Got some good "jerk parents" stories?

[dragonfox98]

I like the way your parents operate. I did something similar to my 13 year old last year. We travel in the off season which requires us to take the kids out of school for 2 days so the deal has always been if there is more than 1 C on the previous report card or progress report they can't go. Well Zoie had 2 F's on her progress report that came out shortly before our Christmas trip so she spent that trip at grandma's house. She has been A/B honor roll ever since.

You are not the only parent that does this - grades are the reason we are not taking my nephew (aka second son) to WDW this October. Although, we are a bit strict (ok, I'm a bit strict) - requiring honor roll for the entire year - not just the two semesters before WDW. So, although he did great the final semester, his grades for the first three terms were horrible, and, therefore, he stays at Mom Mom's while we visit the mouse.

 

[maggiegrace1]

I rest my case.....

:ROFLOL: :ROFLOL: :ROFLOL: :ROFLOL: :ROFLOL:

 

[Hakunamatata]

That was just plain uncalled for.

.

You understood what the OP said?

 

[joanna71985]

You understood what the OP said?

Yeah, I believe so. For the most part.

 

[Monty]

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!

I'm happy to disagree. DS was [and continues to be] a well-behaved, respectful child who accepted the word 'no' when it was directed at him. The joy in his eyes at seeing characters and riding the various rides he was tall enough for was a blessing to me every moment we were there. My Ex and I received compliments from passersby about how wonderfully DS behaved in what might have been trying circumstances. I have never been anything but proud of him and regularly tell him so.

Yep, and thats something I dont think alot of people realize when they take on the responsibility of kids. Yes, you may be the parent, and what you say goes, but sometimes you have to be the parent with the rational mind that says, "you know, its really not worth the stress to do it". You gain so much more than you have to "give up". People need to remember that you might have to miss a ski trip, or miss out on something that you like to do back before you had kids. But if you make the right decisions and invest the time and effort into your kids when they are young, you will end up with children that you can enjoy those same things with when they are older. Thats just the way I look at it.

I've never 'missed out' on anything because of my son. If he's starting to get cranky or just tired, we adapt our plans to suit his needs. Canceled ADRs or rides we didn't get to on a given trip aren't missed at all. If we can't enjoy them together, I don't miss them. As I said above, he is respectful and well behaved, but part of that is he knows that if he's getting tired and has had enough I'll listen and work out a plan to accommodate his needs. And every time we see another family having a meltdown, one of us will turn to the other and thank them and tell them how proud we are of them [and yes, he's as proud of me as I am of him]. Parenting means being 100% responsible for your child, until you can release them into society as well-rounded responsible citizens in their own right. Done right, there is no better calling in life. To say I missed out on Le Cellier or Expedition Everest because of my son is unfathomable in my mind. I choose to forego them for my son because he is more important in my life. It's really that simple.

 

[Eyorefan]

My story - I actually laughed at this, but I can only imagine the impact to the kid. There was a mother and her son in line in front of us for RnRR. The kid, about 9 or 10 years old, asked his mother if the ride was scary. She said "You liked It's a Small World, didn't you? This ride is a lot like that" and then she winked at us.

That's just mean. I hate it when people lie to their kids about what a ride is going to be like. If anything you are just going to make whatever fears they may have about the ride worse, not to mention they aren't going to trust you anymore.

My DD is 8 and scared of everything so I can feel the pain of some of the parents who want to go on certain rides, but can't because their kids won't go. (I'm a singal parent so a lot of times it's just me and her, not child swich offs). Still, I am always up front with her about what is going to happen on the rides and if she ever wants to back out, even after waiting for 30 minutes, we leave. I give her a hard time..."Are you sure you can't just see what it's like... it's only a 2 minute ride...", but I never yell at her for it.

I know plenty of grow ups that won't get on rides I have seen parents force their kids on to. Some people just aren't in to thrill rides. Different strokes for differnt folks. I think some parents loose site of the fact that their kids are people.

 

[mdisney]

Im not sure if it was mentioned, but I think it sucks when a parent yells at there kids when the kid gets lost. I mean the kid is already scared, and crying and just happy to see them again.

Also I saw a dad hit his son in the back of the neck, and it sounded like it hurt.


Another is the kids on a rope, I like to call it dogs walking on their hind legs.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Another is the kids on a rope, I like to call it dogs walking on their hind legs.

As the father of a 3 yo. I am a huge proponant of kid on a rope. To them its a backpack. To us, it assurance that they can only get about three feet away.

 

[Nemo14]

Another is the kids on a rope, I like to call it dogs walking on their hind legs.

Do you have kids?

 

[joanna71985]

Im not sure if it was mentioned, but I think it sucks when a parent yells at there kids when the kid gets lost. I mean the kid is already scared, and crying and just happy to see them again.

I agree. I was working the castle show when a kid came up to me and said he was lost. He was about 10 or so. He told me he had gotten seperated from his dad, aunt, and cousins. We waited in front for a few minutes. Then we decided to walk towards the entrance, since he had said they were heading towards the front when they got seperated. Well, we had gotten about halfway when we found them. What they said to him made me sad. They said things like "I am going to smack you" and things like that. Could they not have said something like "I am so glad to have found you?". I felt so bad for him.

 

[wdwmomof3]

As the father of a 3 yo. I am a huge proponant of kid on a rope. To them its a backpack. To us, it assurance that they can only get about three feet away.

Exactly. I can remember seeing these things and thinking to myself that it was strange. Well, when we took my 2 year old to Disney that is one of the first things that I bought because he would just take off from me and I was so afraid that it would happen there. I got some looks but I knew that my child was safe and that was more important than anything to me.

 

[sbkline]

I rest my case.....

Hey now!

At least I'm perfectly willing to admit that about myself, though. Yes, I do have very little tolerance for fussy children. And yes, I am very when I'm at WDW. I have a plan that I want to follow, a minimum amount of time I want to be at each place, I want to be there when the joint opens, and I like to have table service meals reserved at the 180 day mark and I get very frustrated when things come up to ruin the plan. Just ask my wife about the time in 2003 when the brakes went out on the car and I was pacing around the service shop at noon, fuming about how we were supposed to be at the Magic Kingdom 3 hours ago and wondering what the heck was taking these people so darn long to get my car fixed. :lol:

Now, are these negative attributes which should be changed in my life? Sure, and hopefully as I get used to parenthood and go on future trips to WDW, I WILL learn to chill out a little and relax.

But until then, given my lack of tolerance for squalling children and my rigidity when it comes to the daily plan, I think leaving the children home until they are "old enough" is a wise move for all involved.

 

[Nemo14]

Hey now!

At least I'm perfectly willing to admit that about myself, though. Yes, I do have very little tolerance for fussy children. And yes, I am very when I'm at WDW. I have a plan that I want to follow, a minimum amount of time I want to be at each place, I want to be there when the joint opens, and I like to have table service meals reserved at the 180 day mark and I get very frustrated when things come up to ruin the plan. Just ask my wife about the time in 2003 when the brakes went out on the car and I was pacing around the service shop at noon, fuming about how we were supposed to be at the Magic Kingdom 3 hours ago and wondering what the heck was taking these people so darn long to get my car fixed. :lol:

Now, are these negative attributes which should be changed in my life? Sure, and hopefully as I get used to parenthood and go on future trips to WDW, I WILL learn to chill out a little and relax.

But until then, given my lack of tolerance for squalling children and my rigidity when it comes to the daily plan, I think leaving the children home until they are "old enough" is a wise move for all involved.

That's fine, but just remember they do grow up fast, and there's no going back......

 

[mdisney]

Do you have kids?

What does my view on something have to do if i have kids or not, but it looks very bad since i went there when i was little kid. My parents taught me not to run around. A lot of CM even say that and they have kids.

 

[sbkline]

How many percentage of parents, do you think, only go to WDW because their children want to? Personally, we took our 16 mos. old because WE wanted to

Exactly my point. We don't go for our child, we go for US. Because our child is too young to care and is only along for the ride (if we do take him with us). Since we are going because WE want to and not because he wants to, then for us, it makes sense to leave him home with Grandma so we don't have to have our vacation ruined contending with a fussy toddler.

 

[Hakunamatata]

What does my view on something have to do if i have kids or not, but it looks very bad since i went there when i was little kid. My parents taught me not to run around. A lot of CM even say that and they have kids.

Um, has about 50% to do with a child running off. The other 50%, having your child abducted from your side while your attention is focused on something else.

 

[Nemo14]

What does my view on something have to do if i have kids or not, but it looks very bad since i went there when i was little kid. My parents taught me not to run around. A lot of CM even say that and they have kids.

No, I was just asking because parents see it from an entirely different POV. When my kids were little we had wrist leash type things, which we used in the parks. My kids didn't run around either, but there's a certain degree of peace of mind that those things give you. Not meant as an attack, just curious if you were saying that as a parent or not.

 

[DABIGCHEEZ]

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 breakfast 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.

Ymmm... mashed potatos for breakfast. My favorite!! :lol:

 

[sbkline]

No, I was just asking because parents see it from an entirely different POV. When my kids were little we had wrist leash type things, which we used in the parks. My kids didn't run around either, but there's a certain degree of peace of mind that those things give you. Not meant as an attack, just curious if you were saying that as a parent or not.

This is another running debate between the wife and I. :lol:

I, of course, am all in favor of child leashes. My wife doesn't like them as she thinks it's mean, degrading and treating the child like an animal. Of course, my reply is that if the child can act like a civilized human being and do what he's supposed to do, then by all means treat him as such and don't use the leash. But if he wants to act like a wild animal and run all over the place, then by all means, treat him as such and throw the leash on him.

 

[DisneyGigi]

Hey now!

At least I'm perfectly willing to admit that about myself, though. Yes, I do have very little tolerance for fussy children. And yes, I am very when I'm at WDW. I have a plan that I want to follow, a minimum amount of time I want to be at each place, I want to be there when the joint opens, and I like to have table service meals reserved at the 180 day mark and I get very frustrated when things come up to ruin the plan. Just ask my wife about the time in 2003 when the brakes went out on the car and I was pacing around the service shop at noon, fuming about how we were supposed to be at the Magic Kingdom 3 hours ago and wondering what the heck was taking these people so darn long to get my car fixed. :lol:

Now, are these negative attributes which should be changed in my life? Sure, and hopefully as I get used to parenthood and go on future trips to WDW, I WILL learn to chill out a little and relax.

But until then, given my lack of tolerance for squalling children and my rigidity when it comes to the daily plan, I think leaving the children home until they are "old enough" is a wise move for all involved.

Okay...While all people are different and have their own styles of touring WDW.. I just have to say IMHO a stirct "Oh my gosh" we have to be here at so and so time is not my idea of a vacation (excluding dinner reservations obviously) WDW is about magic and fun not a checklist or plan if it is that strict.
My kids never squall or have tantrums as I have stated before in this thread and maybe that is because we as parents understand that it is a vacation ...not a to do list. We are able to do everything over and over again without a set time to be here and there and have been able to for many years.
I am sorry but as a parent I cannot understand any vacation being about only me or my husband. I wanted to go to WDW as a child and never got to go, when I did get to go and went with my DS when he was 3 it was the best experience because I saw his joy, I didn't care so much about me. Then a couple of years later when I took DD (2 1/2) it was even better, I cannot imagine going without them ... I know one day, sooner than I wish they will be grown and probably go without me and I want their memories to be happy. I want them to look back and remember the fun they had with Mom & Dad. (even if it includes backtracking because someone wants to ride a ride again)
Walt himself wanted wanted people to see things through the eye of a child and that is the view that we personally like to take, this is our view... but I felt I needed to state it. :wave: