As a Kid, What Would Have Happened to You?
@RichardMeister (5328)
Otis Orchards, Washington
March 22, 2016 12:24pm CST
I don’t know if today’s television ads are a refection of how today’s children are treated, but when I was growing up it would have been a whole different story.
Take the ad where the kid comes into the kitchen in his pajamas and catches his parents eating ice cream. If I had done that, there would have been no discussion about ice cream. I would have been asked what I was doing out of bed. If I wasn’t getting a glass of water, because there would have been no other reason for me to be in the kitchen at that time of night, I would have been told to get my little butt back to bed and keep it there until it was time to get up.
Then there’s the ad where the girl locks herself in the bathroom so she can dye her hair purple. When her mother knocks on the door and asks for her daughter to let her in the bathroom and her daughter says, “No!”–if I would have back-talked any adult that way I would have been grounded for a month. And if I had made the mess that girl did, I would have been the one to clean it up.
A long time ago there was an ad where a woman walks into the kitchen and catches her son eating a piece of chocolate cake. The woman yells, “Chester! That’s tonight’s dessert!” Then a man says, “Parton me ma’am, but aren’t you going to have him bush his teeth?” This ad was cartooned in Mad Magazine. Everything was the same right up to where the man asks about the son bushing his teeth. Then the woman yells, “Bush his teeth? By the time I get through with him, he’ll be lucky to have any teeth left!”
I don’t think any parent would have been that harsh back then, but if I would have been caught eating a piece of cake without being given permission to, I would have probably been made to stand with my nose in a corner for at least thirty minutes. I hated standing in the corner.
When you were a kid, what would have happened to you if you would have done any of these things? Would your parents just brushed it off? Or would there have been some type of punishment for your bad behavior?
10 people like this
11 responses
@TiarasOceanView (70035)
• United States
22 Mar 16
If it was something not so soft as those incidences but something we either were lying about or something deemed bad to my parents it was my Dad who disciplined us..it was the belt.
Mom was not as tough on us. But a lot of threats from her
2 people like this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
22 Mar 16
When I was living with my aunt and uncle my aunt had a little horse whip which she used on my brother and me–until my brother dropped it down a hole in the wall. Once we moved to a foster home I can only remember being spanked once by my foster mother and that was because I was playing with fire and could have burnt the garage down. My foster dad never spanked me but one look from him meant business. I spent a lot of time standing with my nose in a corner, though. I hated that worse than getting spanked. I did get grounded a few time, too.
2 people like this
@TiarasOceanView (70035)
• United States
22 Mar 16
@RichardMeister My own Dad tried to put me in the corner I remember when I was very small..so stubborn I was haha
Yes I know that look as you are saying from foster Father..
haha your brother was good to drop that whip down the hole in the wall
Yes I know that look as you are saying from foster Father..
haha your brother was good to drop that whip down the hole in the wall1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109857)
• Los Angeles, California
22 Mar 16
You struck upon today's permissive society where children are coddled and spoiled by parents who want to be "liked" and either don't want to or just lazy to be a parent and teach their children manners, rules and discipline. Those kids are the ones having grown up feeling privileged and owed and entitled.
2 people like this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
22 Mar 16
Agreed. In my last employment there were kid that came in thinking they ought to be promoted to boss within a couple of weeks. They had a rude awakening when they realized they had to work like everyone else. Most of them didn't last very long.
1 person likes this
@much2say (53958)
• Los Angeles, California
22 Mar 16
What would your parents have done if you threw some corn cobs at them? 
We just knew not to pull anything stupid (that they might find out about 
) - that would be THE END of us! 
My mom would have given us the eye along with a short yell.
But we never wanted to hear the wrath of dad. He would yell, stomp around, slam doors - you bet he let us know he was upset.
Yet we never had stuff taken away (not like we had much) nor did we ever get grounded or sent to our rooms. I'm telling you - the eye or the yell was bad enough to us!
We just knew not to pull anything stupid (that they might find out about ) - that would be THE END of us!
My mom would have given us the eye along with a short yell.
But we never wanted to hear the wrath of dad. He would yell, stomp around, slam doors - you bet he let us know he was upset.
Yet we never had stuff taken away (not like we had much) nor did we ever get grounded or sent to our rooms. I'm telling you - the eye or the yell was bad enough to us! 1 person likes this
@much2say (53958)
• Los Angeles, California
22 Mar 16
@RichardMeister What is it about "the eye" that worked back then - but for none of the modern parents now?
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
22 Mar 16
No cob throwing in that household. Most of the time the "eye" would do it for me. But there were times I ended up standing with my nose in a corner. And I was grounded a few times.
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
23 Mar 16
@much2say I think "the eye" says, "Watch out or else!" And it's the fear of not knowing what the "or else" is that keeps you in line.
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
26 Mar 16
I know what you mean about preferring a swat. I would have preferred a swat to being grounded or standing with my nose in a corner.
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
26 Mar 16
@paigea For me when I was younger it was standing with my nose in the corner or being sent to my room and when I got older it was being grounded.
@paigea (35701)
• Canada
26 Mar 16
@RichardMeister getting groundend came when I was older. I didn't like it either.
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
23 Mar 16
@jahunt Yea, and in most cases you can't even warn the parents of these children before it happens because they won't listen. Then when it does happen they are totally confused because they "gave him/her anything he/she ever wanted." They didn't give them what they needed–discipline.
@jahunt (1380)
• United States
23 Mar 16
@RichardMeister Yes, I agree with you there. Sadly, we are spoiling them right into a jail cell in some cases. 
1 person likes this
@WilmaHenry54 (355)
• Stanton, Kentucky
22 Mar 16
In our house, there were things you just didn't do.....kind of unwritten rules. We didn't get punished much but we knew to expect consequences for deliberate disobedience.
2 people like this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
22 Mar 16
That was true when I was growing up, too. But if I would have gotten caught doing any of these things I would not have been simply given a "pass." There would have been consequences for my deliberate disobedience. I think the fear of those consequences kept me from doing most things that were deliberately disobedient.
2 people like this
@Marcyaz (35316)
• United States
22 Mar 16
@RichardMeister
I know it never entered my mind to talk back to my parents.
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
24 Mar 16
@Marcyaz Same here. It would not have been a smart move on my part.
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
22 Mar 16
I don't think talking back would have ever occurred to me either.
1 person likes this
@suziecat7 (3350)
• Asheville, North Carolina
23 Mar 16
My mother didn't take any crap from my brother and me. She was great about grounding us which we considered the ultimate punishment.
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
24 Mar 16
Yeah, grounding was no fun for me either.
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
24 Mar 16
It was the same for me, too.
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
26 Mar 16
I'll agree that kids now days have all the rights.
1 person likes this
@sallypup (57909)
• Centralia, Washington
23 Mar 16
My Mom was too lenient with me. I know it now. I probably should have had professional help but that was not done then. I basically did mostly what I wanted and if I was quiet and reading, the world left me to my own devices- except for the times my brothers were mean.
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
23 Mar 16
I think as children we have no idea how much good discipline does. Without it, once adulthood is reached, then it is a struggle to cope. One woman I know lost her husband when her daughter was quite young. She felt that since her daughter had lost her dad that she should be lenient with her. She said once her daughter reach adulthood she expected things to be handed to her on a silver platter. She thought she should be able to go to work and do whatever she wanted and still get paid for it. She had a very hard time figuring out she had to do the work to keep a job. She thought everyone else would do the work while she sat around and did nothing and still got paid.
1 person likes this
