? If so take it and have no qualms about it. They were warned and chose to ignore that warning. Never say you are going to do something the back down on it, especiually with kids, they need to know you mean what you say!

If on the other hand it will only cost $$30 ,take the $50 and send the other $20 over to me, I will find a good use for it

 

Mark could be right...obviously $10 for me too..you've kept the kids happy,and helped the poor too,great result

 

50 dollars seems a lot for a nine year old. I guess he got it off his dad, but still. I'd thank him for accepting his responsibilities, ask him how much pocket money he gets each week, take that from him and give him the rest back. I know he did wrong, particularly after you'd already had a word, but 50 dollars is a very big price to pay when you're only nine. I'm not sure he's solely responsible either. He kicked the ball, but I doubt it was just his decision to keep on playing there. Usually when you're playing in front of someone's house and the mum asks you to move on, it's the child who lives there that makes the decision. At the very least it's a group decision. One kid kicked the ball, but they were all still playing. Not sure the one kid should shoulder all the responsibility.

Just my thoughts. Probably rubbish.

 

Keep your nose out Jay..Mark's had a great idea that absolves Calgary of any moral dilemma..and also helps Mark and I to $10,obviously only to compensate us for the time we've spent pondering a sensitive and difficult issue.

 

I would say keep it. . . but with the child only being 9 I would hazard a guess he got the money from his parents, so if you keep it you look a right ****.

Take it back to the parents. Tell them the story behind it. Kid learns a lesson, you save face.

 

Proper chuckling now. Jay...... the voice of reason, as always, but there is also merit in what you other 2 have said as well. While the kid / his parents can no doubt afford to pay for it (where I live is more like Cawthorne than Kendray, tee hee) it may in fact cost me more than $50 if I cannot find an exact replacement - I might have to replace 4 matching lights. My son has also offered to go halves and give his friend $25 back from his piggy bank. They are all good kids, and it would not have been deliberate, but I could be massively out of pocket.

I think I'll go round to see his parents tonight and give the $50 back, and hope that a lesson has been learned by all the boys concerned.

 

Was typing when you wrote - looks like we have come to the same conclusion. Cheers.

 

I largely agree with Jay however I would give it back to the parent at the same time as telling them the 'proper' version of events. If somebody gave me the money back at nine years old I think it would have been highly unlikely I'd have given it back to my parents. No, I'd have kept it and taken my chances.

 

Give it back. You let them play there and your not Scottish.

 

I mean you're not Scottish.

 

I agree with the above person who said that your kid will have been the decision maker, he may have been pressured to stay there, but if he'd have listened to you and refused to play there, the others would have had to stop. The other parent must have been happy (maybe not the correct choice of word here) to pay it, so I would take your kid's $25 as a lesson to him for not obeying you (if your kid didn't, why should the others?), and then give the other parent $25 back saying thanks, but you consider your own kid to be equally to blame. That way you come off looking better and both kids have had real consequences for their actions. Don't take it all back, you'll look weak to your kid, that kid and the kid's parents.

 

Take it, get pissed up and start singing Barnsley songs.

You Reds.

 

We would probably have gone round and smashed the rest of the lights. Little twohats. Lol.

 

Hehe yes you always were leading me astray and getting me into trouble.

 

Ahem *raiseseyebrows

Widdy would have taken them out with his catapult. Or air rifle.

 

How much is a set of portable goals that they could take onto some grass? But then some nets and make them go and play on the grass away from any windows/lights that they can break

 

You mean when he wasn't shooting tramps.