Of Silence

Overheard on the train today: "You want to sit down or not? You want mummy call police catch you? I call now uh!" All spoken in good english, perhaps till the part where the uh came out...

It is amazing that to this day, parents are using the Police as an outsourced fear to manage their children.

In managerial terms, how do we manage performance and behaviours? Rewards, Inducement, Threats.

Why do parents resort to the ultimate falsehood of "police will catch you" to manage their children then? Is it due to the authoritative image that the men in blue hold? Or are parents today still as weak as those 20years ago that they need an external source of power to lord over the children?

Over the exchange between the mum and child on the train, a silent figure stood, towering above the restless boy at stood near his feet, it was only when the boy grabbed the man's knees that i realised that the one person that kept quiet all this while is in fact the father..

Mummy : "you want to sit or not?!"
Daddy: (silence)
Mummy : "some other words to the kid"
Daddy : (still silent)

Different styles brings about different results

Silence is golden?

Flashback:
Back when i was in NPCC, it was part of my duty to train up the next batch of NCOs to lead the unit after i'm gone(sounds so morbid). During one class session where a batch of noisy cadets were held in a classroom, of the the NCO-to-be approached me for help to manage the restless kids

Me : Well, there are 2 ways to do it, firstly, you can walk in, take the duster from the board and slam it against the board, that should shut them up.

She: ... (shocked)

Me : Of course, there's also a softer approach, go back in, switch off the lights, grab a chair and sit there silently

She: K****** Sir, can demo?

Me : Ok

And i did it