Got some good "jerk parents" stories?

[Hakunamatata]

this thread reminds me why i'm an advocate for people having to apply for permission to have children.

:brick:

When did that start?

 

[Greenlawler]

Well those are definatly some interesting stories.

I cannot imagine someone loosing their cool on vacation . If you are a parent you know it can be very hard to keep your cool.
There is a line no parent should cross and it seems like I always see someone cross it down there.
I also dislike it when I get the roll of the eyes from strangers when my kids act up. Look, they are kids people. Or when I tell my kids to straighten up, not violently or loud but stern enough to get their attention, and I get the "how dare you" looks from people who must have never had kids, or their kids were perfect.
I think alot of people loose their patience at Disney, its awful to witness, but I think we can all relate a little.

 

[sbkline]

this thread reminds me why i'm an advocate for people having to apply for permission to have children.

:brick:

And it reminds me of why I believe a child isn't old enough to take to WDW until he's at least 4. Key words being AT LEAST!

 

[the-reason14]

Third, and this story bothers me greatly, I remember going into Ellen's Energy Nightmare for the pre-show. The lights had just gone down, and I am with my mother who had knee surgery recently. She is unable to sit on the floor, and all of the benches are full. So we are standing there, and a guy comes up to me/us and told us to sit down. I told him this was not possible. He was very annoyed and made some extremely rude comments about how his kids could not see. We tried to move a little, but there was only so much room. I told him that Disney usually has you stand for the pre-show anyway. That day they were not. So probably 90% or more were seated on the floor. Eventually the low-life father said he was going to follow me after the attraction and knock me down and kick the *$#1+* out of me. I kind of softly looked at his kids and said "I feel so sorry for you", and then proceeded to leave the attraction. Later I had a short talk with Guest Relations, and then followed up with a letter to WDW as well after I got home.

For the last one, I really wish I had a better idea what to do. How would anyone else have handled this? I really would have liked to have seen this family asked to leave the park, personally.

Wow, that was incredubly rude. I got a little peeved with that one. I think the way you handle that was the right way, you were calm and collected and went to the right people about it, I also feel that those people should have not really have gotten away with it.

Im sorry but if it were me and someone told me I had to move, not ask but told I probably would have gone off on that. And suppose I didnt and was patient and explained the condition of my mother, and then he had the nerve to tell me he was going to follow me out of the attraction and knock me down, I would have told him, "man I really wish you would, why wait, do something to me now if you bold like you are acting," I probably would had gone to jail. But I think you did the right thing.

 

[PeterPan1985]

And it reminds me of why I believe a child isn't old enough to take to WDW until he's at least 4. Key words being AT LEAST!

AMEN

 

[IROC it]

Well, as for parents, I just pray no one else has ever thought we were a problem to our kids... then again, our kids always get compliments on their good behavior... Our trick? We don't let them behave poorly at home, or anywhere...

Anywho... I've seen plenty rude people...

Like this past May 28th at EPCOT when a rather rude woman stood up in front of us while she sat at a front rail seat for RoE... I mean in front of probably 50 or so people at least, including her own kids, my kids, and my 8 other family members present with us...

We asked her to please sit her "camera on the rail", and to "please sit down"... several others closer to her asked her to "sit down," etc.

She did for a half second... we, as in about 5 or 6 different people from different, non-related groups all said "Thank You" very loudly and some even clapped...

What's she do?

Yep.. stood right back up. Real nice. Of course my brother-in-law almost started a fight by yelling out "That's okay, that's what Photoshop is for..." And her husband kind of gave us a glare... until he realized he didn't want any of the 5 guys in our group - And of course I was saying to my bro-in-law, "Dude, shut up."

Seriously though... How can people be so totally self-absorbed that they do not care that others, who've all paid to be there as well, get to see the show?? I mean come on... your own kids? My kids? Other's kids? Why block their views? She earned the nickname "pink whale" from our group for the rest of our stay.. it became a running joke and pressure valve when we needed to vent... no harm, no foul, right?


You just might reap what those with you sow...

Just a couple of weeks ago in DLR, I was punched in the shoulder blade by a woman. Why? I guess for stopping for about 2 seconds to get a still shot of the dragon setting the river on fire in Fantasmic... I was in the line that was moving through the area headed toward PotC... the line on the far back side of the viewing area... the line slowed down, so I put up my camera to snap a shot, when "Thump!!" I mean, I'm just utilizing the chance to snap a shot while the "traffic" was slowed to a stop...

I think I heard a choice word or phrase too... but I thought to my self, "Was that a woman?"

It hurt. Probably hurt my inner child thinking the day had been 100% magical, as this was about 10 that night.

My wife's opinion on it? She thought I was being rude like the "pink whale" at EPCOT that night in May... maybe so... only I didn't camp out in front of 50 people exceedingly jerk-like... I doubt that 2 seconds ruined the "puncher's" view or evening at DL. My wife agreed that the punch wasn't acceptable by any means, but that perhaps it was just a California thing.

Doubt it. This woman was probably related to the pink whale.



But I guess I've just had more problems with adults than witnessed bad parent moments.

Now in other places like a mall or the store... yep, I've seen some horror stories... but again, we use those moments (observing other's tantrums, etc.) as training moments... and I always openly thank my kids, and praise them, congratulate them for not acting like that or requiring me to "lose it" in public.

My kids are great.:sohappy:

btw - here's the picture I was punched for... I think the shutter opened mid-punch...:lol:

 

[paul436]

A day later we were eating at MK when one dad turned to his kids and said "you make one more sound and there will be no Disney for any of you. You wanna get in the car right now and go home? Because that's what we'll do!" Geesh.

Share your stories!

Parents have been using variations of this type of "discipline" for generations. Even the kids know that it isn't going to really happen. I've tried a variation or two of this one and my kids just look at each and roll their eyes and snicker. They know it's an empty "threat". But they get the point and usually calm down after that.

 

[mpoppins76]

Back when I was a "friend" of Chip & Dale, I was working a character dinner & a father literally tried to "behead" me in front of his kids. It started out him asking me to take the head off. He then proceeded to grab it and started trying to pull it off! Needless to say, they were asked to leave the restaurant. The kids were visibly shocked and embarrassed, I felt really bad for them. :brick:

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

Ah,The Disney Meltdown....One of my favorite attractions!(along with Mullet hunting!)

Before I start,I've actually had a Disney Meltdown that I wouldn't mind sharing.It's my parents favorite "let's embarass the 16-year old disney bit"

When I was 3 my parents planned my 1st surprise disney trip.I had been watching a Planning video for some months(already obsessed LOL)and really wanted to visit Mickey.Well upon driving into WDW I saw the Earful tower got all excited and happy but when we paseed it I thought we were leaving!I got all upset and apparently cried my eyes out in the back of the car.(My parents got me to stop my subduing me with several Dole Whips and telling me that in about 13 years I would be obsessed enough with WDW that I would know it by heart LOL J/k)Later I saw what was happening as we got on the Monorail and apparently calmed down.

Funny,though now when we enter WDW I do the same thing...but out of joy.

On my last trip I saw quite a few meltdowns over at EPCOT.We were on Listen to the Land and this young brat up in the front kept shouting she was bored and this was the worst vacation ever...bla bla etc etc...She was annoying the entire boat and her parents just ignored her thinking she would stop.She didn't.:fork:

Another really funny one was this HUGE familly at The American Adventure's resturant.About 15 people most of them kids.The 2 closest to my table were fighting and pushing and were about to kill each other when the mother/aunt/sister(?) finally pulled them apart screaming at the top of her lungs"WE ARE NEVER GOING TO DISNEY AGAIN!!!)Thus followed the kids bursting in to tears.What was really amusing about the whoe thing twas that one of the Granmothers at the table was watching the whole thing-and grinning.

:ROFLOL:

Great Topic!

 

[Slipknot]

While working in Tomorrowland at SGE, (UGH!!!!! Worst first 6 months of my Disney "career.") I manually open the doors (cause I hated it when they automatically opened and the rest of the last group were still in there). One group on a certain day was really antsy and agitated and one kid was screaming his lungs out because he took one look at the main show room and freaked out. What does this kids father tell him? "WE WAITED 10 MINUTES IN LINE!! YOU ARE GOING ON THIS PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah... GREAT parenting skills, Pops.

 

[Nemo14]

When we were there in May we were waiting to get into the LionKing show at AK. The 2 adults in front of us had a sleeping2 or 3 year old in a stroller in front of us. When the child woke up, groggy and grouchy, the mom gave him a sippy cup with cold water in it, at which point the husband yelled at her because he wanted to give the child a lollipop that he had been holding on to while the child slept. He belittled that poor woman to the point where everyone around us was staring at him in disbelief. So then he started yelling at everyone how he had spent so much on that lollipop, and d a m n it, he wasn't going to hold onto all day!

 

[pacochran]

I must say I had a little melt down at MK at Cosmic Rays, but it was with another parent. My wife still teases me about it to this day.

We walked into Cosmic Rays and my DW & DD went to get the food and my DS and I went to get a table. We headed for this table but two kids got there first so we took the next table. While sitting there the father of the two kids comes back and takes a chair from our table. I said to him "excuse me but we're using that chair". He turns to me and in a nasty tone accused us of taking that chair from his table. I of coarse denied it. Then went to the table next to us that had a free chair and I must admit in a loud voice asked if we could use the chair as the man over there had taken our chair. The said sure. Well when I turned around the man brought back the chair. (Must have talked to his kids and found out that we didn't take the chair).

As I said my wife still teases me about almost getting into a fight at the "Happiest place on Earth".

 

[JDM]

This past April, we were at the POR bus stop for a (mercifully) short wait with another family--Mom, Dad, son and two daughters, all kids under 12.

Dad was annoyed at the outset and when the youngest daughter (perhaps 6?) complained about her shoes hurting he immediately got nasty with her, telling her she should have changed them earlier and she was stuck with them --just deal with it.
When she continued crying, (after about 2 minutes at most of arguing) he said that's it, I'm staying here in the room and you are too.
This little girl just wailed in despair and went to her Mommy (who made no effort to intervene--she is clearly an enabler of his temper).
He didn't follow through on his threat, although he did argue with his wife until the bus came and continued to belittle the girl for acting badly (Pot, meet Kettle!)
They got on the bus and he wouldn't even sit with the rest of his family and never said a word to them the whole ride. We beat feet away from them as soon as we could. I shudder to think how the rest of their day went.
This guy was so filled with coldness and abuse and you could just tell this was his normal way of "parenting".

Pathetic.

I hugged my daughter and tried to distract her from this scene the whole way.

 

[Scooter]

Worst story I remember was when my wife and I were standing in line to take the tram to the parking lot. A family in front of us had a little boy who kept telling them he had to go to the bathroom. He was doing that "I really have to go!" dance but the mother kept saying that "You should of thought of that before we got here!" I stepped forward and pointed out the nearest bathrooms to the mother but she just ignored me.
Well just as the tram pulled up, the poor little boy couldn't hold it any longer a wet his pants right there in front of everyone. The mother then started yelling at him and hitting him and telling him what a baby he was.

This poor kid will be scarred for life. There wasn't much Magic for him that day.

 

[gatordoc]

The most bizarre experience I have ever had at WDW involves an insane parent. I was walking through a resort lobby (can't remember which one), and standing waiting for the elevator was a mom, dad, and two kids (I did not know any of them). The kids were being fairly unruly, but no worse than is often seen, when the dad turned, pointed to me, and said to his kids: "If you don't stop that, that man is going to give you a spanking!". I was flabbergasted, and just kept walking by without saying a word. To this day, I still can't believe a parent would say something like that.

 

[Scooter]

I was at WDW last week and it seemed like every designated smoking area had a parent sitting there dragging on a butt with their child(ren) in tow. To me, this is child abuse. And the worst part is that the parents think they're doing the "right thing". The only right thing to do is QUIT for your children's sake.

I'm not sure what you mean by this post.

I'm an ex smoker now, but when I did smoke, I was one of those "Child abusers" who took my kids to the smoking areas with me. Should I have just left my 5, 7 , and 9 year olds to fend for themselves in another part of the park while I was taking a smoke break? I can assure you that I didn't blow smoke into their faces, they were fine, and while I smoked, they were enjoying a Mickey premium ice cream bar. I hardly call that child abuse.

I quit smoking smoking 10 years ago. None of my children have any smoking related illnesses and neither do I. And while I no longer smoke,I fully respect the rights of people who choose to smoke in the designated smoking areas. It is my opinion, that If our federal government allows the sale of tobbacco products so they can reap the benefits of heavily taxing them, then these tax payers/smokers have every right to smoke in a designated outdoor area.

 

[wdwmomof3]

Wow, I think that my kids behave better at Disney than they do at home. I can only remember one time that we had an issue and it was on our last vacation, and it was all my fault.

We were at AK and about to ride EE for the first time. I got fast passes for the ones that could ride. I didn't think that my son was tall enough so my husband took him over to Dinoland while we got in line to ride. By the time we got off our fast pass time was there so we decided to go ahead and ride it again. While we were in the fastpass line I noticed a small little girl no bigger than my son and she was able to ride. I rechecked the hight requirements and sure enough, he was tall enough.:hammer:When we got off the second time I radioed my husband and I could tell by the tone in his voice that this was not going to be good. We rounded the corner to meet them and I saw my husband chasing my son, it's funny now but I almost died then. My son had cried the whole time we were gone because he wanted to ride EE too. I felt so bad that I had made this mistake. My husband was stressed, my son was upset and I felt horrible. My son was much better when he found out that he could ride it after lunch but it took my husband a long time to get over what had happened. He was about ready to take him back to the resort for the rest of the day.

After lunch everyone was fine again & my son rode EE and LOVED it! This was the only trip that anything like this had happened. Most of the time my kids are great but it just goes to show that it can happen to the best of us.

 

[poohbear6103]

3 years ago, my boyfriend and I were eating our lunch at Crystal Palace. We were sitting at a table for two and there was a divider to my right separating our tables from the other row of tables. Well, this one kid, who was probably around 5 or 6 kept standing on the booth, leaning up against the divider and leaning his head back. Well since our table was directly on the other side of the divider, he finally did what were afraid would happen. He dunked his head right into my boyfriend's plate of food and got a head full of mashed potatoes in the process. And the plate was full of food since we just got back from the buffet line. Well, no apology from the family that was starring right at us and looking us in the eye. My boyfriend, very upset, pushed his plate forward, crossed his arm and said to ME not to THEM " Well, now I lost my appetite". They had to the nerve to say, "Well this is a children's restaurant in case you haven't already figured out. If you did not want to deal with children, you should have asked for a table by the window or gone somewhere else to eat". All I could muster was, to my boyfriend, "Did she just say what I think she said!" What I really wanted to say is, if you would raise your child properly then I would be able to eat where I please considering I paid just as much for my vacation as you did and we deserve to eat our lunch without hairs and a big dent which is what we have to do now thanks you. Then the waiter comes back with a new glass of orange juice when it dawned on us at that moment that ours was missing. He said he had to bring a new one because while we were at the buffet the same kid came over unsupervised and drank out of my boyfriends glass and put it back on the table! By that time we had enough and asked to see the manager. The manager was very nice and comped his meal which my boyfriend felt bad about since it wasn't the restaurants fault, but we took it anyways. Then he gave us a ticket to get free ice cream at The Plaza. Needless to say, I have not been successful in convincing him to eat lunch there since !! I don't have a problem with kids, I just have a problem with parents who think their kids can do no wrong, even when they do it right infront of their own eyes.

 

[pacochran]

The most bizarre experience I have ever had at WDW involves an insane parent. I was walking through a resort lobby (can't remember which one), and standing waiting for the elevator was a mom, dad, and two kids (I did not know any of them). The kids were being fairly unruly, but no worse than is often seen, when the dad turned, pointed to me, and said to his kids: "If you don't stop that, that man is going to give you a spanking!". I was flabbergasted, and just kept walking by without saying a word. To this day, I still can't believe a parent would say something like that.

Talk about poor parenting! I would never put the blame on someone else. Talk about scaring for life.

 

[mpoppins76]

The most bizarre experience I have ever had at WDW involves an insane parent. I was walking through a resort lobby (can't remember which one), and standing waiting for the elevator was a mom, dad, and two kids (I did not know any of them). The kids were being fairly unruly, but no worse than is often seen, when the dad turned, pointed to me, and said to his kids: "If you don't stop that, that man is going to give you a spanking!". I was flabbergasted, and just kept walking by without saying a word. To this day, I still can't believe a parent would say something like that.

Goodness, how bizarre!!