you'll shoot your eye out

My parents used this phrase a lot for various things:

• "Don't throw things at your brother, you'll put his eye out!"
• "No roughhousing, you're liable to put someone's eye out!"
• "Don't stab your sister in the eye with a pencil, you could put her eye out!"

I mean, it was truly ridiculous. If you ate the last cookie, you could put someone's eye out with it. I think this is nothing more than a parents go-to phrase when they don't have a real reason why they don't want you doing something except they just don't want you to.

As I was thinking about this, I started thinking how parents make up a lot of excuses and erroneous facts as to why kids shouldn't do things. Here are some examples I thought of:

• "Listening to music is going to make you deaf!"
• "Sitting too close to the T.V. will make you blind (or get cancer)!"
• "Those icicles have been known to kill people!"
• "Eating too much candy will rot your teeth!"

Even though there is an element of truth to some of the things they say, parents seem to overexagurate to get their point across.

Now, if you are still a kid and reading this post, you still have to listen to your parents. They are looking out for what's best for you and mean well. They just might be using a little confabulation or hyperbole in the process.