Did adults use fibs to control your behaviour?

Saggi and MissA it worked for us too!

And of course, this was when smacking children was normal. We dreaded my Mum saying "Wait until your father gets home!" or if my Mum had just had enough, she would take of her slipper and threaten us with it, or smack our bum with it. We were terrible children to each other indoors and fought like cat and dog, but outside the house, well that was a different matter. A big brother or a big sister was always a handy thing to have. We were all good at school and none of us got into trouble out of school either. With hindsight we realised we did not want to disappoint our parents.

This is a different discussion and I know some of you will say your parents never hit you, but that was not how it was where I grew up in Scotland. My brother brought his children up without smacking, but that was really down to his wife not coming from a family where they were smacked. He learned from her example, although she mainly brought the children up as he worked long hours. My niece and nephew are great kids though and I have nothing but admiration for parents who bring up well behaved children without smacking them. I recently read Scotland is to be the first part of the UK to ban smacking children. Changed times.

I was told as a child that if I didn't settle down to sleep the bogey man would come and get me. No wonder I had terrible night terrors. Weren't adults insensitive in the 40's & 50's? I suppose popular psychology was in its infancy at that time.

My Mum used to threaten to send me to boarding school if I misbehaved as a little girl. It used to terrify me as I imagined life without my Mum, Dad, and siblings.

It worked with us! We were frightened of our mum.

These awful lies people tell children! I would never tell my kids anything that made their bottom lip quiver or my grandchildren. They are not told to ‘be good, or else’...they are always encouraged to do the right thing without threats. I remember the tales told me to make me behave...not to mention the cane on top of the door lintel ...never used as the threat was enough!! My mission as parent and grandparent has been to expect good behaviour ...and more often than not I’ve got it. Threatening kids into good behaviour is so wrong....and never works!!

My older sister, by 8 years, who really resented my arrival, used to threaten me with the Rector in church, saying he would take me away in a big sack. I was really frightened. Poor man, he would have been horrified.

Dad would give me & my sister our weekly bath and when he wanted us to get out, would say that if we didn’t, Sammy Suff would come out and get us.
After the plug had been pulled out, we would watch fascinated as the water disappeared down the hole and we could hear Sammy gurgling away below the bath.

Years later the technique still had the desired effect on our DCs

We weren't lied to (at least I can't remember anything) but our parents were very awkward about telling us that someone had died. We didn't find out that our maternal grandmother had died until weeks later.

Not long after we moved from a big house in the country to a little house in town, they had the cat put down, who hadn't really done well after the move, and was 13 years old. They were really odd about the way they told us this. We were 15 and 17 at the time, hardly children!

My mum used to tell me that she knew a really well behaved little girl called Mary. She would say that I would be sent off to 'a home', (where you had to wear a tin hat and welly boots) and that Mary would be coming to live in my place.

I also went to boarding school and loved it. It was not a punishment , I was keen to go (at age 11.) I never felt I was being 'sent away' and if I had hated it I'm sure my parents would have removed me from the school. And we did have midnight feasts in the dorm, sometimes!

Are you home Galen or sailing the season still?

I was told not to swallow chewing gum either, but I can't remember why. I swallowed it anyway!

My Mum told me that my younger brother picked up a bad swear word when he was little. She persuaded him that 'muff' was a swear word and for ages he happily said 'muff' thinking he was getting away with blue murder!

I hated it!

HurdyGurdy I went to boarding school and loved it. It was the right thing for me. You make it sound as though it was suggested to you as a punishment. I had a brilliant time there and gained a lot more than the education. It was better than Mallory Towers!

I was spared any threats of being sent away or other awful consequences of any bad behaviour. My parents didn't smack or threaten any of us. I know we all misbehaved sometimes but don't remember anything too dreadful (no tv or no bed time story was enough).
My mother was terrified of the gypsies and when they came knocking at the door to sell pegs or white heather, she'd make us all be very quiet and hide. She believed they'd curse her and us for not buying from them.

I was told that if I swallowed chewing gum it would strangle my 'insides' - but that wasn't an adult who told me that, it was my brother!

Lovely wish I’d thought of that one

We told our children that Father Christmas delivered their stocking presents to our room ( I always thought the idea of a strange man creeping into the children’s room at night was a bit scary?) and that the door would not open except by magic until 7am! This meant that they did not wake us up at 3am etc?

I was told that if I swallowed chewing gum a big tree would grow in my stomach and the leaves would come out of my mouth. I still don't eat chewing gum!

Nanny27 - love that!

As kids, if we asked where an adult was going we would frequently be told 'to see a man about a dog'.

I was always scared of an elderly neighbour whose lips had purple blotches on them because of a heart complaint. My sister (twelve years older than me and rather jealous) told me that I was really this woman's daughter and our parents had adopted me. For months I secretly searched the house for adoption papers.

I confess to lying to my children. When the ice cream van came by I told them that his tune playing meant he'd sold out of ice-cream. (Sorry kids)

Did adults fib to me? I don't remember any of the adults in my live doing so. Some of them might have teased occasionally such as that I should eat out of the dog bowl when we were moving house and I, watching the removal men carry a wardrobe downstairs (I was four), dropped a handful of marbles on the floor in front of them! We had lunch that day at the house of friends of my parents who had a dog.

All I remember about the friends apart from the dog bowl comment was how enormous the man's feet were!

O yes, I was threatened with being sent to the local girls' approved school. (Didn't realise till much later that my mother would have died of shame if I'd ever done anything bad enough to warrant being sent to one!). Also I remember a teacher in junior school telling us that if we didn't eat our vegetables we'd be dead by the time we were 20 - obviously very untrue as I'm still alive and kicking - and I'm still not a big fan of vegetables!

My Dad used to tell my boys that if they went to bed without fuss, the Polo Fairy would visit. He would then go upstairs with them, and if they were good, would slip Polos under their pillows while they weren't watching. They believed him for years. Ah bless!

I was told that if you swallowed fruit pips a tree would grow out of the top of your head. I don'i know how many times and for how long I felt the top of my head when I accidently swallowed a n apple pip.