Don't Tell Mama: Difference between revisions

== Literature ==

* In ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'', when Hermione finds the Weasley Twins testing out their home-made joke candies on younger students, Hermione demands that they stop. They taunt her by saying "Or what? You'll put us in detention?" Hermione coldly responds with "No. I'll write your mother." This scares the Twins so badly that they immediately comply, an action that has never been seen before or since.

* Odd inversion: Peter Wiggin of [[Ender's Game]] and the '' Ender's Shadow'' sequels, rather than having to hide an evil secret, is reluctant to let his parents find out that he has a secret identity as the great [[The Chessmaster|Chess]][[Big Good|master]] named Locke. When he tells his parents, it turns out that they already knew; and as it happens, Bean and Sister Carlotta [[I Know You Know I Know|knew that Peter's parents knew before Peter knew it.]]

* In ''[[The Thorn Birds]]'' (though not the better-known film adaptation), protagonist Meggie's oldest brother Frank runs away from home when she's a girl, after having a fight with their father. {{spoiler|Said fight revealed that Frank was actually the son of a different man.}} Years later, their mother, who doted on Frank, happens to find a newspaper in which an article announces his conviction for a terrible crime. Frank's only comment to the press was "Don't tell my mother."

* [[Artemis Fowl]] really doesn't want his mother to know he's turned to a life of crime in order to sustain his family and continue the search for his [[Disappeared Dad]], even if she does suspect he takes after his father in this aspect.

* In ''[[Discworld/Guards! Guards!|Guards Guards]]'', one of the things Constable Carrot does on his first night on patrol is shame a bunch of bar-brawling dwarfs into behaving themselves by asking what their mothers would say if they found out.

 

== Live-Action TV ==