Parents and Children

An unfortunate habit I have noticed increasingly of late:

Parents "ordering" their children. "Do this! Do that!" And unfortunately less often "Don't do that!

And the fiat is accompanied (almost always) with a tone of voice that indicates "or else", with an implied threat of some sort of retribution. Of course on rare occasions, the threat is actually expressed verbally. And sometimes the threat is in the form of "or you won't get that" (ie deprivation of a toy, or treat, or whatever).

Then there is the dreaded "One....Two....Three." Followed by discipline in some fashion.

(Although this seems to be undertaken mostly by females, it may be that my observations are skewed.)

Coercion of children. Usually by the lower socio-economic classes. (I cannot think of a better descriptor at the moment)

I sometimes wonder how the adults engaging in this behavior would react if it was practiced on them, by other family members, at work, or even by outsiders. Rebellion? Violence?

Hmm.