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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think the best way to deter dangerous behaviour is to give reasons.

35 replies

tenyeardecade · 16/02/2022 14:09

I am coming off the husband cleaning icing chemicals thread. I know you aren't supposed to mix chemicals, but I didn't know that you could make chlorine if you mix the wrong stuff! If i had known that I wouldn't have scoffed at my mum when I was a teen while mixing bleach with every other nice smelling spray I could find.

There are others, my 3 year old for example used to try to put his hand in the lift doors of our flat. (years ago he isn't scarred for life) I used to tell him we Don't do that, it will hurt him, he will get stuck blah blah blah.
He did it one day and i thought fuck it, googled 'child's a caught In lift' and showed him a video of a little girl getting her arm stuck. Never did it again.

Can anyone think of any others?

OP posts:
NeverDropYourMooncup · 16/02/2022 15:35

It depends upon who you're talking to.

It at least used to be something we were told about in school science lessons - it's how I knew to refuse when my boss at my Saturday job told me to put disinfectant into a bucket of bleachy water to mop the floor at the end of trading. There's no reason why my entire class, and presumably as the teacher taught for many years, thousands of people grew up knowing this - but I suppose some of them weren't listening.

But we had a rather rough and ready attitude with our teachers to keep with the rough and ready cohorts, rather than everything being all nice and gentle all the time in case the poor dears were traumatised. I know that I got some some very pointed 'looks' from colleagues at one workplace on some occasions (conversations truncated slightly);

Kids stuck in lift, shouting down from about 2 foot below ceiling level - 'I can get the doors open and climb down, Miss'

[brief conversation along the lines of no, stay where you are, but I can fit through there and sounds of movement too close to the bottom of the doors for my liking]

'[child name] Have you not seen Resident Evil?'

...

...

'Oh. We'll wait then, Miss'.

Kids refusing to remove jewellery/watches/tie long hair back in the workshop. Constant arguing, all getting a bit huffy.

'Look, you've been told repeatedly that you don't get to use the lathe/pillar drill/whatever until you [whatever]. Tell you what, you go over to the computer now and Google 'Degloving injuries' and then come back and tell me that I'm making a fuss about nothing'.

'Yes, I am fully aware that I can't physically stop you going over the fence. However I would prefer it if I didn't end up having to search amongst the fox faeces for where you last left your finger or climb over it myself to give you company whilst you bleed out from a cut to the brachial artery. It's dangerous. And I certainly don't ever want to be in the position of having to provide firm pressure to your groin whilst we wait for the air ambulance.'

I was clearly dealing with much older kids here. But they did seem to get the idea after they had the risks made very clear.

There was one adult staff member. He got both barrels, as he was instructing kids on drilling for a garden thing with a very large drillbit whilst wearing sandals and using his feet to hold the two extremely heavy and wobbly sleepers together.

'Sir? You need to stop and put on some appropriate footwear before you continue. Why? Because if you drill through your foot like you're about to do or one of those sleepers falls onto it, you will get first aid but absolutely zero sympathy from me.'

(as I walked away from that one, I could hear the kids giving him stick - 'we told you to wear your boots, Sir. You can't argue with her, she's right' amongst other things. When I walked past next, he'd put his boots back on).

MorningStarling · 16/02/2022 15:35

Byker Grove was great for showing the consequences of actions. Never saw anyone my age take their goggles off paintballing after PJ got blinded.

The Finishing Line is a great 70s film about not playing on the railway line, from memory a school sports day is held on a railway track which keeps having to be stopped to remove the dead children.

Gowithme · 16/02/2022 15:36

OH is still horrified by that sparkler advert from the 70's/80's and hates the things.

junglejane66 · 16/02/2022 15:40

@Alicetheowl

I never understood the one about the fridges. Obviously one tragedy is one too many, but how many kids would, firstly, come across abandoned fridges on their travels, and secondly, think it might be fun to go inside and shut the door? Really, this was a thing?
Some fridges in the 60's early 70's had a catch on the door and you needed to pull a lever to open them. If you climbed in one and shut the door you couldnt open it from the inside. If you were on you own you'd probably die as you couldnt get out and suffocate
Thecurtainsofdestiny · 16/02/2022 15:53

Come to think of it, I never did encounter one!

BlaBlaSmthSmth · 16/02/2022 15:57

@FlexibleWorkingDenied I did the exact same thing a few months ago with my son 😆 the little wind up merchant brazened it out and acted like he wanted to grow his like that..but funnily enough he never argues with me when it nail cutting time 😏

CupOfCake · 16/02/2022 16:03

D D kept climbing up on things when she was about 2. I would turn around and she'd be up on the worktop. I dropped an egg into a roasting tin from a height to show her what could happen to her head if she fell. It really worked.

Casheeeew · 16/02/2022 18:31

@CupOfCake

D D kept climbing up on things when she was about 2. I would turn around and she'd be up on the worktop. I dropped an egg into a roasting tin from a height to show her what could happen to her head if she fell. It really worked.
Good tip.

Also giggled at PP lemony Snicket comment GrinGrin

Casheeeew · 16/02/2022 18:33

I remember my aunty showing me a picture of some kids shaved head with a scar circled all the way around it, and told me that's what would happen if I didn't wear a helmet on my bike.

Also when I tried laying down in the back seat of the car (with seat belt on but no booster seats back then) my mum told me if we crashed I'd never be able to walk again or carry my baby cousin around.

CupOfCake · 16/02/2022 19:23

For anyone with time on their hands and a thing for retro safety campaigns, search on YouTube for "The Apaches"
In the 1980s I lived in a county town, but quite a few kids at the school lived in the countryside, on or near farms. At school we were all ushered into a big room and shown it. I couldn't sleep properly for weeks afterwards and have had a pathological fear of slurry pits ever since. In fact, still nearly 40 years later, every time I go near a farm, I'm terrified I'm going to fall in one!

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