LIVING UNDER A parental dictatorship is difficult for every child.
Your lack of freedom is, in itself, frustrating, and somehow parents manage to make it even more difficult by using words and phrases that make you go crazy.
Here are nine of the worst things your parents could say when you were a kid… and that you might now use yourself if you have children.
We’ll see
‘We’ll see’ means no. Kids know that, adults know it too.
Moms and dads, you’re fooling no one.
We’re going for a drive
A drive? A drive where?
Nothing is as tortuous to a kid than a indeterminable car journey to nowhere. What is the point?
Take your brother/sister with you
Oh sure, it’s all love and snuggles when the baby first arrives, but roll on a few years when you’re being forced to bring them everywhere and things take a turn for the worse.
Have an apple
What is it with bloody apples? Everyone knows that saying ‘I’m hungry’ actually means ‘I want to eat something nice’ anyway.
Because I said so
It’s the least satisfying explanation of all, and hammers home the fact that it really doesn’t matter what you think or want, your parents are in charge.
Money doesn’t grow on trees
Nobody has every thought, ever, that money grows on trees. Why do parents persist with this nonsense?
Don’t make me pull this car over
Erm…ok, I won’t.
Sure, who’d be looking at you?
This is generally accompanied by your mam shoving some garment in your face and demanding you try it on.
In the middle of Dunnes. In your local town. Where you know everyone.
Get up those stairs and brush your teeth
It’s not clear why we have such an aversion to cleanliness as kids, but we really do.
How many times did you trudge up the stairs to miserably and half-assedly brush your teeth? We’re guessing many.