Parents From Around The World Share 'Teachable Moments' That Backfired


Parents From Around The World Share 'Teachable Moments' That Backfired


Every parent dreams of passing wisdom to the next generation. Whether the advice begins with, "In my day" or "Do this or suffer the consequences," mom and dad have a treasure trove of life lessons to share.

But here's the thing. While some parental advice works well and some gets roundly ignored, some lessons backfire completely. There is cold comfort in knowing this happens to everyone. Read on to see how dozens of parents taught a lesson that had completely unintended results.

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60. Express Yourself... Just Not That Much

My four year old has gone through great lengths to develop her speech, and her father and I encourage boisterous responses when reading books or describing things to get her mind processing what she sees. We're excited she's come this far. She's excited because she's four. Four-year-olds also have issues finding their 'inside voice' sometimes.

Now, everywhere we go, she insists on pointing straight at people and yelling their adjective of choice. "BIG!" "ANGRY!" "BOY!" (to the woman with short hair, narrowing her eyes at me).

Sigh. At least she's talking.

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59. Patience Zero

My three-year-old, like most three-year-olds, is super impatient. When he wants something, he wants it two minutes ago. If something doesn’t happen as quickly as he wants, sometimes he loses his cool and it can turn into a giant tantrum. We’ve been working hard on patience, so our mantra (with help from Daniel Tiger) has been to stomp three times while saying, “be patient.” It’s hit or miss, but he knows what I’m after. It’s done a really good job at cutting tantrums in half, but now he’s turned it around on me.

If I’m getting onto him or telling him I want him to do something RIGHT NOW, he’ll tell me, “No, mama, stomp your feet, BEEE PATIENT.” Sometimes he even gives me a good finger wave. Oomph.

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58. Toddlers Are The Best Tippers

Tipping.

As the manager of a bar, I tried to teach my three-year-old how to properly tip in establishments.

We were in Target one afternoon and I told her she could choose one toy on her own and pay for it herself. I gave her a hundred dollar bill with which to do this. The toy cost $3.99. When the cashier gave my daughter her change, she slid it back as far toward the cashier as her little arms could reach and in a confident toddler voice said: “No, that’s for you.”

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57. The Rosa Parks Of Car Seats

My niece was five and it was during black history month. Something came on the TV about Rosa Parks. She happens to be half black so I thought this would be a good moment to explain Rosa Parks' story. We talk and I thought, for the most part, she understood the story. About a week later we are getting in the car and she starts to get in the front seat. I said what are you doing you have to ride in your car seat. She tells me she can sit where ever she wants because of Rosa Parks.

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56. An Official Statement From Grandma

My son was four. He is autistic and incredibly smart, he learned to read at age two and write by age three. He wanted to spend the night at his grandmother's house one night and my mom was very tired from working all day. So I said to him jokingly, "You can spend the night only if you get a handwritten note from your grandma saying yes." He looked at me and walked away into his aunt's room.

He comes back several minutes later with a piece of paper with his hand traced on it and the word "YES" written in the middle. He didn't even ask her, just came back with a handwritten on a note saying yes. My mom still has the handwritten note and it was so adorable he ended up being able to spend the night despite how tired she was.

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55. You Can't Compromise With Toddlers

Wasn't so much a lesson, rather trying to compromise with my 3-year-old. He kept asking for the chocolate cake we had saved for dessert. We wanted him to at least eat the lasagne first because it's a little bit more nutritious and at least it is something.

I read an article about parenting, which said requests or instructions are simple and achievable when compromising at dinner time. He had been steadfast he didn't want the lasagne but would eat the cake. So I suggested if he could have 3 more bites the dessert is yours. He took the tiniest of bites each time and got his cake. My girlfriend was unimpressed with me

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54. Twitch And Shout

I want to teach my son that homework is more important than video games. I want him to think about his strengths and build on them. Unfortunately, his favorite YouTubers are twitch streamers and make way more money than I do by playing video games. It’s hard to argue against it and not contradict myself when I tell him he can do anything he puts his mind to.

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53. What's In A Name?

Attempted to teach my daughter the difference between a stranger and someone familiar/ friendly. To simplify things, she was told that if you don't know someone's name, that means they're a stranger to you. It worked ok until one day, walking around Walmart, she started asking "what's your name?" She would get an answer and promptly say, "He's John! Mommy, he's not a stranger!" Thankfully this was a time where she never went anywhere without me (around 2 years old). We've since had very different conversations.

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52. They Created Their Own Religion

I have tried to teach my kids to be respectful and fairly open-minded/critical of religion. When they ask me about a certain faith or questions like "where do we go when we die?" etc, I'll say, "Well, some people believe x and some people believe y and some don't believe in any of it. No one knows for sure so it's okay for people to believe different things."

My daughter believes she is going to heaven to be an angel but is also going to reincarnate as a cat and Pegasus.

My son believes when you die you load a new game or maybe go back to a checkpoint. Also that ghosts are friendly and hostile on a rotating schedule.

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51. Forged Under Fire

I was the kid, not the parent.

My second-grade teacher wrote that I talked in class on a report card, so I signed my mom's name and handed it in so they wouldn't see it. Later that night, my teacher called my parents and told them I had forged their signature. I got my butt torn up.

I asked how the teacher knew and they told me because my handwriting was different than my mom's.

Over the next week, I became an expert forger of my mother's signature.

It saved me several times.

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50. Quit While You're Ahead

Walking through a casino with my kids, I stopped at a slot machine. As they looked all around, mesmerized by cool colors and shiny things, I realized this was a good opportunity to teach a life lesson about the dangers of gambling. I took a quarter out and said, "I want to show you how wasteful gambling is."​

And of course, immediately hit a jackpot for $75.

Quickly trying to recover, I said, "Here's another life lesson. Quit while you're ahead."

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49. Popping The Question

Kid: Daddy, why can't I have pop?

Me: You see that bag of sugar? Grab that, that clear plastic cup, and a spoon. I'll show you.

{we get the stuff, I start spooning away too 10-12 spoons of sugar}

Me: See all that sugar? That's why you can't have pop, honey.

Kid: We have enough sugar... Can we use it to make pop now?

Fail.

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48. The Breakfast Club Solution

I caught my teenage daughter smoking; so I tried the Donald Duck Method™ he used with Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and forced her to smoke 10 of the things in a row.

She felt very sick, and I thought to myself, "My job is done here!"

However, now she begs me to buy her "Juul Pods" for some nicotine vape stick thing she got on her own somehow, because "Dad, I'm SO stressed out!"

I realize now that I messed things up, and I don't know how to fix them.

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47. Locked Out Mommy

As the mother of a daughter, I enforce safety religiously. One of the safety measures I instill in her is to always, and I repeat ALWAYS, lock the door behind her. When this incident happened I was living with my best friend. Since it was just us girls living alone in a shady area of town this was super important, it's safe to say my kid knew to lock the door!

It was the 4th of July and my best friend, daughter and I were hanging out on the back patio after lighting off fireworks. It got late and my daughter got tired and went to bed. My friend and I stayed outside since the weather was nice to continue hanging out and chat without waking up the kiddo.

Long story short, my daughter locked us out. It took over an hour to wake her (and the entire neighborhood in the process) in the middle of the night to come let us in.

The reason it took us so long to wake her, after throwing rocks at her window and yelling in unison at the top of our lungs out to her?

It was because I made sure to be loud as possible when she was sleeping like a baby so I wouldn't have to worry about her being a light sleeper. Plan worked. She sleeps like a ROCK. Backfire #2. Touche life.

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46. Please Ground Me

I was the kid in this situation, not the parent.

I was about ten years old and I ended up getting into a fight with my sister-in-law. My mom was particularly upset with my behavior, so she sent me to my room and told me "that I could come out when I was sorry and ready to apologize."

Unfortunately, she had somehow forgotten that I was an extremely introverted child and that I LOVED being alone in my room. I was the type that didn't need any type of entertainment for hours on end and would just be at complete peace being isolated from the rest of the world. So I sat in there and even napped for a bit for hours on end, happy that nobody could bug me as it would go against the point of the punishment.

Far later my mom checks in on me and asks why I haven't come out yet. I tell her that I was instructed not to come out until I was sorry and ready to apologize. Neither had happened, and I was perfectly happy staying in here.

She realized the futility in her actions and forced me out to apologize. Raising a kid that doesn't consider timeout or being left alone as a punishment must've been a bit baffling for my mom and dad, honestly.

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45. Hired Help Is Allowed to Quit

I wanted to teach my son the value of money and work ethic because he kept wanting Robux (a currency you can use to buy upgrades in this videogame)... I decided it would be a great teaching moment and a win-win opportunity as he was just getting to the age in which I think he should start doing chores around the house.

He really wanted to buy some skin or something, so I created a chore chart and gave each chore a value. We established a schedule and everything. It was working out majestically; every day without asking he was doing dishes, cleaning his room, picking up the dog poop, it was epic.

Then one day, I came home and nothing had been done. I asked him, "Hey man, what's up with the dishes? Oh and go pick up the dog poop too." He simply replied, "Nah." Fighting back rage, I simply said, "Excuse me?" He said that he'd made enough money over the last x days that he bought his skin and he was good now. It was hard to argue.

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44. When A 3-Year Old Can Memorize Three Numbers

Saw a clip on local news about a toddler saving her mom's life by calling 911 when she collapsed. Figured it was a good idea to teach my toddler 911. Had two cops at my door 5 minutes later.

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43. Rewards Are Done, And So Is The Good Behavior

My mother in law promised my daughter a Hello Kitty house playset for learning to use the potty. So after one week of using the potty every time she had to go, my mother in law gave my daughter the Hello Kitty house. Next day she started wetting herself again because she got the house, so what was the point in still using the potty?! I explained she still had to use the potty to be a big girl and made a sticker chart. No more promising toys for things the child HAS to do. But a sticker chart seems to work wonders in my house.

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42. Be Careful What You Audition For

When my daughter was 10, she wanted to try out for a community theater version of Beauty and the Beast. She got nervous though, and almost backed out because she was so sure she wasn't going to make it.

My husband, who did some acting in high school, stepped in and said that he would also audition, even though he knew he was never going to make it. He wanted to demonstrate to her that it's okay to audition for something that you don't think you're going to make.

She ended up not only just making it, but she got the part of Chip. My husband got the part of Maurice, Belle's father. He didn't even want to be in a stupid play.

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41. If All He Has Is A Monkey, I Want That

When my older son was about three or four years old, we realized he was starting to act very spoiled and materialistic. We always tried to make him see how lucky he already had it, but he constantly begged us for every toy, candy, and treat he saw anywhere and everywhere.

Around that time, I came across a great photo spread that involved the photographer traveling around the world and snapping photos of different children with their most prized possessions. Of course, the kids in the US, Canada, and Europe were mostly photographed in rooms filled with stuff. But there were also photos of children from impoverished nations, usually showing the child with only one old, dirty stuffed animal.

I thought I was going to accomplish this brilliant parenting move by sitting him down and going through the photos with him. I’d explain how the kids with rooms like his were beyond lucky and he should feel more than satisfied with all of the great stuff that he had. Then I would show him the other photos and he would finally understand that there are so many other children in the world with far less than he had.

We looked through the photos and talked about each one. We finally got to one with a little boy standing on his cot with his one possession, a well-loved, dingy-looking stuffed monkey. My son looked at if for a long time. I could see his wheels spinning. “Success!” I thought. After a long bit of silence, he finally looked up at me, gave me a sweet smile and said, “I want that monkey.”

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40. That's Mister Daddy To You

My aunt and uncle were trying to teach my cousin manners and wanted him to address people as Mr. and Mrs. They used each other as examples, and consequently were known as Mr. and Mrs. Lannuccilli for around 2 months. One of the funniest moments of my life was hearing my uncle describe how in the middle of the night instead of ‘dad’ he started hearing ‘Mr. Lannuccilli!’ Cracks me up every time.

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39. It's All Fun Until... Well, It's All Fun I Guess

My youngest boy would never listen, and he was always totally fearless. He was also always really lucky. About near every time either of us told him "don't do that, you're going to get hurt," he would do it and then not get hurt. So we ended up teaching him that when we said not to do something, that probably meant it was a fun thing to do.

I remember really hoping that he would fall and break an arm or something non-life-threatening or disabling like that so he would stop constantly giving us heart attacks, which is weird to say as a parent -- but it never happened, so it doesn't matter anyway. He never got anything worse than a small scrape or cut that could be cleaned and covered in five minutes before he was back at it again. Looking back I'm just glad this was before there was anything like stunt tv shows around to further encourage that stuff.

Now he's a stunt man for movies. Can't say I'm surprised.

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38. How You Become A Hermit Dynasty

I tried to teach my kids to be content with themselves and how to be alone. Full success, they rarely ever go out. 22 and 24. They are so mellow that they don't tell us when something goes wrong, and haven't since they were middle schoolers.

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37. A Powerful Lesson About Powerball (Not Really)

I always tell my children that the lottery is a tax on people that are bad at math. I let my 8-year-old spend a few hard-earned dollars on a Powerball ticket to prove it and he won $100.

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36. With Compliments Like That, Who Needs Insults?

Taught my now 16-year-old to always compliment people who insulted you. We were in a Burlington Coat Factory in Michigan when my mother was shopping for a bathing suit to take to Florida. There were few to choose from, so she was complaining. My kid was 4.

A woman trying on pants and said something rude to my mom who was asking my opinion and my daughter caught on that my mother was agitated. She squeezed out behind me and told the woman, "Your teeth are such a pretty yellow!"

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35. Did The Smartphone Stay Up Past Bedtime?

I was trying to teach my 4-year-old that it is important to go to sleep because our brains need to recharge. I compared it to my iPad needing to recharge after it dies.

He said “okay...” and got really quiet. Then told me, “Mom, I need to go to sleep.” I agreed with him, but asked why he was suddenly tired. He started crying and said, “because I don’t want to die.”

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34. She Probably Requests Time Out, Too

My two-year-old was refusing to wear her hat. It was hot. I told her if she didn’t put her hat on she would have to wait in the car. She started walking away from me, so I said, "Where are you going?"

She responded: "The car."

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33. What A Wonderful Waste Of Money, Son

Playing carnival/fair games is a waste of money. My son wanted to spend his $20 to win a Pikachu stuffed animal from his allowance that he saved up. We told him he would be wasting his money and he would not win. He spent $15.00 and won the biggest prize.

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32. So Much For The Benefits Of Bidding Wars

I tried the whole "have your kids quote chores for pay and bid against one another." It's supposed to teach them about working for their money and not expecting handouts like an allowance.

It turned into every time I asked them to do something I good with them responding, "How much will you pay me?"

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31. Fairest Of The Not Fair

I've been teaching my kids that life isn't always fair. The tantrums when one is invited to a birthday party but not the other have been too much. It's been helping, some.

Then I was playing tic tac toe with my youngest. She covered up the column she wanted to use to win. When I told her that cheating isn't fair and I didn't want to play if she was going to cheat, she reminded me - "life isn't fair, Momma." Touche, kiddo.

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30. Hate To Think What He'd Say To People Who Don't Recycle

As good people, we taught our kids that littering isn't nice. As humans, we also let some curse words fly in front of them.

We were at our city's 4th of July celebration when the oldest was 4. We were walking around and someone tossed their trash on the ground. Captain Litterbug flew into action, picked up the trash and yelled, "Hey butthole, you dropped this," while tapping them on the butt.

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29. As It Turns Out, Toddler Privileges Aren't That Great

I told my oldest no food downstairs. He had to eat at the table if he wanted to and not his playroom. When the second kid was born I would bring down his bottle and snacks so he could eat solid foods that helped his teething while we played. My older kid flipped out because there is no food downstairs that was like a basic rule of life to him. When I said it was ok because his brother is a baby and I was down there with him, my oldest took advantage of some shared snacks the kids had later. He would try to give his brother snacks that he liked so he could eat them downstairs too.

So I saw him sitting in his play tent eating animal crackers and giving his brother one as they hid from me because he knows it's technically wrong. But he eventually saw the reason why I made the rule because although the younger kid would eat 1-2 crackers, he would then mash the third into a paste and rub it over the toys.

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28. Would You Do Something Illegal Just Because Your Friend Did? Oops, Bad Question

That he could hang out with people I didn’t like, but that it was because I trusted him to stay true to who he was. His friends could act a certain way, but he could recognize that to be someone’s friend didn’t mean he needed to follow their behaviors.

Sounded good and accepting in my head... Until he hung out with friends who he got in trouble with at school for illegal substances, and whether you like it or hate it, think it should be legal or not, it’s still illegal on school grounds and my son got expelled. Guess he didn’t heed my lesson, or maybe it was just a bad message. Now I tell him to avoid people who don’t care about his best interests. Be friendly, don’t be friends.

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27. Just Stick With The Stork Story Next Time

When my son was about 3 or 4 he started to ask about how babies are born. I sat him down and gave him a very simple, age-appropriate explanation.

He just looked at me, shook his head and said just said 'No.' Very calmly but in a 'I can't believe you think that's how it works' tone of voice like I'd told him fake news.

I was prepared for difficult questions and even prepared for the fact that he might ask me things that even I didn't know, but I was completely unprepared for him to just simply not believe me when I told him the truth. I just sat there not knowing what to do while he went back to playing Lego.

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26. A Closed Room Is A Clean Room

My kids were begging for a pet. I don't want to take care of a pet, and I told them that they don't clean up after themselves without me hassling them, so why would they clean up after a pet without me hassling them? I told them if they could keep their room clean for 6 months without me telling them, they could get a pet.

The youngest child proceeds to clean room, then move clothes and a sleeping bag into the hallway and lock his door so his room can't get dirty as he sleeps in the hallway.

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25. Twin See, Twin Do

One of my 5-year-old twins was still having occasional accidents because she would get so caught up in playing/doing something else that she just wouldn't go and would have an accident. To combat this we would give her a special prize of some variety when she wouldn't have an accident. This, in turn, caused her twin sister to START having accidents so she could get prizes for not having accidents (even though she was fine on this front beforehand). We had to rethink our methods.

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24. Who Knew He Would Take Me Literally?

I told my 11-year-old who was being bullied on the school bus to stand up for himself if his bullies started hitting him again.

"Honestly son, the only way to be rid of bullies is to show them you aren't scared, if they hit you again, punch him back. Just stand up to them and you'll see."

A few days later, the police land at the door asking for my son as he was involved in an assault. A kid on the bus had kicked him so he turned around, punched him to the floor, and then took my words literally and started booting the kid in the head.

Thankfully the kid was okay other than some scuffs and bruises, and my son doesn't get bullied anymore. I now watch which words I use to give him instruction since he's taking them quite literally.

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23. A New Way To Halt Dinner Conversations

A coworker of mine was trying to teach her kid the "don't talk with your mouth full" rule. Instead, the kid just spits out their food when they want to talk.

Children are the absolute masters of malicious compliance.

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22. As If We Have A Cliff In The Backyard

Read a book that suggested you ask your kid what an appropriate punishment for misbehaving would be and then carry it out. My six-year-old son pinched his brother or something, so we asked what an appropriate punishment would be. He said, “throw me over a cliff." We didn't follow through. And stopped reading parenting books.

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21. How Braking Made A Car Lesson Backfire

My daughter used to always unbuckle her seatbelt to reach for things in the car, then not put it back on. We had a minivan at the time so she was always moving around, saying “I just need my backpack” or whatever, and we were always telling her to sit down and get her seatbelt back on. She was maybe 8-ish?

I was home one night when she burst through the door, crying,  and holding a t-shirt to her injured face, husband close behind, shirtless. Husband looking very sheepish. I asked what in the world happened to them, thinking they had been in an accident. Nah, just a backfired lesson.

Husband tried to show her what could happen if she wasn’t buckled and he had to slam on his brakes. He claims he just tapped them, but clearly, he didn’t plan for her to propel forward, face hitting the seat adjustment thing on the back, hurting her nose. He took his shirt off to help her stop the blood.

Not sure if that helped her learn a lesson, but the car roaming seemed to subside and she’s a 19-year-old driver now who always wears her seatbelt.

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20. Coal Seems Pretty Cool

Told kids that if they were bad they would get coal in their stockings on Christmas. "What's coal?" they asked. I replied, "Well, it is a rock that you can light on fire." They now want coal.

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19. No One Yells At Our Team, Not Even Our Parents

Due to a last-minute adoption, my wife and I went from one kid to two kids very quickly. They are close in age (18 months apart) so we tried reading books about how to avoid sibling rivalry and encourage a positive sibling relationship as they got older. One of the books said to teach the kids that they are a team. That's what we did.

It resulted in my daughter getting angry at me any time I would discipline her brother because he was her baby. I would try to explain that discipline is part of learning but she wasn't having any of that. She agreed that she should be disciplined for bad behavior but not her baby brother. You have to stand up for your teammate after all. That's really the only times she would ever throw a full-blown screaming tantrum, so then I would have to deal with my son crying because he was being disciplined and my daughter crying because her brother was being disciplined.

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18. She May Also Have A Crow Phone

My nephew mispronounced the name of a certain kitchen appliance, so my sister broke it into syllables very distinctly for him, saying "it's mi-cro-wave." My nephew nodded very seriously and replied: "It's your crow wave!"

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17. At Least He Didn't Pay Full Price For Those Tickets

Trying to keep my 4-year-old in bed. He gets up 4 or more times saying he has to go to the bathroom. Most of the time he doesn't have to go and we send him back to bed. 5 minutes later, he does it again. He knows that he can get out of bed this way. My wife decided to make tickets. He could use the tickets if he got out of bed. Once the tickets were done, so was he. If he could stay in bed for the rest of the night he got rewarded with stickers. The first night we tried it, he had an accident.

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16. Alternatively, Kick Him In The Fire

My friend’s 10-year-old daughter was going over to a friend’s house in the same apartment complex, but a few buildings away.

Mom: “Ok, what do we do if someone tries to grab you?”

Daughter: “Kick him in his balls and yell ‘FIRE’!”

Mom: “Ha, right, but that’s not a good word, it’s ‘privates’.”

Daughter: “Ok, kick him in the balls and yell ‘PRIVATES’!”

Mom: “You know... that might work too.”

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15. A Lesson About Labels, For The Parent

I used to let my son have Five Alive juice boxes in his lunches because it's a small amount and at least it has vitamin C.

In the grocery store one day he starts asking for Kool-Aid and I said no way because it's full of sugar. I pick up the Kool-Aid and Five Alive to show him the nutritional data to prove my point... and discover that they have the same amount of vitamin C but the Kool-Aid has far less sugar. Now he gets the Kool-Aid.

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14. A Different Kind Of Parental Controls

My teenage son was staying up super late on his laptop doing teenage internet things (mostly gaming I assume) and messing up in school, so we put parental controls on the router so that the internet would be turned off from 11 pm to 7 am.

This, of course, impacted my wife and I, because we lost internet access during those hours too. Grumble, grumble stupid kids, etc.

Anyway, he was way more tech-savvy than we were, so he was able to bypass the parental controls, and stay online as late as he wanted. So the end result of the parental controls was that the parents didn't have internet, but the teenager did.

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13. Read Dad His Rights, Sweetie

Taught them to read early. My son could read by age 4, and my daughter by age 3. This leads to some unwanted conversations as they will read things over your shoulder when you aren't expecting it. Or even just signs on the road. "You're going to fast, Daddy. It says 55 mph and you're going 70."

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12. He Wants Her To Be Good At Science, But Not That Kind

When my wife was pregnant, my daughter (6 years old) asked how the baby comes out. I told her she needed to be older. She replied with, "you tell me to ask questions until I understand. I want to be good at science so I have to ask questions. If you don't answer then you don't want me to be good at science."

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11. Now Let's Whine For Liver For Dinner

Our 7-year-old twins are taught that if they whine or beg for something, they don't get it. We went through a phase of them "whining" for things they didn't want, like an earlier bedtime.

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10. Next Time Use The Handrail

My daughter ran down the stairs so I sent her back up so she could walk down them properly. She promptly fell down the entire flight.

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9. Is That Your Final Offer?

The negotiating tactic where you suggest something outrageous first and then what you really want seems reasonable. I told my daughter to do this for something going on at school and now she does it all the time. She's 9.

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8. You Are What You Eat, And He Didn't Have Batteries For Breakfast

My little brother refused to eat while my girlfriend and I were babysitting him. My girlfriend decided to explain the concept of food as an energy source to him. Which he then proceeds to use an excuse to not do anything. Anytime you told him to do something, he said he couldn’t because he would run out of energy and die.

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7. How To Touch Without Using Any Skin

My son is nearly two. We've taught him "don't touch" for certain items that can't be baby-proofed (a floor lamp/the fireplace's glass door/low windows).

He completely understands that "don't touch" means do not put any part of your body on this thing. No hands, no feet, don't lean against it.

So now we have to watch him like a hawk because throwing a toy car at the glass isn't "touching." Neither is whacking a window with a clothes hanger. Or shoving an end table into the lamp super hard. We've taken to yelling, "THAT IS STILL TOUCHING!"

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6. She Shoots, She Scores

We taught our 1-year-old daughter to throw her dirty diapers in the trash can, and she says "good girl." Now everything gets thrown in the trash, and she says "good girl."

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5. My Body Goes Where It Wants

my niece had been taught that no one is allowed to force her into giving hugs, etc. It's her body, she has the right to say no.

Well, she tries to use that as an excuse to misbehave from time to time. Like one time, Dad told her she couldn't play in a certain space with this huge toy cart because there wasn't enough room. She claimed her body has the right to be there if she says so. Her body. Her right. All three of us facepalmed that moment.

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4. This Kid Will Hate The Land Before Time Movies

We live across from a cemetery. When my oldest was around 5, she had a lot of questions regarding funerals. We bought her an illustrated dinosaur book that explains death to kids in a secular way. Halfway through the book, she had a complete meltdown and became terrified of dying. My intent was to teach her about the reality of death at a young age so that she would have a healthy view of life/death. She is fine now, but she did have a lot of death anxiety for a couple of months.

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3. Vomit Makes A Visible Argument

My dad tried to implement the whole you MUST eat ALL the food on your plate in our house during meals. My mom was never a fan of that lesson, but my dad was stubborn so she just let it go. Well, one day my sibling had 2-3 bites of food left on their plate and was very clear that they were absolutely full and couldn't eat another bite. Dad wasn't having it and insisted they could not leave the table until all the food on their plate was gone. My sibling realized they weren't going to convince our dad that they were too full and finished the last few bites of food, then proceeded to vomit on the table and our dad. He stopped enforcing the rule after that.

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2. Go On, Sell It Mom

Told my children repeatedly that if I found any more mess/junk on their bedroom floor, I would be donating it to the thrift store. I told them they had 15 minutes to clean it up off the floor.

Came back to find everything picked up, except they went into the kitchen cupboards and had put every food they didn't like in a nice neat pile right in the middle of the floor.

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1. "Sharing Is Caring" Can Go Too Far

"Mom, Can I have some of your ice cream?"

"Sure, one bite."

"Mom, can I have more?"

"No, Mommy doesn't get many treats. It's mine."

"Buuuuuuuut, sharing is caring!"

Ugh, just take it.

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