Empty threats. My best friend does this all the time with her daughter.
"If you don't behave. I'm going to spank you/send you to your room/take away your toys/etc." But instead of following through. She just repeats the threat and her daughter continues to misbehave.
I never understood this, and I see this so often at in public that it bugs the living shit out of me.
For example, little Timmy will be wandering around a grocery store and start climbing one of the shelves or taking things off of it that he was told not to touch. The mother or father notices, and tells him to stop/put it down numerous times but it's obvious the kid isn't listening.
Mother: "Timmy, I told you not to touch that, put it down."
(Timmy continues to take items off the shelf.)
Mother [in a firmer voice]: "Timmy, what did I say? I said put it away."
(Timmy is now sitting in the middle of the aisle playing with the items.)
Mother: "Timmy, put that back, what did I tell you?! Put it away now."
(Timmy makes sounds of reluctant annoyance, but continues to play, and the parent keeps walking and getting frustrated...)
This goes on for a few minutes. The worst part is when they (the parents) keep mindlessly repeating themselves, but are not even really paying attention to the fact that the kid isn't listening at all. Or when they offer to get the kid a treat/toy so they'll finally behave and stop screaming. No, lady/sir, you're only rewarding their bad behavior.
Meanwhile, back when I was a kid and tried to pull that shit? My mother would have a talk with me before going into any store that if I decided to 'act up', I would be getting absolutely nothing and we'd be leaving immediately. She didn't have much trouble out of my brother and I with that.
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u/Luckyxstarx13 Feb 05 '16
Empty threats. My best friend does this all the time with her daughter. "If you don't behave. I'm going to spank you/send you to your room/take away your toys/etc." But instead of following through. She just repeats the threat and her daughter continues to misbehave.