All of these stories of instilling healthy fear in a daughter's love interests remind me of when I just casually asked my stepdaughter's man-thing-of-the-week if he was allergic to penicillin.

Here's my personal tidbit, I am.

There are plenty of alternatives these days, but the point wasn't to have them answer the question but rather to have them think about why the question mattered.

Somehow we got back to bullying...

If boy is not willing to brave and survive the fathers attempts to scare him off he is not worthy of her.

Don't get me wrong, I have a daughter and her boyfriends and I will be having a good little talk....

I take it this is a US thing? Never heard of anyone doing that in the UK, and never had it happen to me, despite being a few people's first boyfriend.

Not at all. My ex is from the Netherlands, and the Dutch are notoriously blunt. When she decided it was time to "meet the father" it was over the phone, and the call went like this:

"Hello Mr -----, it's nice to finally meet you."

"Yeah, let me tell you one thing."

"Okay..."

"If you ever hurt my daughter I'm going to fly out there and break both your legs."

"...!..."

"You hear me?"

"I understand you, sir."

"Good, now put my daughter back on..."

Then when we finally met in person (we flew to Amsterdam), he picked us up from the airport, and the first thing he did was turn the handshake into a crush test. The guy had an impressive grip, I remember stiffening my hand reflexively, but not crushing back. My ex tells me I just looked at him with a raised eyebrow like "Really? We're doing this?" and he was nice as pie from that point on.

Unfortunately I haven't had a chance yet to subject my own daughter to these indignities, she hasn't had a boyfriend yet she's felt strongly enough about to introduce. Seems to me like a wasted opportunity, because those are exactly the guys I should be tormenting...

I take it this is a US thing? Never heard of anyone doing that in the UK, and never had it happen to me, despite being a few people's first boyfriend.

Not at all. My ex is from the Netherlands, and the Dutch are notoriously blunt. When she decided it was time to "meet the father" it was over the phone, and the call went like this:

"Hello Mr -----, it's nice to finally meet you."

"Yeah, let me tell you one thing."

"Okay..."

"If you ever hurt my daughter I'm going to fly out there and break both your legs."

"...!..."

"You hear me?"

"I understand you, sir."

"Good, now put my daughter back on..."

Then when we finally met in person (we flew to Amsterdam), he picked us up from the airport, and the first thing he did was turn the handshake into a crush test. The guy had an impressive grip, I remember stiffening my hand reflexively, but not crushing back. My ex tells me I just looked at him with a raised eyebrow like "Really? We're doing this?" and he was nice as pie from that point on.

Unfortunately I haven't had a chance yet to subject my own daughter to these indignities, she hasn't had a boyfriend yet she's felt strongly enough about to introduce. Seems to me like a wasted opportunity, because those are exactly the guys I should be tormenting...

Where as my fiancee is half Dutch, and her dad (who is Dutch) never did anything like that. In fact, the first time we met, we ended up drinking whiskey and listening to music together, because he's incredibly relaxed.

Seriously, I've never heard of any father doing this with any of the many friends I've had over the years.

Maybe that's why the British lost the Empire... :-D

(...ducks and runs away...)

Nah, we lost the Empire because we decided to give most of the places we owned autonomous governments, and in the case of the US, we lost a naval war with France

I rib my British wife on all the Colonies they gave up. Then she tries to remind me we still acknowledge the Queen... and that all of North America care more about the Royals than they do.

I am still baffled why the US cares about them. Why do you guys care?

I rib my British wife on all the Colonies they gave up. Then she tries to remind me we still acknowledge the Queen... and that all of North America care more about the Royals than they do.

I am still baffled why the US cares about them. Why do you guys care?

Why does anyone? I certainly don't know why Aussies do

I rib my British wife on all the Colonies they gave up. Then she tries to remind me we still acknowledge the Queen... and that all of North America care more about the Royals than they do.

I am still baffled why the US cares about them. Why do you guys care?

Why does anyone? I certainly don't know why Aussies do

Because they're loyal servants of the Crown, of course.

Doesn't matter that we sent a lot of them there in prison ships, they still know their rightful sovereign when they see her!

I don't know anyone in the US that cares about the royal family aside from as a celebrity gossip thing.

Does the U.S. really care? I don't think we really care what they say, politically. I think Americans care about the queen's opinion on foreign policy about as much as the pope's. I think we only care who's having what baby as part of our trash-TV-obsessed culture.

Edit: was I supposed to capitalize Queen? Oh, well.

See, that's what I don't get. The Royals aren't even a thing in North America yet there is a huge to do because Kate and William went somewhere with their baby, like millions of other families. Most of those other families have better teeth.

See, that's what I don't get. The Royals aren't even a thing in North America yet there is a huge to do because Kate and William went somewhere with their baby, like millions of other families. Most of those other families have better teeth.

No need for that sort of stereotyping, surely? Just because we don't resort to plastic surgery and teeth bleach that actually harms your teeth...

I take it this is a US thing? Never heard of anyone doing that in the UK, and never had it happen to me, despite being a few people's first boyfriend.

Not at all. My ex is from the Netherlands, and the Dutch are notoriously blunt. When she decided it was time to "meet the father" it was over the phone, and the call went like this:

"Hello Mr -----, it's nice to finally meet you."

"Yeah, let me tell you one thing."

"Okay..."

"If you ever hurt my daughter I'm going to fly out there and break both your legs."

"...!..."

"You hear me?"

"I understand you, sir."

"Good, now put my daughter back on."

I once had a very similar talk with my ex girlfriends older sister ..

We were outside smoking and suddenly she said "if you break my sisters heart, I'll break your legs" and gave me the mean look. I just said "yeah, I'm not planning to, but I'm not scared of you .."

And after a pretty long awkward silence, my ex tried to change the subject.

Looks like germans can be pretty blunt, too.

But I still think that's a very USA thing to do. Especially since there are way more guns in the US to scare teenager boys with than in Europe.

See, that's what I don't get. The Royals aren't even a thing in North America yet there is a huge to do because Kate and William went somewhere with their baby, like millions of other families. Most of those other families have better teeth.

No need for that sort of stereotyping, surely? Just because we don't resort to plastic surgery and teeth bleach that actually harms your teeth...

All in jest, I assure. I didn't spend 5 years in braces to think I had good teeth.

See, that's what I don't get. The Royals aren't even a thing in North America yet there is a huge to do because Kate and William went somewhere with their baby, like millions of other families. Most of those other families have better teeth.

No need for that sort of stereotyping, surely? Just because we don't resort to plastic surgery and teeth bleach that actually harms your teeth...

All in jest, I assure. I didn't spend 5 years in braces to think I had good teeth.

I was joking too, should have added a

Of course! We don't want to come full circle yet and start bullying each other.

Did we just bring it full circle, therefore ending the thread?

Nope, that's just lap 1!

I'd like to see you beat my landcrawler

I'd like to see you beat my landcrawler

It made no sense but I loved that thing.

Thread dying? This may help for a change. It went over well once in another forum:

Look around your office/room, wherever your computer is, or typical place you sit when looking at your mobile device* to browse this forum. Describe what is on each wall as you look around the room. Home, work, or both.

*No restrooms please unless you must.

I'll start with the home office. Above my desk computer is a small TV mounted on the wall. Also a shelf with daughter's pictures beside a couple 6" Stormtroopers (the new "black" collection). To my right a collection of framed police decorations - patches & pictures, beside a large window looking over the back yard. Beside that, large gun safe. There happens to be a can of pepper spray (better lock that up) and a WotC Scout Walker atop it that I don't recall putting there. Back wall very blank. It's just a closet door. I need to hang something else over there. Last wall has a small Buddhist shrine (wife's) hung up high, exit door, and three of those large movie sized framed posters of Episodes IV-VI (The Darth, Stormtrooper, Yoda ones from the extended edition).

Next.

The Art of Bullying 2: Electric Boogaloo?

Thread dying? This may help for a change. It went over well once in another forum:

Look around your office/room, wherever your computer is, or typical place you sit when looking at your mobile device* to browse this forum. Describe what is on each wall as you look around the room. Home, work, or both.

*No restrooms please unless you must.

I'll start with the home office. Above my desk computer is a small TV mounted on the wall. Also a shelf with daughter's pictures beside a couple 6" Stormtroopers (the new "black" collection). To my right a collection of framed police decorations - patches & pictures, beside a large window looking over the back yard. Beside that, large gun safe. There happens to be a can of pepper spray (better lock that up) and a WotC Scout Walker atop it that I don't recall putting there. Back wall very blank. It's just a closet door. I need to hang something else over there. Last wall has a small Buddhist shrine (wife's) hung up high, exit door, and three of those large movie sized framed posters of Episodes IV-VI (The Darth, Stormtrooper, Yoda ones from the extended edition).

Next.

i have my cockpit i built for playing elite dangerous in my office.