A policeman in the supermarket ,would you do this?

[girlfriend44]

This morning there was a policeman doing some shopping in the supermarket.

A family walked past and when the dad noticed the policeman in the aisle he said to his little girl.
Look there's a policeman. If your naughty round the supermarket he will take you away to prison. The little girl. Just listened and didn't say anything .
He made sure she saw the policeman and as said told her he would take her to prison if she was naughty.
The policeman never heard but I did . I was right by them
Would you do this?
AIBU to think it's a bit odd.

Poor little girl, having a moron for a father.

But if you're lost or scared you aren't being 'naughty' and you have no reason to fear arrest?

Slightly different but I say that to my little dog. I say here's the doggy police coming for you 😂.

You think threatening your child with the police is normal?

Why was your car being stopped? Drugs searches? You weren't being stopped randomly all these times - what was the reason?

Even more awful. Abusive imo.

Neither does a child being naughty.

Tosser dad

And what did he tell the child the handcuffs were for?! For when people are naughty/badly behaved I assume!?!

No she wasn't mid tantrum.

Not great parenting but not really different to telling them Father Christmas won't bring any presents, or the Easter Bunny won't bring any chocolate eggs. We might think that's very mean, but we wouldn't worry they might be teaching the child that Father Christmas and the Easter Bunny are vengeful and cruel, and that it might mean the kid develops fear and loathing of both for the rest of their lives. So equally I don't think this interaction is probably going to convince the little girl that the police are vengeful and cruel, and make her wary of them forevermore either.

Plus I'd personally say all the above are nothing like as bad as telling children they'll burn in hell for all eternity if they say/do/wear the wrong thing, yet we're fine with that! Parents have been threatening dire consequences for unwanted behaviour since time began.

Bloody hell! That's abuse.

Plus I'd personally say all the above are nothing like as bad as telling children they'll burn in hell for all eternity if they say/do/wear the wrong thing, yet we're fine with that!
Actually, most people are not fine with that.

Those things you mentioned are all things I would not say to my daughter. When someone said this to her last year I corrected the adult and said that she would be.

You must be very young OP to have never heard of such a thing or be astounded by it. Used to be very normal parenting practice to scare your kids into behaving in this way. My old dad's pretty much only disciplinary tactic was to threaten to contact some kind of authority figure (police or our headteacher was his go-to, but anyone would do in a pinch, doctor/nurse/security guard/lifeguard/receptionist) and threaten us with arrest, being taken away or some other unspecified 'bad thing' if we didn't behave ourselves. If at home he'd go so far as to pick up the phone and pretend to be actually calling them... It had varying success as a measure, only worked for as long as it took us to figure out that he didn't actually have the power to get us arrested for not eating our dinners but hey ho, didn't cause us any harm in the long run...

Believe it or not that was considered enlightened parenting in the 70s, they themselves had grown up on being smacked or made to stand in the corner or go to bed without dinner similar physical punishments so non specific threats you don't intend to carry through on was a step up. Anyway obviously I don't think you'll find many people today who think it's a great idea or parenting of the year but equally if the little girl wasn't distressed or anything I don't think you need to call social services! Who knows what things that are considered normal today will be looked on with horror by today's generation!

My parents used to say that (or that bobby will tell you off-usually if I was kicking off in the back seat of the car) and I didn't grow up with an undue fear of the police. It's just something parents say and is neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things.

Yes, I don't think it's good parenting. But I don't think it's odd.

Yeah

Think the car must've had some kind of marker on it. Was drugs and weapons they searched for. But once they'd done it once I've no idea what the hit on me each time I crossed into Kent.

It stopped after I sold the car. So spending those occasions on treating me like a criminal were unwarranted and certainly not a way to instill faith in the policing system

This. Teaches children to be scared of them and not go to them for help if they need it, will never say this to mu child

It was not considered enlightened parenting in the 70s. I was born in the 1950s and it wasn't considered enlightened then.

It really isn't.

This!!!

I go tomorrow and I have a factor 30 spray and a factor 15 oil.

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