Today our hand-me-down scooter was there in the corner, or at least most of it. I found part of it in the grass about 200ft away. This means someone borrowed it, broke it, then put it back without saying anything, leaving a note, anything. We aren't in a position to replace it at the moment and I'm part sad and part angry about the whole situation.
My first impulse is to hang a note near our things asking they be returned in the same condition they are borrowed and then with an addendum that whoever broke the scooter please leave $20 in the attached envelope towards a replacement. But I doubt anything would come out of it.
I'd hate to bike lock our belongings since we use other people's toys and not having ours available doesn't seem right. Bringing the toys inside isn't practical.
Anyone have advice? Should I lock the remaining toys? What else can I do besides shake my fist at the failure of communal sharing?
Our apartment building has a shared courtyard where everyone keeps their riding toys: bikes, cozy coups, scooters. We have our toys in the corner near our front door and we always return them there when we are finished. The neighbors generally have a pretty open sharing policy,
Today our hand-me-down scooter was there in the corner, or at least most of it. I found part of it in the grass about 200ft away. This means someone borrowed it, broke it, then put it back without saying anything, leaving a note, anything. We aren't in a position to replace it at the moment and I'm part sad and part angry about the whole situation.
My first impulse is to hang a note near our things asking they be returned in the same condition they are borrowed and then with an addendum that whoever broke the scooter please leave $20 in the attached envelope towards a replacement. But I doubt anything would come out of it.
I'd hate to bike lock our belongings since we use other people's toys and not having ours available doesn't seem right. Bringing the toys inside isn't practical.
Anyone have advice? Should I lock the remaining toys? What else can I do besides shake my fist at the failure of communal sharing?
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Is your toy part of the communal collection? Does it have the same status as the toys you borrow? It's not clear from what you wrote. I don't know that I would expect someone to replace a hand-me-down scooter that is part of a collection of communal toys. But it's not nice to return it and not say anything. I think I would leave a note asking for acknowledgment that the toy broke, but not mention money yet.
ReplyDelete-Hannah
The toys aren't truly communal. Everyone has their own toys outside, some people take care to keep them near their own entrance ways and others don't. It's more like there is a known policy that people can use each other's toys.
ReplyDelete$20 will possibly buy us another 2nd hand scooter if I can find another for such a good deal, obviously I wouldn't expect money to buy a new one to replace a 2nd hand one. I prob wouldn't ever buy a new one considering they are $40-80 new!!
More sad for my kids who are out a toy.
Do kids play with the toys unsupervised? This sounds like the work of an older child who is old enough to have shame about breaking the toy but too young to do the right thing without prodding. If this is a possible scenario, it's likely that the responsible adults don't know about it. I'm not sure what you should do going forward with regard to the toys and your neighbors, but it seems like a good opportunity to teach middot to your own kids, like: "what would you do if YOU broke a toy and no one else knew about it?"
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