I'm sure the mother did say things like that......but Frank, well Frank was a character. There were a lot of things his Mom probably told him that he ignored.
Another Frank and "round ball" story just to keep it on topic.
The department sent Frank to see the psychologist, it seems he shunned carrying a sap or a nightstick as a secondary weapon. Frank invented his own. He purchased a rubber chicken, filled it with silicon and said BB's and used that instead. Yeah he did it as a joke, but one night he got out of a his scout car backing up another unit on a domestic dispute turned family donnybrook with that damned rubber chicken and beat the daylights out of one of the citizens in the ensuing melee. The citizen wasn't too bothered by its use so much as management when they heard that Frank had used his rubber chicken. So off to the shrink he went.
They put Frank through all sorts of tests and evaluations and he came back with a letter saying he was sane, fine, and fit for duty. The shrink saw nothing wrong with Frank nor his humorous, and humane secondary weapon.
Frank stopped carrying the chicken, just hung it on the inside of his locker door. He carried a copy of the letter from the shrink instead. Every time someone would laugh and say "Frank you are just crazy" he would whip out the letter, and break into that distinctive horse laugh that he had.
Like I said earlier, Frank was a character. I'm glad I had a chance to know him.