Please Remember to Pack Your Brains

[fillerup]

Bathing suit - check. Sandals - check. Tickets - check.

Brain? Nope - left it at home in the jar.

At Epcot this evening having a bite to eat outside at the America pavillion.

Young mother, 30 something, shows up with two kids. Puts her purse on one chair, the boy in another chair, the girl in a third chair. She then proceeds to head inside to get some food. When I noticed this, I checked my watch. She was gone almost 20 minutes.

Wife and I estimated the girl to be about 4 and the boy, maybe 6 but that could be stretching it.

Seriously, I get it. Disney is probably safer than most places but good God woman, 30 seconds and one or both of those kids are long gone with a stranger.

We purposely stayed there until she came out in case some intervention was needed. I kept looking for Security or a Manager to tell them of the situation but none to be found.

 

[LAKid53]

Not to mention her purse, also...

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Unfortunately, this is how you sometimes feel in a Disney park:

 

[LAKid53]

Unfortunately, this is how you sometimes feel in a Disney park:

 

[PrincessFairest]

Never in a million years would I do this. Not only is this stupid for the obvious reasons mentioned of children running off or purse being stolen, but why should I hog some table when we have not ordered our food yet? Only when we have our meal ready and with us do we look for a open table as a family.

 

[MadMax11]

Hey, but she saved that table, right!!??

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

Bathing suit - check. Sandals - check. Tickets - check.

Brain? Nope - left it at home in the jar.

 

[WondersOfLife]

My parents started making me and my sister "save" our table like this at the ages of 7 (me) and 9 (sister). My parents had a "password." They told us to never go anywhere with a stranger... We would have to ask the stranger "what's the password?" and he would have to say "boogie..." Otherwise, we would scream cry and yell for help.

That never happened though.

 

[UncleMike101]

Some people shouldn't be allowed to reproduce until they understand Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection.
The stupid species die out because their offspring don't survive.

 

[jaklgreen]

I travel a lot with just my girls and me and have never left them alone at that age. That is just someone who made a very poor decision. Kids are hard work people, but your number one goal is to keep them safe. Take them with you, don't let them leave your side for a minute. You chose to have kids now do the work. This has nothing to do with what happened but I hate when people think that just because they have small kids then they need special accommodations. I have no problem helping you out if you need it carrying or lifting something but we get people come into our counter service restaurant who call us from their phone not wanting to come inside to order/pay/get their food because they don't want to take the kids out of the car. So someone has to stop helping on the line to take their order out(and they always want to pay cash) go back inside and ring it up, take out the change etc. Could have helped 3-4 people that actually came inside in that time frame. I know customer service is key but where does it end? I never would have even thought of doing that let alone actually expecting someone to cater to me in that way just because I have kids. It is not a disability to have kids.

 

[Sonconato]

We see this type of thing all of the time and not just at Disney, however, as the OP said, Disney seems to provide that comfort level for people more then when outside of the Parks. We had once seen a toddler that was asleep in their stroller parked at the stroller parking by the Carousel with no parent in sight. There was a CM and Security Guard there with them while looking around for a parent, so we felt that the child was going to be safe. However, IMHO, there should be some harsh penalties for that parent once they returned. Think about it, how easy would it be to walk out of the Park and all the way to your car with a sleeping toddler and the trauma that toddler would experience waking to strangers! Simply beyond comprehension.

 

[Darling one]

My husband and I opted to Honeymoon in Disney. It was our first trip here together and we became instant fans. But two seperate events really stood out and I still haven't forgotten them, considering we now have two kids on our tenth trip. The first occurred in the line for Space Mountain. A woman was in line with her son. A Cast member informed her that son did not meet that height requirement for the ride. She then turned to me and asked that I watch her child so that she could go on the ride. Naturally since I had never met the woman I respectfully declined.
The next day we went to HS. We stopped for QS back by Star Wars. My husband noticed a woman balancing a tray full of food and drinks trying to push a stroller with two kids to tow through the doorway. He kindly held the door for her and offered to help her with the tray. As he carried the tray to the back of the seating area she asked him to stay with her kids while she went back in to place another order. He was so surprised he stayed put since she had already headed back to the restaurant.
I think some people believe that since Disney is a Magical place they can forget to pack their common sense.

 

[CdnDznyLuvr]

Disney markets themselves as being separate and apart from the real world, but in reality it's not. Anybody can walk into a Disney park, It's not nice to think about but there are undesirables at Disney too ... it's called real life. Disney isn't as isolated from the real world as they would like you to believe.

 

[epcotisbest]

Some people shouldn't be allowed to reproduce until they understand Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection.
The stupid species die out because their offspring don't survive.

Interesting theory, but stupid is alive and thriving.

 

[NelleBelle]

We had once seen a toddler that was asleep in their stroller parked at the stroller parking by the Carousel with no parent in sight. There was a CM and Security Guard there with them while looking around for a parent, so we felt that the child was going to be safe.

This reminds me of a story my parents told me of when they used to go to DL back in the mid-70s (keep in mind different way of life back then). My parents were Disney-nuts and took me when I was a few months old. They tell me that they would ride Space Mountain and the CM would happily hold me while they rode!!! Now my parents are appalled (as am I) that they ever did something like that! Even they recognize that Disney is not the same as it was and is not someplace to just leave your children unattended (or attended) with strangers.

 

[fillerup]

I thought I'd go ahead and add some bonus content to my OP since apparently Friday was stupid people day at Epcot.

After Mom came out with the food and reclaimed her kids, we went down to have a glass of wine in the courtyard at Italy.

No sooner had we sat down than another young Mom came by pushing a young one in a Disney stroller. She was clearly pretty well blasted.

She went over to the smoking area, sat down, lit a cig and promptly fell asleep. She sat there, slackjawed, chin on her chest, lit cigarette in her hand and swaying to and fro. I guess to her credit she planted one foot in the stroller, I assume so she'd know if it started rolling away.

Thank goodness there was a guy on the next bench over because he managed to catch her when she began to topple over. If he hadn't been there, she would no doubt have split her head open on the cement bench. I don't mean to be unkind, but to reference an earlier poster, that definitely would have been Darwinism at work.

 

[alissafalco]

I've seen things like this out side of Disney. smh

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

 

[jaklgreen]

It is not sanctimonious or Holier-than-thou to be appalled at very poor parenting. It takes a village and everyone should look out for those who can not help themselves. It is the attitude that people can do any stupid, endangering, and just bad parenting and no one should call them out on it, is what is making these children now-a-days into disrespectful, mean, and sometimes homicidal messed up people. When society became "tolerant" and stopped policing each other is when the whole downturn of society started to happen. Agree or disagree, but times were much better when i was growing up. My parents were not afraid that when they sent me to school that one of my classmates might shoot me. We should be judgmental, that is why they have a jury of your peers and not just one judge making the decision. Because we are a society and like it or not what others do does affect the rest of us.

 

[SyracuseDisneyFan]

Oh gosh.