- Never wise up a dummy.
By feigning ignorance I force you to explain your offensive, sick reference!
Naw, it was actually funny.
Sorry, just saw a couple of really vocal parents who were OK with the practice! I should have qualified.
So what it comes down to is that some people jet their jollies from making young children cry hysterically, and some people think that such behaviour is mean.
I don’t think it’s aways okay. I only think it’s okay in families that have an established tradition of affectionate teasing that the kid is used to and has historically reacted well to. It would be messed up to do this out of nowhere to a sensitive child. I know that my family has had to really tone it down with kids that have come into the family through marriage.
See, your family sounds like a good example of how to do it right. And it sounds like, if there *was *a kid born into the family that happened to be more sensitive than the rest of you (as opposed to coming in through marriage), the family would also tone it down with them, right? Then rock on.
The people I take issue with are those like pkbites (or at least as he’s come across in this thread), who seemingly believe that their feelings/opinions about pranking* kids (or whatever) are the only valid ones. They didn’t mind pranks as a kid and like pranking kids, so everyone who doesn’t enjoy pranks are “wieners”. :rolleyes: That’d be like your family refusing to tone it down for the new kids or rolling their eyes at how stupid and over sensitive they are.
Interestingly, you can’t even extrapolate a dislike of these types of pranks to other “mean” behavior, either. For example, I can’t stand pranks like this and never have - neither as a giving/receiving participant nor watching others. However, I grew up in a family that uses scathing sarcasm and insults as a way to show genuine affection and love it. But I know some prank-lovers who are appalled at how “mean” we can be and don’t see how it’s anything other than cruel.
- hah! My phone auto corrected this to “prancing kids”. I was tempted to leave it!
Nice!
Great summary.
So **Shakes **shared a blog of absurd reasons why kids cry early, the point of which I believe (he can correct me if I’m wrong) was just because a kid is crying about something doesn’t mean what you did to them was mean. I just don’t think telling a kid they you ate their candy before telling them you were just kidding is mean at all. Obviously we all disagree on what’s mean which is why this has gone on for three pages. So I guess I’ve said all I have to say about that.
Goddammit, I’m being sucked in to this conversation after all.
We promise kids candy on Halloween. We tell them they’re going to get all this candy, we make a big deal out of it, and we encourage their gleeful anticipation of it. This isn’t “greed” on the kid’s part it’s just the kid naturally trusting the grownups in her life to follow through on the good news they delivered.
By “we,” btw, I mean “most of you” because if I had it my way we wouldn’t be doing this in the first place.
No, the fact that a kid’s crying doesn’t automatically mean what you did was mean. If you’re carry a bunch of stuff and accidentally drop Mr. Stuffybottom in a mud puddle and the kid starts crying, that’s not mean. If, otoh, you hold Mr. Stuffybottom over the mud puddle and say you’re going to throw him in specifically to upset the kid, that’s mean.
And learning that adults will lie to their face and laugh about it later is an important lesson that kids need to learn!
Let’s face it: Most loving, well-meaning parents will inadvertently do things that will cause their children stress and upset, because they are human and humans make mistakes.
Why add to it by upsetting the kid on purpose?
How about teaching them a real lesson and actually eating all the candy. My house, my candy! You own nothing, kid!
I actually could not have pulled the Jimmy Kimmel prank. My kids were world champion trick-or-treaters. And at the time we lived very close to the border of 3 other municipalities all with different trick or treat times. They’d go out for 8 hours straight. Plus their old man taught them a trick or two, like going to garage sales during the summer and buying different masks for a next to nothing. That way if you run into someone giving out something good, like full size bars, you can get away with hitting their place multiple times.
We’d have 6 or 7 pillow cases chock full of candy that would last all year. So much that the following year we’d use the left overs to hand out at our house while the kids went out for more loot! Sure it was a year old. So what? It’s better than the time I gave out ice cubes and told kids it was rock candy!
I trick my kids so often they would never believe me if I said I ate their candy. They would just roll their eyes. Last week I stormed into the house and told my son I had just run over his bike in the driveway, and he laughed because he didn’t believe me. And he was right not to.
This just seems so bizarre to me. “I taught my kids they can never trust a word that comes out of my mouth! If I told them the house was burning down they’d just laugh and ignore me! It’s how we roll!”
Whatever works for you, dude.
Or it could teach kids to take a moment to think critically about a claim before accepting it. My family says all kinds of outlandish things all the time, and I credit them with my well-tuned BS meter.
Yeah, maybe. I figure they’ll get enough of that from literally every other person in their life. Me, they can trust.
MeanOldLady thinks it’s fine to make kids cry, Skammer is always lying to his kids…this thread is like Prove Your Username Thread.
And you complete the circle, right?
And I believe I was whispering to my cat today! :eek: