“Things like this (a ‘C’ in algebra I believe) make me wish you’d never been born.” Said by my friend’s mother-- the look on my poor friend’s face was heartbreaking.
On the sorta funny side, my grandmother told my then 4 yr. old sister to go out and play. What should she do outside? “Oh, go climb a tree!” So lil’ sis did climb a tree, and of course the branch broke along with little sister’s arm.
:eek: That’s just scary.
Gonna go kiss my boys as they sleep now.
What I originally had in mind were sayings along the line as “I could just eat you for dinner.” Things that would sound terrible if said to an adult, but a child is to young to take it that way. But, I’m like how this thread is going, whether or not it is a deviation from what I had in mind.
One thing my father used to tell my younger brother and I, if we were crying over something stupid, was “I’ll give you a reason to cry.” That shut us up fairly quickly.
“Mommy, my tummy feels sick”
“Uh-oh. Remember that movie, Alien?”
“Do you want me to bash your head through the wall?”
Evidently, you should never say “You’re smart” to your kids.
Somehow my parents managed to avoid making this particular mistake.
Never ask this within earshot of any kid.
“do you think he’s metally retarded or something?”
Never say these 2 statements in succesion:
“Youre not allowed to wear makeup until youre a big girl”
“Stop crying! youre a big girl now.”
“You don’t want people thinking you’re a FAG, do you?”
I happen to be gay. And I knew it at the time the above was said.
Wonderful mother, huh?
:rolleyes:
“I wish I’d have left you with your real Dad.” - my mom.
“I wish I’d had an abortion.” - same
No provocation. She just meant it.
OUCH.
I always hated adults who said things like:
"What do you mean you don't like squash? Of course you do!"
There’s nothing more infuriating than adults smugly insisting that they know better than you what’s passing through YOUR OWN MIND at a given moment!
OMG, Mikie & hyperjes!! Unreal.
“You need a license to drive a car, or have a dog. Hell, you even need a license to catch a fish. But they’ll let any old asshole be a father.(should be parent)” No truer words were ever spoken.
I thought I was the only one! I have no idea where my Mother got that saying.
“I hope you have twelve just like you.”
Anybody else have their mother threaten to sell him or her to the Gypsies?
No, but my mom threatened to call Randle Carlisle…the guy who did the Wednesday’s Child segment on the news.
Oooo. I absolutely HATE “Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about!”…Please God, may I never say that to my kids.
Another one that used to irritate me as a child was the “Don’t talk back.” conundrum. I always found that maddeningly misleading. They ask you a question and when you try to explain you get that ridiculous statement!
I am so glad I’m grown up now…whew!
Hell, my mother deliberately drove off and left me twice when I was younger. Once when I was 9 years old or so, she was mad at me for some reason I can’t remember. I came out of the gas station where I had used the restroom to see the car going up the road. She came back about 10 minutes later, saying she had wanted to “teach me a lesson.”
The other time I was in my mid-teens. I was annoying her so she made me get out of the car about a mile from home (we lived in the country). This time, I got the last laugh. I walked home and hid in the back yard. She came out of the house and started looking for me, even getting back into the car and driving for miles to see whee I might be. When she got home later in a near-panic, I was standing there laughing my ass off at her.
She was furious, but never tried that stunt on me again. 
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Lizard *
**Hell, my mother deliberately drove off and left me twice when I was younger. Once when I was 9 years old or so, she was mad at me for some reason I can’t remember. I came out of the gas station where I had used the restroom to see the car going up the road. She came back about 10 minutes later, saying she had wanted to “teach me a lesson.”
QUOTE]
My parents did that once - I was fighting with my sister, so they kicked me out of the car in the middle of nowhere. When they came back, they yelled at me some more when I refused to get back in the car… :rolleyes:
Re: Things to never say to a child
“get a job.”
Actually, Ward and June gave me and the Beav a very stable home life.
Things my father said to me when I was a child:
With regard to my looks: “You might be decent if you work at it.” Other people’s daughters were beautiful, gorgeous, etc.
“You’re worthless.”
“You’re a waste.”
“You’re a disgrace.”
“You’re a burden.”
“What are you doing it that way for!” (Not an interrogative, an exclamation when I didn’t do something the way he thought I should do it because when I asked he didn’t tell me.)
Is it any wonder I have self-esteem problems? :rolleyes:
A somewhat besieged,
CJ
“You’re stupid/greedy/lazy/selfish etc”
as opposed to:
“What you just did was…”
And even then, I’d avoid ‘stupid’ in favour of something a little softer.
I slightly disagree with SparrowHawk on the “you can be what you want to be” - I agree that the statement itself can overinflate hopes, but I disagree with the idea that ‘who you are’ includes a very specific predetermined definition of what you can do - I feel that 'find out what you are best at, then do it" could well result in underachievement, because it is too easy to misinterpret it as “if it seems too hard, stop trying”.