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Handling my child's friend who 'stole' somthing

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My elder son's friend seems (I say 'seems' because we can't be sure) to have stolen my younger son's Tamagotchi. It went missing after the friend had been here, and I'm afraid that this boy has a bad reputation in our home for breaking rules and damaging things - last year he even played too roughly with our gerbil and it died. Suddenly he has an identical Tamagotchi, won't let our boys look at it, and gives various answers about where it came from and where it has now gone. The latest answer is that a friend lent it to him and then it broke so he threw it down the toilet. My younger son is upset, of course.

So far, I suggested that my boys go round to the friend's house and ask him, in front of his mum, if he might possibly have Josh's Tamagotchi. This was when the lent/broken story came out - previously he'd said it was a new birthday present. I hope that the mum may be able to spot her son's lies but I'm not too sure.

You may well wonder why I allow my son to stay friends with this kid! The trouble is that we are immigrants here in France, and my elder son is a bit of a loner who has this one friend in our neighbourhood. After the gerbil incident last year I really discouraged him coming round, but the family invited us to a few events and then the teacher asked him to do a project with my son. They did the project really well together and I'm really upset that at the same time as doing the work this kid may have stolen something from us.

So, any advice on how to go forward now, please?