Want to know what's funny? In a couple years all these moms of "little ones" who don't want the big kids in because they "follow the rules" will have most likely have smaller children and they'll be the ones posting that their kids want to go in to play with their other child.
Just something I see happen all the time.
Thought for once I'd point it out.
Weird I'm not usually snarky like this but this topic just sets me off.
so does this mean the older child gets preferential treatment? i mean-the younger sib who may not meet the height requirements for a ride at wdw does'nt get to ride and has to observe their sib doing something it's against the rules for them to do, so what's wrong in the older sib having to do the same thing?
i have 2 kids, and for years ds while def. age appropriate, never met the height requirement for allot of the rides at wdw and other amusement places (finaly did at almost age 9). he had to watch older sib sis ride these, and yes he was disappointed but he learned it was the rules and if we went to places like this we had to abide by them. conversely older dd had to learn that some areas were off limits to her. now she's a real gentle girl who would have not played on equipment in these areas, would have interacted with toddlers in a positive manner-but the rules were such she exceeded either the age or height requirement. what got interesting was when ds still met height requirements but exceeded age. in those cases he had to learn that he was at an 'in between' point in his life where he did'nt fit into either the 'kiddie' area or the 'big kids/adult' area. was it hard on him? yes, and we chose not to travel as much to amusement parks during this period of time. dd had to learn that sometimes we make sacrifices (as in her not going as much as she would have liked) to spare the feelings of people we care about-and i think it's contributed to her level of compassion now.
i honestly got to a point with both kids where i avoided these areas in most situations. i've never seen the rules greatly enforced, and as a result i've had both kids trampled by older kids, seen equipment that was meant to support kids of a certain weight range bow under the weight of bigger kids (and that's scary when it's a tube structure that goes over an area designed for the youngest ones to be playing in like a ball pit)-and had my toddler shoved aside/pushed down by the older sibling of another toddler who was 'helping' their sib do something. those areas are generaly built such to cover a limited age range-if a younger kid can't climb up to do something on their own-they probably should'nt be doing it and should be playing on the items they are capable of independant play on. as they personaly physicaly progress such that they can do it on their own they can acess/play on it without an older sib's assistance.
play areas, birthday parties, movies...there will always be disparities between inclusion/acess/ price of admission between ages-sibs needs to learn to deal with it. with dd we've told her in these situations-'yes, it might not be fun to sit on the sidelines and watch db play in an area you can't go into-but you had 2 1/2 years of playing in them before he was around, and now there are things you can do that he can't-and he has to watch you from the sidelines'.
