My husband lost his temper with our son (5) and said...

[earwig1]

"Do you want me to send you away to a home?" after our son threw a tantrum. It's not the first time he says that, and I have warned him before never to say that again. I'm sure he was told that as a child and he can't remember, but it comes out unconsciously sometimes. Most of the time he is a good father, and the children love him very much. How angry would you be?

[Ponders]

well, he shouldn't say it

bit does a 5-yr-old knows what his dad means by "a home"?

[ImperialBlether]

That's appalling. It's designed to make your son feel unsafe in his own home.

[BooBooChicken]

We are all capable of saying horrible things in the heat of the moment, i'm sure he wishes he hadn't said it

[earwig1]

I'm sure my son has no idea what it means...but it sounds horrible to me, and it upsets me...

[Thisisaeuphemism]

It is the sort of thing some people used to say. Idiots.
I would be annoyed but mostly I would want him to sort it out. I would want him to explain to DS that this would never happen and he was very wrong to say it. And I would want him to agree that he wouldn't say it again.

[Ponders]

*but

what your DH needs to try to remember (apart from counting to 3 before uttering) is that you should not make empty threats if you want your children to take you seriously when you're angry with them

[ImperialBlether]

BooBooChicken - he has said this before.

[SirBoobAlot]

What a vile thing to say :( Your poor DS.

[BooBooChicken]

Oh sorry OP i didn't read carefully puts a very different perspective on things

[earwig1]

I don't want him in bed with me tonight, sofa for him for acting like a complete twant!!

[Ponders]

When our kids were small I was friendly with a perfectly nice woman who used to tell her DD1, aged about 4, that if she was unkind to her little sister that the police would come & take her away.

I did tell her that really wasn't a helpful thing to say but it kept coming out.

It can be incredibly hard not to repeat the mistakes your own parents made, as OP has said

[Yama]

My Mum used to tell my brother that he'd be sent to a "bad boys' home". Perhaps she only said it once but I remember it. I imagined that it was underground for some reason. My brother wasn't phased.

My Mum is lovely by the way but 3 under 4 pushed her to breaking point I reckon. Not excusing, just trying to understand.

[Scroobius]

We used to be told the police thing all the time when we were children and it never did me any harm. Honest
I think if it's not upsetting ds then there's no need to be too worried however if its said in anger it's a bit different to the sort of humorous way we used to be told it. I tell the dog quite regularly that he's going to live in the woods with the bears if he doesn't stop chewing things... Tbf I'll probably use the same line on dd when she arrives but I suppose that's more obviously not true.

[Woozley]

He probably just repeated it as his parents said it to him, without thinking.

[ikigai]

He might not understand what it means now, but he will in a couple of years time.

My dad used to tell me, my dbro and dsisters that he'd make sure we go into different homes so that we had nobody. I remember it scaring the hell out of me when I was not much older than 5.

[earwig1]

Thanks everyone for giving some wise perspective, but when he acts like that he reminds me of his dad, who is my least favourite person...

[tiredofwaitingforitalltochange]

I used to joke to my dds about 'calling the children's home' and sometimes pick up the phone and say 'hello is that the children's home...? I've got two girls I want you to take'.

It was so obviously not serious and they felt really secure so they'd just say 'Muuum..' and laugh. They were older than your son, and able to appreciate the humour, and they knew it was just me teasing them - it wouldn't have been funny otherwise.

The idea of saying this to a five year old in anger is horrifying, but it probably IS what his parents used to say. My dad's favourite line - he had a terrible temper and couldn't really cope with four children born in 5 years - was 'well you can go and live somewhere else'. From when we were pretty small.

Agree with those who say that he needs to sit down with ds when he's calm, apologise, make clear he only said it because he was angry and it will never, ever happen.

[Ponders]

fair enough to make a stand against what he said to your DS, earwig, & I can understand completely how you feel about his dad coming out in him

how does he feel about his dad?

[earwig1]

Oh, these things are not simple are they...of course, his feeling towards his dad are ambivalent and there is a lot of resentment there... but he behaves like the Father he knows when he gets stressed.

[LineRunner]

I actually remember this being said both seriously and in jest in lots of families when I was growing up in the 1970/80s.

Not in ours. And we were bloody dysfunctional! But in plenty of others.

We had our own special nonsense.

But it is part of some families' 'scripts'. I think it's fair to tell your DP that it's a script that has definitely had its day, and to cut it out.

[ProcrastinatingPanda]

When I was young we'd always be threatened with being sent to a home. Even to the point where my mum would have us sitting on the stairs in our jackets and she'd have someone else chap the front door from the outside to make it look like the person from the home was here to take us away, whilst we'd be crying our eyes out. I don't think yabu to be angry about it, your DP really needs to stop saying it before your DS starts to understand what he means.

[CaliforniaLeaving]

We used to get told we were going to be sent to boarding school. Little did I know I might have liked it, with all the extracurricular activities and a good education
Dh told Ds1 that the old peoples center was the naughty boys home, then we drove past one day and it was all decked out for Christmas, so Ds told Dh it looked nice could we stop and take a look. Dh never tried that again.

[OpheliasWeepingWillow]

I'd always be told I would be sold to gipsies

[MrRected]

You are being very precious OP. Your darling child probably didn't even hear what your DH said.

[FangsGoForTheMaidensThroat]

Not precious at all IMO.