Good Hunting... from Varmint Al
Posted on 12/18/2022 4:49:44 PM PST by nickcarraway
When done well, pranking can be a sophisticated social interaction and both children and parents can equally get a laugh out of it, says this psychology lecturer.
We all lie to our kids. Some lies – telling them their artwork is wonderful, or that Wiggles band-aids are infused with anaesthetic – benefit the child. Others are just a bit of fun. Take the Tiktok trend of telling your kids this weird little gnome is a picture of them as a baby:
SNIP
From a cognitive point of view, a prank firstly involves an attempt to implant a false belief in the mind of another. For example, I’m about to safely sit on a chair. Then it involves a surprising upending of that belief to reveal a different and typically silly scenario: As I sit, I realise a whoopee cushion has been put on my chair.
(Excerpt) Read more at channelnewsasia.com ...
the halloween candy thing that jimmy kimmel does is pretty cruel to some kids
I differentiate between pranking and abuse. It’s ok to prank, in my opinion, because it prepares the child for unexpected disappointments in life. However, when the prank is designed to strip away one’s value as a person, that’s not right in my books.
No. Don’t provoke your children. You’ll teach them to be mean.
Sure, prank your kids. Just don’t get all huffy when they prank you back.
Yep. We used to prank our parents and they used to prank us. Just harmless stuff and not often.
Things like a rubber snake hanging in the broom closet (my mom was terrified of snakes) or my parents putting those candles that don’t blow out on my birthday cake one year.
There was a lot of laughter in our house(s) when I was growing up.
Good Hunting... from Varmint Al
A week ago or so, there was a twitter video that was a takeoff on The Grinch that Stole Christmas. A guy all dressed in green like the Grinch showed up at the door and came into the house while two little kids were watching tv. They went absolutely nuts while the Grinch went to the tree and proceeded to stuff presents in the bag he had with him. It was funny... but it went way way too far. The little kids were totally terrified.
I went to look for it to post it here just to see if my opinion jived with what others thought but I couldn’t find it.
I’ve pulled so many pranks on my kids I can’t even remember them all.
They all grew up normal. And we all have well refined senses of humor.
Like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy?
Not to mention the Elf on the Shelf...
I made lunch every day for my youngest before we home schooled. I frequently included chocolate dipped fruit. One day I put a chocolate dipped habenero pepper along with two strawberries. I got a phone call asking me to come to the school office. When I arrived there were two police officers there with the principal. He wanted a good reason from me as to why I shouldn’t be arrested for child endangerment? The school did not find it funny in the least.
Not really a prank but.....
When I was driving long haul I got a call from my wife one morning. Seems one of the boys wouldn’t get out of bed for school. They were home in Virginia and I was in Nebraska.
I told the wife to put him on the phone.
I told him I needed him to go out on the back deck. When he got there I told him to turn right and go to the front corner of the house. When he got there I told him to go to the other front corner. Once there I told him to go back to the deck. Once he was on the deck I asked him if he was awake. He said yes.
I told him to give the phone to his Mama and get ready for school. To this day he remembers it.
Same in our family. Pranks weren’t to humiliate or, worse, to injure the “victim”, but rather to try to cause that what’s-going-on moment where the prankee doubts reality, however briefly.
We kids would improve our comedic timing by trying to make a sibling laugh while drinking something. Extra points for milk out the nose.
I would never prank my kids. They might return the favor when they pick out my retirement home!
No.
It is not okay to prank your kids.
That is messed up and cruel.
Kids rely on patents for love, guidance, wisdom, and security. They need to know you are in their corner, that they can trust you, and that you have their back. Why would you break that trust over something so stupid for social media cred?
What the heck is wrong with people?
I’d slap these “parents” upside the head.
I had parental controls on my sons’ handheld games where I could restrict the time where they could be playing. The would ask me to give them some time to play.
I’d pull out my smart phone and open the parental control app. I’d ask my son, “What’s your name?
My older son would say, “Tommy”. I’d enter his name and give him time.
I kept that up for years. He never caught on that I didn’t need him to tell me his name.
My younger son never fell for that.
Those were fun joke gifts. Seems like good-natured ribbing that everyone enjoyed. No one was hurt, physically or emotionally.
Big difference between that and lying to little kids, making them doubt themselves.
Sorry, I’m hypersensitive to this type of stuff because people can and do use it for nefarious purposes. In this crazy world, parents need to build rock-solid trusting relationships with their children because predators and school officials are empowered to break those family bonds.
1) It depends on the parents and the kids.
2) The line between humor and cruelty can be thinner than you think. IF IN DOUBT, DON’T.
A friend’s mom must have been well into her 70s when she pranked her adult daughter that lived in the basement. There was some remodeling going on, and some floor and ceiling registers were removed. The mom sat on the first story floor and shoved her leg through the hole so it hung down in the daughter’s bedroom. I guess she screamed like hell when she got home and saw it.
"You'll be fine, just keep crawling."
It's really funny when you take the glass away.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.