Anybody have a child pulled from FJ because of height?

[closetdisneynerd]

My daughter is 46 inches. Do you think we'll be able to sneak by the 48 inch requirement?

 

[damo]

My daughter is 46 inches. Do you think we'll be able to sneak by the 48 inch requirement?

Why would you risk your child's safety?

 

[mesaboy2]

I doubt it. My DD is same height and I won't try to with her in a couple weeks when we are there. She was pretty sad when I told her, but she will have to be happy with the queue by itself and FOTH. Those height requirements are there for a reason, by the way, and it isn't to make kids unhappy.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

I have seen them measure children. If she isn't 48 inches, why would you even risk her safety? There are reasons for the height requirements.

 

[Purseval]

My daughter is 46 inches. Do you think we'll be able to sneak by the 48 inch requirement?

Buy her a pair of those Skecher things with the funny heels that are supposed to tone your legs while you walk, they will add a couple of inches.

Why would you risk your child's safety?

Aren't you around the same age as I am? If you are you're part of the generation whose mothers smoke and drank during pregnancy, who rode without helmets and seat belts, who started smoking before they hit puberty, who ate lard pie for dessert and basically did everything this enlightened generation said was going to kill us, cause birth defects, brain damage, you name it. And yet here we are, surviving in numbers that are going to bankrupt the Social Security system and make our Grandchildren (the ones who will be shouldering the burden) wish all those dire things actually came to fruition. So please excuse a dodgy old man if he doesn't think I'm possibly going to ruin someone's life by suggesting they at least give it a try. I guess I'm just going senile.

Update Now that I think about it, there was another thing that sets us apart: If I put something in my kid's shoe to make him look taller and he got hurt I would have every friend and relative calling me an idiot for trying to sneak something in, and that would be the end of it. Now the answer would be "well they should have known people would try to sneak the kids in and paid more attention. It's their fault and I'm going to sue them for every penny I can."

 

[Magpie]

Aren't you around the same age as I am? If you are you're part of the generation whose mothers smoke and drank during pregnancy, who rode without helmets and seat belts, who started smoking before they hit puberty, who ate lard pie for dessert and basically did everything this enlightened generation said was going to kill us, cause birth defects, brain damage, you name it. And yet here we are, surviving in numbers that are going to bankrupt the Social Security system and make our Grandchildren (the ones who will be shouldering the burden) wish all those dire things actually came to fruition. So please excuse a dodgy old man if he doesn't think I'm possibly going to ruin someone's life by suggesting they at least give it a try. I guess I'm just going senile.

Sorry for being waaaay late - I was out of town with my family, playing in the surf.

But I just have to comment that the only reason you get to even BE a dodgy old man is because you were lucky.

My FIL smoked and died after a 15 year long fight with lung cancer. My best friend's mother smoked and she suffered horribly from asthma all through her childhood (her mother used to tell her to lie down on the floor so she wouldn't breathe in the smoke and trigger another attack). Her lungs are permanently damaged now. Another friend of ours ate whatever he wanted (like lard pies), gave himself diabetes, and is now in a residential care facility thanks to a combo heart attack/stroke. He'll never live independently again.

I even knew a kid in school who was in a car accident when he wasn't wearing a seat belt - he flew over the front seats and right through the front windshield. He's a paraplegic.

My grandmother wouldn't let my mother run with her little friends behind the crop dusters spraying DDT. Thanks to her, my mother's still alive and pretty healthy for her age - and I wasn't born with birth defects, like some of her classmate's children. My mother insisted I always wear a seatbelt, even when it wasn't the law. Thanks to them both, I'm alive and not a drain on the medical system!

All those "dire things" you mention DID "come to fruition", and have caused incredible pain and heartache for many families.

Me, I'm taking a page from my mother and grandmother's playbook. I make my children wear seatbelts in the car, and helmets when they ride a bike or skate or ski. Visitors to our home smoke outside. My children are not allowed to dig caves into the sides of sand hills or snow piles (just let me tell you about my husband's buddy's 11yo son who was killed digging into a sand hill). I CAN say no to my children, whenever it comes to them wanting to do something I think is unsafe.

I want to believe we can learn from our mistakes, and pass these lessons down to our children.

 

[Purseval]

Sorry for being waaaay late - I was out of town with my family, playing in the surf.

But I just have to comment that the only reason you get to even BE a dodgy old man is because you were lucky.

Yeah, me and about 70 million other people But, unfortunate relatives with cancer aside, a simple fact of statistics is that when an overwhelming amount of people don't
have bad things happen to them it's not that they were lucky. It's the other guy that was unlucky. A subtle difference that isn't lost on anyone who runs a casino.

My FIL smoked and died after a 15 year long fight with lung cancer. My best friend's mother smoked and she suffered horribly from asthma all through her childhood (her mother used to tell her to lie down on the floor so she wouldn't breathe in the smoke and trigger another attack).

Blah, blah, blah, I get the idea. It's just those sort of scare tactics that have turned us into a nation of litigious sissies. Thanks for reminding me.

I even knew a kid in school who was in a car accident when he wasn't wearing a seat belt - he flew over the front seats and right through the front windshield. He's a paraplegic.

And I know someone that won the lottery. He was a total jerk, everyone at work hated him and now he's living the good life. Things happen, especially in a country of 350 million people. You can always come up with a story if you dig hard enough.

Speaking of stories, how about a few links to stories about those 46-inch kids who got flung off the ride that was designed for a 48-inch child? Like the guys who flash their lights at you on a dark highway then turn round and kill the people who flash back, it's the kind of accident that only happens on blogs.

I want to believe we can learn from our mistakes, and pass these lessons down to our children.

Believe it or not, when you first bought copies of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World there were tips in it on how to make a borderline child taller. Obviously they had a talk from their lawyers and now that section is gone. I'm sure the world is a much safer place because of it.

 

[JenM]

We didn't wear bike helmets when we were kids - as a result, I know one kid who fractured his skull and nearly died. In fact, I still have a scar from a nasty bike fall I had as a kid that probably wouldn't be there if I'd been wearing a helmet at the time.


That being said, height restrictions are there for a reason. People shouldn't be trying to get around them.

 

[Mama Mouse]

We didn't wear bike helmets when we were kids - as a result, I know one kid who fractured his skull and nearly died. In fact, I still have a scar from a nasty bike fall I had as a kid that probably wouldn't be there if I'd been wearing a helmet at the time.


That being said, height restrictions are there for a reason. People shouldn't be trying to get around them.

My son had a bad wreck on his scooter this weekend where he had bad facial injuries. Because I make him wear his helmet every time, we were able to see where exactly he hit first on his helmet and then rolled forward. I hate that his face is torn up BUT I thank GOD that that helmet protected his head and brain from the damage that would have been done with that initial impact.

The story would have been very different.


As for the OP, there is no WAY I would try to sneak my kid through. Besides setting a horrible example for your child, the restrictions are there for a reason-your child's safety.

 

[Lewisc]

I've seen them measure kids. I've read team members have told kids to take off their shoes. I understand a parent trying to "fudge" that last 1/2" not 2". Either let your child know he won't be riding FJ or postpone your trip.

 

[La2kw]

I also have seen them measure kids and not allow kids to ride. It's only a ride for pete's sake, just wait until they are tall enough. It's not the end of the world when a kid gets told no, it's good for them.

 

[Purseval]

We didn't wear bike helmets when we were kids - as a result, I know one kid who fractured his skull and nearly died. In fact, I still have a scar from a nasty bike fall I had as a kid that probably wouldn't be there if I'd been wearing a helmet at the time.

And how many thousands did you know who made it through childhood scar free? Reasonable safety features aren't a problem and nobody wants to see anyone, especially a child, get hurt. The problem is when you inconvenience the thousands in order to avoid the possibility of something happening to the one. Nanny-statism can only take you so far and when you get that nanny mentality and something still happens you go around looking for someone or something to blame, which makes the restrictions even tighter.

That being said, height restrictions are there for a reason.

Yes, to protect Universal from lawsuits. Mods lock threads like this for the same reason, because some nimrod will try to say they snuck their kid on a ride because the Disboards said it was ok.

Because of a fear of lawsuits the engineers overdesign these rides like crazy, so a ride that says it's for a 48-inch child could probably handle a 36-inch one without any problems. People know this so they are more inclined to fudge. Wouldn't it be nice if they made the ride for a 42-inch child and made it clear that if you tried to sneak under the height you're on your own and actually mean it? That way there would still be a reasonable margin of safety for someone who made an honest mistake (2" isn't honest. a 1/4" might be) and real teeth for the people who can't take no for an answer.

 

[JenM]

And how many thousands did you know who made it through childhood scar free?

I can honestly say I don't know "thousands" of people. Plenty of us got through our childhoods accident-free.

However, it did take watching just one child slip into a coma after a bike fall to consider that a helmet could have prevented it. Lesson learned. Helmets are a must now.

Height restrictions are a safety issue. It may be an over-cautious safety issue, but I'd rather it was an over-cautious one. Rides have had height restrictions as long as I've known them. This is not some new crisis.

When I went to WDW/Universal with some friends a few years back, they researched the restrictions on each ride before we left so the kids would know which ones they could ride, and which ones they couldn't. That way they knew before we got there and they weren't disappointed.

And the reason my friends were so cautious about the height rules? One of them had a friend who was killed in an amusement park accident.

 

[phamton]

The height requirement is 48 inches and the chance of your daughter getting on at 46 inches is slim to none. Discussing ways to circumvent the height requirement is not appropriate on this forum.

Since this has veared way off from the original question, I am closing this thread.