Mailbox Vandals Provide Conversation Starter

Living out in a rural community, it is not uncommon to see mailboxes that have been smashed by someone with nothing but time on their hands. More than once, we have returned home or woken from a peaceful night to find that someone had decided to practice their bat swing on our box. We don't take it personally, but it is annoying to reshape the box back to its original shape and size - or as close as possible. No sense in buying a new one just to have it smashed again. Something about that bright, shinning box makes it that much more appealing to those who seek to disfigure it.

While such destruction of our property has little impact on my husband or I - as we have accepted it as a part of rural life - the same cannot be said for our daughter. The first time she became aware of a mailbox incident, she was probably only five years old, but it bothered her greatly that someone had done something like that to our box. Granted, she had no attachment to the mailbox, but the fact that it was ours and someone was so careless with it had a significant impact on her.

This incident made it clear to me that my daughter had developed a sense of respect for property. We had always tried to demonstrate that and discussed where appropriate, but in reality, parents are never sure anything sticks until it is put to the test. At that moment, we knew that she had understood how important it is to respect the property of others, especially if you expect the same in return. This is likely the reason why she was so upset - she knew none of us had attacked another mailbox.

An interesting website: More4Kids.info provided a quality piece on teaching children how to respect property by starting with the Golden Rule. The thing I liked best about this article was that it highlighted how important it is that we practice what we preach. It is much harder for children to develop bad habits if they don't have the experience first hand.