Scaring Kids...

Well, when I am handing someone a plate of food, or a drink, I often jerk like I'm going to drop it on them. Gets them everytime! Dunno WHY I do that, must be pretty annoying!

What's the point of having kids/husbands if you can't have a little fun at their expense from time to time.

Chuckle.

:)

LOVE IT !!! Mikey loves to be scared and then try to scare us back !!!!
sometimes he gets the hick-ups from laughing so hard :-)

My Dad always did this to me... I had forgotten about it until just now :) I'm laughing as I write this plotting my first "attack" on my kids.

I say - harmless fun, family traditions are important.

J.

My favorite thing in the world is to have the kids chase me and then just stop dead in my tracks and they run in to me. They laugh like CRAZY!! I do think it's hilarious...esepcially if it's a known game in your house!!

My daughter thinks it's hilarious to be scared too. She always has, even as a baby.

We do the same thing! I wouldn't call it scaring them! Our son may jump a little, but then he laughs hysterically! As long as they are happy, go with it!

ALL.THE.TIME! It is so funny!

Yes we do this at our house too!

We do it too and yes it's hilarious! :-)

My son LOVES to be scared like this. I have a video of him at age 10 months old or so, sitting in his stroller... I go behind the door where he can't see me, I pop out and say "BOO!" and his whole body flinches and he giggles that amazing child-giggle sound that makes us all warm inside. Even now that he's 3, he laughs every time I pop out and scare him, then it's a game that we have to play for the next ten minutes.

Nope, not nuts...we do this too!!!

It's fun to do sneak attacks - heck - hubby and I even play Nerf Guns with the kids...

Yes!!! It is fun for all my family, however if one of my children were not to like it, I would stop. I think it depends on the kids personalities, but we love it. :)

I do! Funny as heck!

Im real mean, I told my daughter candy warheads were delicious, she was real pissed when she put on in her mouth. Hahahaha!

Lol. Yep! They love it and do the same to us; Even the babies do it. ☺

We don't do that and I don't think its even the slightest bit funny.

We also don't allow teasing.

Good luck to you and yours.

Yes - sometimes when the kids are watching a movie in the evening, I'll walk into the edge of the room and say
WHAT (really loud and they jump and turn around) would you like for snack?
hehehehe

DH loves to do that to DD. It's all in good fun, and I think she kind of likes it.

No-and I don't find humor in it either-sorry. And I would really think you were cruel in doing it if your kids didn't join in too. Sounds like it has become a harmless family game. I would make sure your kids know that you don't do this to anyone else though and it is only a family thing.

I get it! We (especially my husband and kids) do this on a daily basis! We love to hide and surprise each other. The funniest is that my 4 y.o. will tell us where he is hiding! "I'm under the blankie!" "I'm in your closet!" This totally cracks my husband and I up!
We also race a lot. We will challenge my son to a race to motivate him to do want we want, like wash his hands or come inside. If he doesn't want to come in, we'll challenge him to a race and the next thing you know he's running inside! lol!

I never think to do it, but my son finds it HILARIOUS to do it to, well, everyone. Even my 80 year old grandmother. Luckily, she loves him to pieces and has a good sense of humor. And a strong heart. LOL

We do it once in a while. The kids think it's funny.

Oh yeah! We do this all the time. My son LOVES to get me and is generally very successful. He can only call us on Sundays (he is in basic training for the Army) and told me that he didn't qualify for weapson training. I asked him what that meant and he said he would have to go back to week one. I started to lecture him and told him we had just bought our plane tickets to graduation and he started laughing and said "got ya". HMMM!!!

My MIL has always thought we were nuts!!!

Yes!! My two year old is becoming an expert at this! He LOVES being "scared." We are a strange little family, we've always loved freaking each other out.

My kids and I have been doing this to eachother since they were toddlers!

It is great fun. I enjoy doing this to my kids too.

We haven't done that, but we do tease them with food and drink. We'll have a bowl of ice cream and start to put it in front of them and then take it away a couple of times. They love it! I thought it was so mean the first few times my husband did it, and then I saw how much they laughed. My brother's wife does things like this, and I heard my brother say, "You are so mean to them!" That's when my brother and I had to admit that just because our parents didn't do that to use doesn't mean it's bad or wrong!

Hopefully your MIL is more open minded than my brother and I were and first and can just laugh at the situation and realize how much fun it is for all of you.

I just read "So What Happened?" Love the water balloon at the bus stop. Might have to use this in a couple of weeks. My son is about to start PreK this year, so I might wait a week or two until he gets used to everything :-)

hahahaha yes ABSOLUTELY

Yes, we do it too but it is more in fun then to scare..usually we do it during a ha ha can't catch me moment.

We do it and the kids love it. We even tease the kids a little. I think it's given them a sense of humor and an ability to laugh at themselves. It's not wrong at all to teach them to not take life so seriously. Obviously if one child thought it was cruel, we would stop in a heartbeat. But they don't. My husband will sometimes pretend to spoon-feed my youngest and hold the spoon just inches out of the reach of his mouth. He KNOWS my husband is kidding. He laughs. It's a game. And my little one is the funniest one of all of us and he knows it!

Absolutely HATE this behavior. I guess I just have been teased so often in my life I can't stand it and being startled is horrible to me.

OMG - I LOVE to scare my kids!!! I can not emphasize it enough!!! My kids love to jump out at me, too. My husband thinks we're crazy.

we do it all the time. I got my husband and daughter good tonight, he was giving her her bath and didnt hear the garage door open! And for once, the dog didnt bark when I came in, so I snuck in on them. :-)

W

I have to confess. I LOVE doing this...and my son reciprocates as well.

We used to have a hid-jump-out-and-scare-me thing going after bath, before bedtime.

He used to go all over the upstairs trying to find me.

I remember O. time in particular, the first time I hid IN our large bedroom closet. He wasn't thinking to look there.....took him QUITE a long time (and some scratching noise by me) to open the door...s-l-o-w-l-y.....BOOOOOOOO! My son was so scared he CRIED, but he was laughing at the same time! He loved it. I've not again achieved that level of surprise. I miss it! :)

we all do it here too!!! it is a lot of fun.....MIL needs to lighten up

Yes, I do this too - towards both my daughter AND husband. My daughter loves to reciprocate but hubby does only once in awhile. I do think it's really fun and keeps everyone on their toes.

I don't like it unless we all "know" that we are playing the game.

My dad used to do it and to this day I jump out of my skin if my husband sneaks up on me. I feel terribly for him because he thinks that he frightens me (and he doesn't). It's literally an involuntary reaction on my part.

Just a thought . . .

Ok, I had to laugh at your "So What Happened?"

I assume the teen boy is ok...and therefore I laughed. It sounds like something that would happen in my house. In fact, hubby was supposed to get home way early this morning and I asked him to text me before he came in so I didn't shoot him.

As far as the kids and I scaring each other, we actually don't. It could be because my husband sleeps during the day and I don't want to wake him...and I know if I startle the kids they'd scream and wake him up.

Hilarious! We do this all the time - no poor sports at our house! My dad, however, learned early on to stand back due to my quick reflexes. Hahaha!

My kids will ASK to play this game. It is a GAME; it simulates real life in a fun and organic manner. Thus, kids are having fun AND learning. In this game, they learn that we can get scared and move through it (that's courage). Likewise, a child learns from skinning a knee while climbing trees or riding bikes. We don't in fact get to crumble whenever we are hurt. We often MUST move through it (the best we can, in our own time - and hopefully with support). Life doesn't just stop because we are scared/hurt/happy/in love/bored/confused/etc. It keeps moving. And so must we.

Now look, I'm not a big fan of the "JUST pull your boot straps up" concept either. I've been living that way too long and I've always seen my emotions as an enemy to be conquered, rather than a tool to get to know myself through. Skinned knee = pain and blood = my bodies way of letting me know something is wrong and that I need to tend to it. Fear = My bodies way of letting me know that I do not know what is in front of me / I might be/am in danger. When it comes to fear, we get to use it. Fear CAN be an asset. It has, for example, helped me in out of a few potentially dangerous situations (strong water currents, dark alley ways, taking ownership of my parenting of my niece etc.) But, more often than not, it's hindered me, because when afraid I FREEZE or play the us vs. them game.

Anyway, I digress.

Games are a child's way of practicing for life. They learn from play. Playing is their WORK. They learn to make meaning of life through their limited context and lens. Their brains are so ready for that type of hands-on-learning. So yes, we play. And also it is FUN.

I'll say this too, I startle easily. As in, I'll KNOW someone is behind the corner and I'll STILL jump and scream. (Grrrr. Not my favorite quality.) Still. I have fun playing hide and seek/surprise and scare with my kids. It's a chance for my body to say, "DANGER", and for the other parts of me to say, "Let's think this through and laugh."

We also play monster and dragon most every day.

If parenting wasn't part play, I don't know if I'd be AS into it.

Lol, we were playing this yesterday. The children love it! I did it to one and then the others came running to ask me to do it to them too.

Hahahhaa!! Yes!! All the time .I do this to my husband when he's back from work.

My husband does this all the time to our kids and they LOVE it. Even the 9 month old loves being scared. I, on the other hand, hate it. I warn everyone if they ever do it to me they are DEAD! I know my husband is planning something for someday, sometime......

i dont do it but my boyfriend scares our daughter n she tries and scares him (she is 2) his parents jump out n scare each other and him n his sister,

Adults can scare each others (for fun), however, kids are KIDS! And It's not the greatest idea to scare them.

My 3 year old LOVES it! We have a big island in the middle of a kitchen, living, dining room, hallway and we run around and around and around it chasing it each other. My husband and I will get way ahead of our daughter then hide around the corner and "BOO!" It's gets her going like nothing else! She tries to scare us back and we pretend to be startled too. SO fun! This all started because she holds in her poo and we'd have her run and play so she's forget and it would come out... HAHAHA! So, we've been doing this for a good 2 years and now it's just too fun. Personally, I HATE being startled just randomly, but my husband and daughter like that too. They leave me out of it. :) But during this game it's fun for me too!

Yes Yes Yes we do it and love it!! I grew up with my parents doing the same thing to us, my dad even scared the bajeezus out of us wearing a devil mask once I was like 6 or 7 I still remember it we laugh about it to this day. We used to play hide and seek in the dark in the house, oh so much fun, your post brought back alot of fun memories !! Thanks !

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