Yes, please make sure your children are afraid of me.

[DesignFox]

I think Luna related on here somewhere what one of our retiree employees did...

Lady comes in with a small child, who immediately proceeds to throw a fit over something she wanted. The woman said to her child, "You behave now, or the man is going to yell at you." to which my co-worker responded, "No, he isn't. That's YOUR job."

I wish I could get away with that...

[Shironu-Akaineko]

I once scared a 15 years old girl by grinning.
I was stuck training a girl (I say stuck because after 4 months, she didn't remember poop, whined constantly, made the same mistakes over and over...All due to a total lack of attention.) and her friend popped up one day.
Well my trainee told her her dinner hour then to split. But the friend insisted on keeping talking. Then they argued about an item. Trainee says leave it here and leave! Friend says you'll forget it, and I can't bring it with me! Lather rinse repeat this 10 times (I counted) Until I turned around, did this really insane Here's Johnny grin I do when pissed off and said between my teeth "LEAVE IT HERE I'LL REMIND HER TO PICK IT UP!"

To this day, that girl is terrified of me.

[SuperB]

I've told my kids that they can't touch the glass at, say, Subway because no one wants to clean their fingerprints but when I want them to behave I make sure they know it's *I* who want them to behave. Not someone else. That's what irritated me about the whole thing. I've never tried the 'I'm leaving' thing because they know you won't leave them.
I don't ask, I take a hand and say 'we *are* leaving'.

[tintaglia]

With us, the parents tell their kids 'heres the man coming to get you' or 'The man will give you a row' Yep, its all female staff.

When parents are trying to coax their child out, they sometimes ask us to tell kiddiwinkles that we are closing now, if its nicely done I don't mind

Mind you if the kids are doing something, like trying to let the budgies escape, or throwing smarties a the birds, and noone is stopping them I will ask once nicely and (depending on age) the evil death glare is used. Sorry, the aminals well being is priority, and if scaring a child away from the cage is the way to do it, then it gets done.

[Becks]

Just the other day at work, a woman with her two children came into the store. The son was being a brat (sorry, but it's true), not listening, crying, screaming and rocking a shopping cart back and forth. All of this done in front of the entrance (inside the store).

The mother told her son to be quiet, they don't need a cart, blah blah blah. After at least five minutes, she must've seen the on-duty cop and told her son, "If you don't start listening to me, that officer over there will take you outside and arrest you."

Either the cop wasn't paying attention, or was just pretending to ignore her...and the boy didn't stop.

Fun for all, especially me with a hellacious headache.

[The Distorted Kwi]

This thread is the reason I finally delurked and signed up for this board. Because this is my #1 Pet Hate. I even have a term for it. Discipline by Proxy. I first heard it as a supermarket bagger at the tender age of 15 or so. A kid was having the traditional "Buy me a choccie!" whine at his parents... until his mother pointed at me and said

"You see that man? He has a big stick behind the counter and he'll HIT you with it if you don't stop!"

If my jaw had dropped any faster I would have cracked the floor tiles.

I still hate people who try this tactic. However, being a little older and wiser, I have realised that the phrase "That man is going to yell at you if you don't stop running/shouting/hitting people with a G.I Joe/being an annoying little chocolate-covered Sumatran Rat-Monkey..." should actually give me carte blanche to do just that. Hey, if they want me to discipline their kids for them, I'm willing to hand out the spankings.

[DesignFox]

Wee I sure do wonder what parents would do if we really DID do that, Kiwi!

By the way, Welcome to the family.

[The Distorted Kwi]

Wee I sure do wonder what parents would do if we really DID do that, Kiwi!

I'd guess a combination of shock, horror and lawsuits would happen. But I'm packing my big stick, anyway.

[AirHostess]

Oh I hate that 'sit down and fasten your seatbelt or that lady will tell you off.'

No, you need to fasten your seatbelt because when we land and hit the runway and several hundred miles per hour your child will go flying through the air and possibly die.

[Giggle Goose]

I guess my parents are guilty, because my mom always said that a cop would come arrest me and put me in jail for not behaving, not wearing my seatbelt, etc. It worked, I was terrified! She never said it in public, though.

But I think it's dumb for parents to actually point someone out and say,in front of the person that they are going to inflict pain on their child! That's ridiculous and something my parents never did. "I'm going to slap you" usually worked. I'm still more scared of my mom's wrath than that of a police officer or some other stranger, and that's the way it should be IMO.

[MystyGlyttyr]

I got that once, from a dad who was in the Waffle House with his whining four-year-old daughter at 11 p.m. (insert commentary for that issue here) Needless to say, I don't think he'll be pulling that stunt again.

Man: "That lady will hit you if you don't behave!"
Me: *psycho grin, making the pitch of my voice go up and down with each word, basically doing my best impression of a crazy person* "YES I WILL I LOVES TO HIT THE WIDDLE CHILDREN!!" *starts banging the dish cleaning hose against the sink* "CHOKEY CHOKEY!!"

Well, they did sort of run away without paying, but it was only a soda and a coffee at the time, so I didn't mind forking over three bucks to see a grown man run that fast. In retrospect, I probably did more damage to the kid than just letting the comment go, but oh well.

(The lesson here is, you should never assume another person is NOT crazy.)

[jayel]

Man: "That lady will hit you if you don't behave!"
Me: *psycho grin, making the pitch of my voice go up and down with each word, basically doing my best impression of a crazy person* "YES I WILL I LOVES TO HIT THE WIDDLE CHILDREN!!" *starts banging the dish cleaning hose against the sink* "CHOKEY CHOKEY!!"

Oh my gosh, I have not laughed out loud that hard at anything I've read online since I can't remember when. The visual! Oh my gosh...

[ArenaBoy]

Funny story time: My mom's side of the family is huge, and she used to spend time with her cousins a lot. One of them she used to be beat up when they were younger. That cousin is an ex-Marine now and is big, we're talking muscle big. My mom is small and half his size. When he took his son to meet my mom at work, the son was misbehaving, his dad simply said "Jake, if you don't behave Arenaboy's mom will take care of you. She used to beat me up when I was little. This prompted little Jake to look at my mom, then his dad and he did it a few more times and freaked out.

[Andara Bledin]

Man, I hate it when parents won't take care of their own parenting responsibilities. I don't have children by choice, and I'm sure as h3ll not going to do a d@mn thing with somebody else's.

Now, when I was little, I didn't do bad things because I was instilled with fear of parent. It's amazing how well judicious application of the flat of a hand to a backside can do to instill a desire to not be bad.

The whole "sit in your room" thing never worked on me, though. I'd do that regularly on my own. My brother, however, detested it, and it was a great deterrent.

^-.-^

[repsac]

Mmm - handcuffs!

Rapscallion

Uh Raps? That could be taken any number of ways, all of them bad...