"DON'T TOUCH THAT"
It's the one line that is guaranteed not to work...

Dad's Razor... In the days when razor blades were mounted in a metal handle that had two trap doors to hold the blade... COOOOOL.. shiny... looks fun. I had resisted temptation to touch it until my mum noticed my curious gaze and said "DO NOT PLAY WITH THAT"...
30 minutes later I walked into the kitchen trying to hide the flow of blood from my finger... yet desperately in need of my mum..

"Have you been playing with Dad's Razor?"
no
*Mum storms off to bathroom, returns with razor and knocks a chunk of Humty out of it*
"HOW did that get there?"
don't know *whimper*

The fire our hearth had a lovely air-grille on it that you could open when the fire needed help. Dad used to tinker with this and swear. Depite being told not to touch it, I wanted to be like him, so oneday I reached out to move it... I had been planning on saying "shit" for authenticity... Instead I
yelped and cried.

The scissors
My mum is more than handy with dressmaking and knitting etc. She has degrees in machine knitting and had been teaching it to bored housewives for years. She also made all of her own dresses and skirts. The way those big scissors wend "Shik-Shik-Shik" though cloth was wonderful, and my brother and I used to watch her do it for ages. The scissors had a live leather pouch to: a really good set.
As usual our loving gazes were noticed, and the touching of the shinyness was forbidden.

Mum went out of the room, and we dove for the scissors. We were small, and the scissors were like broadswords. My whole hand fitted into the thumb hole.. We found some cloth dangling over the back of the settee.... Childhood logic is sometimes fatally flawed. the cloth was was back here... noone would ever see it, we just wanted to feel them cut... Ohhh... FUN FUN FUN!!!

We sneaked the scissors back, and noone was any the wiser...

...Until mum went to get her nearly-finished dress from the livingroom: The entire top of it was in shreds. It was the first time either of use knowingly heard our mum scream: the material had cost a fortune.

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Everyone says that people are "the perfect parents until they have kids of their own".... I understand and sympathise. they're right too... I'm not a parent, yet I rekon I can see many parenting mistakes.... Here's my favourite of all time.


If a conversation goes like this

"DON'T DO THAT"
why?
"BECAUSE I SAY SO!!"

There is something missing: a reasonable response. Of all the times people end up saying "I told him not to do that, and he went a head and hurt himself anyway" ... How many times was "he" told WHY not to do that? How many times did the parent explain the dangers, and even better, demonstrate them?

Not many I'm guessing.

******************

Sure: You don't always have time... but then again, you brought them into the world... It's your responsibility to teach them about it.

I'll still be writing on B3ta when I get my own sprogs... I'll let you know how it goes.
( Humpty Dumpty was Pushed Is unaware of having any limits., Tue 22 Apr 2008, 7:50, 2 replies)

i always try
and try to tell him why he shouldnt do something, even going so far as to fall down a wee flight of stairs, it hurt i saw stars, he cried! i handt meant to do it that well!
(pogo_it, Wed 23 Apr 2008, 13:02, closed)

Studies suggest
Explaining why to small children has little effect on their behaviour. It affects how they deal with problems in later life, but it has absolutely no effect on whether they do the thing you told them not to. It just bores them.
(Skittlemcfluff ......................, Wed 23 Apr 2008, 13:34, closed)