In hot water

Try not to get in trouble, and you won’t find yourself in hot water.

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Idiom: In hot water

When was the last time you’ve been in hot water?

Here in Japan, if you are unfamiliar with the idiom, this may be a confusing question.

No, I don’t mean, when was the last time you had a bath or visited a hot spring?

When someone is in hot water, they are in trouble because of something they have or haven’t done.

Often the seriousness of the infraction determines the degree of the water temperature.

In our business lives, failing to finish a project on time may cause us to end up in hot water.

You may be reprimanded, but you probably won’t find yourself in the unemployment line.

More severe infractions, however, can get you fired or, even worse, in jail.

In our times of awakening awareness, sexual harassment and racial discrimination in the workplace land people in hot water almost every day.

In Canada, more and more often, the result is dismissal from your job and a criminal trial which may or may not result in jail time.

Of course, those are pretty serious things that affect adults.

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Children may also find themselves in hot water, especially with their mothers.

I’m not sure about the hierarchy in your home, but in my home, my mother handled the discipline.

None of us kids were afraid of Mom.

She was a softy.

However, sometimes, she elevated the punishment to, “Go tell your father what you did.”

Then, we knew we were in hot water.

Dad never hit us.

He just yelled at us for hours.

Most times, it wasn’t because he wanted to discipline us.

It was because dealing with us was irritating to him, so he made it bothersome for us.

He would say, “Don’t piss off your mother, and you won’t end up in hot water.”

This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12.)

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