Why People Steal

The Author of this post is Cheryl Martinez

So, last night I was in the car with my husband and kids, and my husband and I were talking about house security systems. This led us to a discussion about robberies we’ve heard about recently. I didn’t even think my son was listening. He was all the way in the back reading a book, and I assumed, like usual, he was tuning us out. Then all of a sudden he pipes up, “Mama, why would someone ever steal from someone else? Where do bad guys live? What happens if you steal? Do you have to go to jail?” It was just a sudden burst of questions that I wasn’t sure how to answer. How do you explain to a 4 year old, who you are teaching not to take things that don’t belong to him, that some grownups do just that? I told him that some people just make bad choices, but that wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to know why they would make a bad choice. I told him I didn’t really know.