Unnecessary harsh treatment of children in public spaces at WDW

eliza61nyc

Well-Known Member
Recently Overheard as we just disembarked the Epcot line at the TTC:

7-8 year old son: Dad, I have a rock on my shoe.
Dad: No you don’t!
*Son restates previous statement*
Dad: You dont!
*son starts to restate the first statement as the father started walking faster whilst holding his sons hand*

If there’s anything the parks thought me, 9 chances out of 10, the son had a rock in his shoe.

In conjunction with the heat, and being exhausted, the parks are designed to over stimulate you. And honestly with how some people plan, I can see why their party gets ****y. Some of them, have sent me their itineraries (people who go multiple times a year) and it’s literally blocked by 5-15 minutes. I’m sorry, but when you’ve micromanaged a vacation where you can tell me to a certain degree 4 months out that for lunch on Day 3 that you have 130 minutes available, when it comes to the day, that’s the fastest way to have tempers flare.

*The views above represent those single, childless millennials that go to the parks that some say need to be banned. The posters view is not that of the Walt Disney Company nor their job history and contacts*

Lol, the part you are missing is that, that is the 10th time son has made that claim and 9 times prior Dad has stopped, taken the shoe off, showed his son and the last time dad has taken the sock off, individually checked each toe, put on new sock and probably carried son on his shoulders most of the time.🤣😂

So he is reasonable certain there is no rock in his shoes.
 

Disney.Mike

Well-Known Member
Lol, the part you are missing is that, that is the 10th time son has made that claim and 9 times prior Dad has stopped, taken the shoe off, showed his son and the last time dad has taken the sock off, individually checked each toe, put on new sock and probably carried son on his shoulders most of the time.🤣😂
Or he told the kid to stop picking up rocks and playing with them 100 times... so when the rock actually was in the shoe the dad thought "let him suffer a little with it, maybe he'll learn to listen."
 

graphite1326

Well-Known Member
"Um, no", he said in a quiet, mousy voice.

Having said that, if I had a kid I would certainly teach him the difference between right and wrong and what is acceptable behaviour in public. My mom always taught us that we could not throw temper tantrums in public, nor did she ever hit us where other people could see. As a matter of fact, she never really physically harmed us in any way that would allow other people to get involved. We just knew from "that look" she gave us that we were doing something wrong.

If someone could help me understand why they do this, maybe my perception will change. I'm only asking for constructive feedback, I'm not looking to incite any kind of verbal hate debate please.
Yeah OK. You obviously never had to deal with a child who liked to push you as far as they could knowing full well they are doing something wrong.
 

King Racoon 77

Thank you sir. You were an inspiration.
Premium Member
Yeah OK. You obviously never had to deal with a child who liked to push you as far as they could knowing full well they are doing something wrong.
Neither have i . My parents did however and i can count on the fingers of one foot how many times they lost it with me either in public or at home.
I was in my twenties before i ever heard my father raise his voice ( and that wasn't even directed at me). So parenting os possible without perceived overreacting ( not say it is or isn't)
Just my opinion.
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
parents are not perfect. They mess up. They screw up. They get tired.

Also, it is easy to judge without knowing the full context of the situation. And each situation is different.

And I’m sure a small minority of parents are just kinda bad at it.
In fairness, those little bundles of joy do not come with an owners manual. They are born with the natural ability to grate on ones last nerve. I'm not going to try and justify any behavior of parents toward their children if I haven't walked a mile in their sneakers. We love our children, but sometimes they push to far and frustrate one to a level that someone that hasn't been there cannot understand. Rosanne said it once, I've done a great job of parenting if all my kids are still alive at the end of the day. ;)
 

macefamily

Well-Known Member
Oh, how I recall. It would always irritate me when the kids misbehaved while at the parks because I felt it was selfish behavior. Mom and dad just shelled out about $4-5k for a family getaway and you're giving me attitude. They didn't misbehave much, but when they did it was frustrating. I remember once that I chose to stay back at the room and watch football on a Sunday after a meltdown at the parks on Saturday. My wife and her sister took the kids to the parks. The kids knew I was mad because I never refused an opportunity to visit a Disney park. Kids are now in their early 20's and late teens. It's now a much better time on vacation.
 

ils

New Member
I have been a long time watcher on these boards but this is the discussion point which finally made me register.

Some of the previous posts have been spot on that you may not know the real circumstances of what is unraveling in front of your eyes and I will give you an example.

I have taken my 10 year old son to three football (here in the UK) matches at the brand new stadium of our beloved team. Within 10 mins of sitting down at our seats he managed to kick over his bottle of fizzy drink which went every where. I was pretty calm especially when we found out we were in the wrong seats anyway. The second time we went, I bought another drink and he did the same within 20 mins of sitting in our seats. We found it funny but inside I was thinking "you are an idiot".

When we went again in August I made it perfectly clear he was not having another drink to take to his seat. However like most children they put on the 'Puss in Boots' eyes and before you know it his father caved in but categorically warned him to make sure he looks after it...."okay dad I promise"

Within one minute of sitting down he kicked the bottle of drink over the bag of presents I had bought from the club shop and I lost it. I screamed at him Infront of a lot people and and made him cry. Once I calmed down I did apologise to him and the people sitting around me but for that split second I could of killed him.

The point of this is that as so many posters have said previously, until you are parent and you know what comes with that job..you will be taken to places you never knew existed inside. So don't always make assumptions that what you are seeing unfold infront of you represents that parent on an everyday basis.
 

InnKpr

Well-Known Member
While we're on the topic, could we as a society lose the "blame the parents" mentality for if/when we see little ones acting in less dignified fashion. Yes, it's true that in many cases the parents are to blame, but in many other cases it is not. If ever I acted in an ornery fashion growing up which I won't disclose how often :cautious: more than likely my behaviors stemmed from fellow students in school, not the parental unit.

It's not always the parent's fault when Jr. misbehaves.
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
And they have creative ways of sticking in the needle as well. When my daughter was in her last year of High School, she and I went to WDW for a few days. While standing in line at Buzz Lightyear we were just a few feet away from a family who like us were in the standby line. One of the kids, I'd say about 10 years old, started yelling at his father because his father didn't get a Fastpass for the attraction. He called him every name in the book, stupid, ignorant and dumb, just as examples. It was embarrassing for all of us near them. His father just stood there looking defeated. It was awful.

I turned to my daughter and asked her what she thought would have happened if she had done that to me. She didn't even have to think about it and answered, we would be back at the hotel and the day at Disney would have been over. She was correct, I would raise my voice because sometimes that worked, but if it hadn't worked I wouldn't have made idol threats that they knew weren't going to happen, but we would have been back to the hotel, no TV, no pool, nothing except time to reflect. Yes, I would have spent the rest of the day saying no to all the pleading to be allowed to do something else or go back to the parks, but believe me, I only would have had to do that once. I never had to because they both knew that if I said we were going to leave, along with the other restrictions, I meant it and I would do it. I'm sure if I had to do that they would have been screaming like I was torturing them all the way out, but that would only have served to make me more determined to follow through.

Parents and friends are two different things. You get to be friends later on when they realize that what was done was to teach them how to behave properly and become responsible adults, who BTW, now have children of their own and have a sudden enlightenment of just how difficult that job is.
 

bigrigross

Well-Known Member
Cause if you don’t reasonably discipline a child in some reasonable (no abuse) fashion when they have done wrong, you get entitled adults. You know like millienials lol.

Goes to show that boomers were the worst generation. Poor parenting, poor passing of information to the newer generation. Were the recipients to some of the most generous programs the US ever offered. Yeah, millennials are the issue.....
 

drizgirl

Well-Known Member
In fairness, those little bundles of joy do not come with an owners manual. They are born with the natural ability to grate on ones last nerve. I'm not going to try and justify any behavior of parents toward their children if I haven't walked a mile in their sneakers. We love our children, but sometimes they push to far and frustrate one to a level that someone that hasn't been there cannot understand. Rosanne said it once, I've done a great job of parenting if all my kids are still alive at the end of the day. ;)
In all fairness, nobody needs an owner's manual to know they shouldn't yell at or smack their kids.
 

unmitigated disaster

Well-Known Member
Goes to show that boomers were the worst generation. Poor parenting, poor passing of information to the newer generation. Were the recipients to some of the most generous programs the US ever offered. Yeah, millennials are the issue.....
So you're talking about most of the posters in this thread's parents - including your own?- being awful people. Awful humans. Okay then.
 

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