Ignorant people!!!

[Tuffcookie]

I am a secretary for the PD in our city. I'm used to dealing with the public BUT the one thing that really gets to me is when a person comes in with a child, and then, when the child gets restless (as children do!), yells at the child, "You'd better behave or I will get the police to lock you up"! Today I told this lady as politely as I could, "Please don't tell your child that. We don't want your child to be afraid of police". Next week we hold Safety Town and right now I'm busy working on registration, making signs and banners & certificates. The police officers do a wonderful job of organizing the speakers and events and trying to develop a rapport with the kids. Why are people so thoughtless?????

TC

 

[C.Ann]

Drives me crazy when people say that.. Also, it's an empty threat anyhow - something a parent should never engage in..

 

[piglet too]

I did something similar once, and regretted it right away. I had to go to the village hall, and pointed out the police station across the way to my then three year old son. He started to cry and I felt so bad. It took me over a week to get him over that. What I ended up doing, since my talking to him was not working, was ask an officer to talk to him. He was so wonderful about it and my son finally believed us that he would not get thrown in jail just for not listening to me. I will never again say something like that!!!

 

[southernclass]

ITA!! Why get mad at the child if he/she is tired!! Maybe they should have been home asleep in the first place.

 

[aprilgail2]

I work for a small family owned retail store on weekends during the holidays and people will tell their kid"stop that or that lady will yell at you" or even better one parent said "stop that or that lady will hit you"....I just said "oh no I won't"

 

[piglet too]

Originally posted by aprilgail2
I work for a small family owned retail store on weekends during the holidays and people will tell their kid"stop that or that lady will yell at you" or even better one parent said "stop that or that lady will hit you"....I just said "oh no I won't"

I get parents telling their kids that since I work at Toys R Us, I know Geoffrey and since Geoffrey knows Santa that they better be good.

 

[Serena]

I know someone that would do that all the time. He needed parents that would actually be parents, but noooo, just threaten to throw the 2yo in jail.

I gave them my opinion on that several times. Loudly!

 

[alabamaalan]

My wife is a guide dog user and it is very rare, but we have heard people threaten their kids with "That dog is gonna get you" which is NOT what we need.

 

[MScott1851]

I get that at work, too... I'll be trying to take care of a child (who is crying because he is SICK, or HURT, so it's perfectly natural) and the parents will tell them to be quiet and cooperate with me or "the nurse will give you a big shot."

Then I end up having to start all over...I usually tsk tsk the parents and say, "Don't scare that baby, or I'll give YOU the shot!"

 

[ASFCurly]

we have one little girl, she is 2, at work that is now scared of Santa and thinks that he is mean because anytime she does something they don't like, they say Santa is going to come over in the middle of the night and take away all her toys.

 

[mt2]

I have heard this also. I think that if parents say something like this around a police officier, santa, etc it will make them look clever (in their own mind) to the person. "I can make my child behave with one sentence" It doesn't work. I have done somethings similiar and have regretted it.

What I have done in the past, when they were younger and starting to throw a fit because they didn't get a toy, was to say (in a calm voice) "Can you please be a bit louder. That man/woman over there hasn't heard you say how awful I am that you aren't getting this toy. It's ok, really. I'm sure you want everyone know the injustice that is happening in this store." They have looked at me as if I grew a horn out of my head. This usually has stopped them. I has one man tell me "Gosh I remember those days. Keep up the good work."

Good luck with your event.

Happy Thoughts to all,

mt2

 

[HappyMommy2]

Good point about not making kids see police officers as scary or bad.

Once at Disneyland I saw a mom pointing to one of the snappily dressed Main Street custodial CMs and telling her little boy, "That's Disney security...if you keep acting up he's going to kick you out of Disneyland!"

I didn't have kids yet at the time, and I thought, "What an awful mom to say something like that!" Now that I do have kids, I think of that situation often and avoid making idle/silly/hurtful threats at almost any cost, but I can sympathize a bit with that harried mother!

 

[believe]

DH said that to the girls a little over a month ago....I made sure he knew not to do that again, for the reasons you stated. I want my girls to not be scared to go to an officer if they are in trouble.

 

[Megan's Mom]

Years ago at school we had this little boy in kindergarten that didn't like coming to school he cried every morning. He dad told him if he didn't go to school the police would come and get him. so whenever our DARE officer was at school this child was terrified that she was going to take him away. We spent a lot of time with this boy to convience him that she was one of the good guys. Parents don't realize that at that age they listen and believe everything that they say.

 

[Manda1219]

I HATE when parents use other people to "threaten" their children.

I had one woman the other day tell her child "If you don't stop touching things, that lady said she would chop off your fingers!" I think she saw the nasty look I gave her, because she continued with "Or maybe I'll just break them!"
Nice to tell a kid who was no older than THREE.... Those lines really upset me. I'm used to hearing "the lady is going to kick you out" or "yell at you"...but to say that I'm going to harm them physically really made me sick and angry.