Scaring your kids to get the message across, is it a good idea?

[Templar 331]

I was on youtube when I came across an interesting video. This is the video.

Saw this video too and I loved it. Sometimes people only learn once they've been burned and this is the best form of learning for them. It's a controlled environment with only one outcome, but sadly some people still don't learn after this. I wouldn't be surprised if this crew had a few more girls and their response wasn't as desired as these three.

[Forgottenone]

I think it depends on the kid and what message you are trying to get across.

[Deleted]

WTF is a 'scared straight program'?

[wrathblade]

WTF is a 'scared straight program'?

scaring the crap out of someone so the finnaly understand it's a BAD BAD IDEA to not lock your doors. at night.

I'd do the same in this situation. kids don't understand the dangers even if there 15+
A good scare like this will atleast stick while a 3 day training course on these dangers won't.

Who els got scared shitless by the first dad? just me?

[Deleted]

scaring the crap out of someone so the finnaly understand it's a BAD BAD IDEA to not lock your doors. at night.

I'd do the same in this situation. kids don't understand the dangers even if there 15+
A good scare like this will atleast stick while a 3 day training course on these dangers won't.

Who els got scared shitless by the first dad? just me?

First dad???

[Zantos]

WTF is a 'scared straight program'?

Usually it involves taking kids to a prison and letting the prisoners scare them by talking to them and getting in their face.

[Krille]

Scaring young children can destroy them for life and making them very anxious. Hell, even leaving a baby to cry "because he/she will never learn otherwise" also creates problems such as stress and nervosity in the young baby. Care for and love your own, don't scare them.

[Nengal]

Terrifying, traumatizing, potentially injuring your own child to make a point? That's not good parenting. That's abuse.

Would you electrocute your child to teach them not to stick their finger in an outlet? Would you set your child on fire to teach them not to touch the stove? Would you shoot them to teach them not to play with guns?

If you answered yes to any of those questions: you should stay very very far away from children.

You're not molesting them to teach them not to talk to strangers. It's just putting them in a situation that scares them and then says, "This could happen if you do this again." The parents were there. As soon as the kids met the guy or got in the car, it was explained that they shouldn't do that.

Now, to somewhat agree with you, I don't know if the last set of parents were appropriate. They actually did scare the girl pretty badly with masks on. That was probably over the line; however, the other parents did nothing to scare their children. I think through experience these children will have learned much more effectively than just via conversation.

[muto]

Scaring young children can destroy them for life and making them very anxious. Hell, even leaving a baby to cry "because he/she will never learn otherwise" also creates problems such as stress and nervosity in the young baby. Care for and love your own, don't scare them.

I guess we should stop celebrating Halloween then.

[Adamas102]

[Acidbaron]

Some people really have this parenting thing backwards.

You have the potential to cause a trauma.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Kids act stupid, against sound advice and reality all the time.

If this "prank" scared them enough to not fucking do it again, then I'm all for it.
If I had kids they'd have monitored use of the internet, phones with no internet access and limited funds on them and strict no-bullshit times for when to be home. And I could still end up losing one of them to their own stupid decisions.

*Shiver*...so glad I'm not in that zone. I worry enough over my frickin' terrorist of a hamster having a limp because she decided she's a monkey rather than a fat fluffy GROUND BASED rodent one day...

[Wildtree]

current anti smoking ad in the US


And, yes......
Sugar coating the truth might, at times, be necessary. But hiding it entirely is the absolute wrong way to handle matters.
If you do the latter, your little one will one day run into the cold hard reality like against a brick wall.
Preparing children for their life is a prime task of the parents.

[Queen of Hamsters]

scaring the crap out of someone so the finnaly understand it's a BAD BAD IDEA to not lock your doors. at night.

I'd do the same in this situation. kids don't understand the dangers even if there 15+
A good scare like this will atleast stick while a 3 day training course on these dangers won't.

Who els got scared shitless by the first dad? just me?

The one jumping out from behind the stone? He scared me. The screams of the girl in the van however almost had me cry since I couldn't help thinking about how it would've been if it HAD NOT been a prank and how those screams could have ended instead...

[Thomasyo4]

Strong, consistent negative reinforcement usually teaches someone how to become a better liar than to be a better person. They'd be more apt to lie or hide the wrong they committed than to not have done it in the first place.

[Feel The Power]

I don't think they should be scared in all situations, but I do think showing them the real dangers of things (like drugs) is a good idea. Telling kids to just say no and prancing all around that subject is ridiculous, they need to be shown what happens to drug addicts, what they look like, how their lives and their families lives were destroyed. Drug education in school never did anything but get kids interested in drugs, they need to be shown and to be scared of what hard drugs will do to them. All the nice talking in the world isn't going to keep a hell of a lot of kids away from something readily available and at times glamorized.

[Zantos]

current anti smoking ad in the US


And, yes......
Sugar coating the truth might, at times, be necessary. But hiding it entirely is the absolute wrong way to handle matters.
If you do the latter, your little one will one day run into the cold hard reality like against a brick wall.
Preparing children for their life is a prime task of the parents.

Honestly, I think these types of lame commercials do more harm then good. They can't sugar coat nothing, but seriously, doing this type of thing where they make it an alien or something else to represent how bad it is, just makes the kids think they are over reacting.

[Wildtree]

Honestly, I think these types of lame commercials do more harm then good. They can't sugar coat nothing, but seriously, doing this type of thing where they make it an alien or something else to represent how bad it is, just makes the kids think they are over reacting.

Anything I said was not connected to the ad... Instead I answered the OP question.
I posted the ad to show that scare tactics are used outside of the family home already. Scare tactics are a stable part of growing up.


It is a scare tactic when I told my son that if he doesn't get his room cleaned up, he will not go out with his friends to play, or, later when he was a little older, to party.
Or if he doesn't get his homework done, that he can kiss his PC goodbye for a couple days. etc etc.

[Shiny212]

Strangely appropriate.

[Deleted]

Commercials like these should be more real, in that they should literally show the effects of smoking on the human body. Warn viewers that the content contains blah blah view at discretion, but people need to see the harsh reality. The lungs, teeth and skin etc, show the blackened/yellow/rotten effects smoking has on the human body and I bet that will make people, particularly kids think twice about putting those things in their body.

In regards to that particular one, it's pretty stupid, the ridiculousness of the advert undermines the serious issue it's trying to get across.

To answer the OP question, I don't think going out of your way to prank/scare children is a good way. But in some cases you need to let children learn from their own mistakes, however that doesn't mean put them in a threatening situation (if that does happen then at least they won't do it again, hopefully) but in general, kids need a reality check, the world isn't all fluffy and soft so if knowingly letting your children enter a somewhat scary situation is what it takes then so be it, just intervene when things go overboard of if they have learned their lesson.