Yes, I have heard that that's something that actually happened for some people, as well - I would have believed it to be a myth. I can't recall anything like that ever happening. If I hurt myself I would shut up about it and preferrably hide away until it was gone. If I was bullied (which I sometimes was because I was a wet blanket) it was my problem and I was certainly not going to invoke a scolding by taking it to a parent! I was a horrible child.

There is a scene in a book (Swallowdale, Arthur Ransome), where a young girl has done something mildly naughty (from her perspective extremely naughty, from the perspective of an adult hysterically funny and not naughty at all) and tells her mother about it - and feels better afterwards! I think I may have mentioned it here on these boards before. It is such an unlikely scene and it makes me wonder.

Sorry. I talk too much. And my parents did nothing wrong at all - my childhood was perfect. As I say, I was horrid.