A policeman in the supermarket ,would you do this?

Yes, with your parents - not the police!

Heavy forfend a parent isn't doing tip-top A+ parenting during their food shopping. Someone call social services!

ETA: (Or perhaps a policeman to take him away for being so lazy and naughty)

And this is why teachers are leaving the profession! Children should know that if they do something wrong, criminal, unsafe … then they will be told off! (As would adults!!!)

What a weird thing to ask - why isn't everyone saying the same thing to each other at the same time? Uh, because we're all different and doing our own thing. Yours apparently is earwigging on other people's conversations. Theirs is some idle dad/daughter chat while shopping. Parents talk all kinds of nonsense to kids to fill the air because they can hardly talk about in-depth current affairs etc can they. To pick up on this and get all judgey about it is next level looking for angst.

I can’t ever remember being afraid just that you had to behave yourself if you would be in trouble

"he burst into tears". "not a big deal" 😱

I get what your saying OP and when mine were younger (too young to fully understand) I would always refrain from telling them the police would lock you away etc or words to that effect but this is only because I knew of a child who was petrified of the police and I always wanted mine to know that the police are there to help etc. However! Mine are now older and get it so I do often tell them "oh careful there's the police they will have you" it works too😀 certainly if they are playing up or have been silly enough to remove their seatbelt in the car.

But it’s a lie and lazy parenting.

God, that's so awful.

For goodness sake, it's hardly a big deal! 😅

When my eldest was about 5 we were on a train and I pointed out the transport police officer, telling him that if he gets lost to go to someone in uniform like him. The officer heard me and said how nice it was to hear a parent saying they were there to help. He sat by us for a bit and let my child have a go with his handcuffs or hat (can't remember which). I thought at the time, that's a an excellent bit of engaging with the community as the opportunity presented itself.

This isn't building character or good lessons. It's teaching a child to conform through threat and lying. It's actually a very poor way to teach a child how to behave.

I used to enjoy waving at the policeman and firemen as a kid. I quite like waving to firemen now .............😁

Unfortunately it’s not odd but it IS bad parenting.

I think the point is the police are to be feared if you're doing something you shouldn't be doing (in the grown up world something illegal), not if you need help.

This!
Policeman's daughter here.
Both my parents used to hate hearing children being told this.
As the quoted PP says, they shouldn't be taught to fear the Police, they should be seen as safe adults

I've had parents tell their kids that I'm going to throw them out of the shop where I work if they don't behave before and it does annoy me a bit. It's a lie, I'm not going to throw them out. What am I meant to do if they carry on misbehaving? It's the parents responsibility to take them out, not mine!

In the days when the scrap merchants used to drive around not quite 'any old iron' but that sort of thing, I remember seeing a naughty litle boy burst into tears because an older man had told him if he carried on being naughty the scrap man would take him away.

It's the sort of 'bogeyman' stories that have been used to encourage children to behave for years. The threat of a higher authority. Not a big deal.

She is a toddler and I already instill it by, for example, not engaging with the police at an emergency services day where kids were able to meet fire fighters and paramedics and get in their vehicles. Same with my son.

I thought that taking people who do bad things away and locking them up is part of how the police protect us. In fact I swear I've read thousands of comments saying that the trouble these days is that lots of little shits kids don't fear the police enough. Personally I'm happy for kids to grow up with the idea that if you do bad stuff the police will cart you off. Obviously you need to be careful to also give the flipside - that if you are not doing bad stuff then the police are there to help you. People are assuming that this overheard aside in a supermarket was the sum total of what this gentleman has ever said to the child about the police, based on nothing whatsoever. But if an assumption has to be made to have a pop at somebody's parenting, particularly if it's a man, then by God MN will make that assumption.

Not good at all. I would not do this. Our parents did this in the past, though. Most of them.

That's child abuse. I'm sorry that happened to you.

Yes, it is. Parents should discipline their own kids. The supermarket employees won't be cross with her either, as, again, disciplining her is the parents' job.

Would you have told her that when she was a toddler?

Can confirm I was told this as a child in the early 2000s and it hasn’t affected me in the slightest 🙄