Creating monsters to scare our kids into doing what we want the to?

TinyPinkBug

I was just reading some posts on the preschool board, seems a lot of parents create monsters and other scarey things to make their kids do what they want them to.  Like a troll that steals toys if they aren't picked up, or a monster that eats dirty teeth if you don't brush them.  It just seems really dishonest to me, to scare your kid into doing stuff.  And how do they feel about you when they get older and realize the things that scared them were made up by their own parents?  Trust me, I am challenged by these same battles everyday, so I understand the intensions behind them and I don't think parents have bad intensions when they create these monsters.  But I just don't see any long term benefits to encouraging kids to believe in scarey things that don't exist.  I get that it is a consequence to not doing what you are told, but it is a false consequence.  Or if you want to say that the parent is the troll so it is true, there are still lies to it.  What do you ladies think of the idea?  I don't think anything is going to change my mind on this, I am pretty firm on my belief of teaching and defining what is real is real and what is pretend is pretend.  But I am curious as to what the train of thought is on this, long term I mean, not just the short term outcome.