I blame Beavis and Butthead.

I think dontating them to kids that lost everything would have more direct impact. And maybe meeting with some families or helping with some clean up would give a close up perspective on exactly what you'd done.

I disagree. It will only leave a negative (non growth) impact on the kid. The parents will then replace the stuff and leave the kid with the impression that what he did was okay (since the people who lost all of their possessions would be getting all new stuff as well).

Let the parents deal with the kid; society deals with the parents.

That's a terrible idea. It becomes about vengeance and not about punishment.

If it was truly an accident I think that the kid should help with clean-up and maybe help with fund raising for the efforts. Accidents do happen, and this was truly a horrible accident (if it was one). But vengeance (burning), and giving his stuff away isn't going to make an impact. We also have no idea how old the kid is. No, he shouldn't have been playing with matches. Perhaps he should have been better supervised, perhaps his parents knew what he was doing. We don't know the full story. But as long as this was an accident and not arson burning his stuff, making him give his stuff away isn't going to help him realize what he caused. And for all we know he already does know and realize.

Can I ask that someone with power move this discussion to the LA fires thread since that this (the accident) was what started one of the LA fires and not the Irvine fire?

Why ?? :confused:

Stupid, dumb accident. That's not to say that they won't be hit with a clean-up bill. But the kids aren't going to jail.

I guess I have little faith in kids today - and that's in large part due to the attitudes of my sisters and their SoCal/Orange County/Big Attitude friends that don't see the repercussions to any actions they might take. Talking to kids seems to do little, especially since they're largely dismissive. Of course this is a case-by-case situation; some kids listen better than others. I don't believe that kids today take responsibility for their actions, especially when the blame gets passed around things are fixed with money. I think that's why, and it's not necessarily what I would do, I rather liked the idea that the kid needs to go through something as drastic as losing some of his or her possessions. Something more drastic than a "talking to" anyway - because to me, this is only a peak in a long string of kids getting away with crap - it's a sign of parents and money solving issues that teens and pre-teens need to learn to feel accountable for.

I think something I would look at would be mandatory community service either related to the SoCal fires or with any other non profit that deals with this sort of scenario.

Oh, and I'd move the threads, but I'm short on time and I am too lazy to weed out which threads go where.

I maintain that most kid attitude problems starts with parents in general. Yes, one could say that kids learn attitudes from other kids, but I believe a lot of parenting today is WAY too permissive.

Just my humble $0.02 worth.

Eh... no need to move anything IMO. It's just splitting hairs.