Haunted Mansion

[rileyroosmom]

What is with this ride and the parents of kids? Just came back from WDW and my sons 10 and 7 wanted to ride. Once the presentation in the stretching room started, my 7 year old began to get upset. I couldn't calm him and finally had to grab the CM who was walking around the room banging the walls (This really helped my son!) and ask how to get my son out. (Unfortunately had to wait for the presentation to end.) The CM came right back to us and got us out. I did see a few other crying kids in there too. Anyway left son with husband who was waiting with 3 year old daughter and took 10 year old back in. There were so many crying kids, especially the closer you got to the doom buggys. Some kids were almost screaming! My point is, why do parents insist on dragging kids on a ride in that state? I can understand if they are apprehensive about a ride and you kind of coax them on. This is a "Haunted House" for goodness sake! Just needed to vent!

 

[judyfromkansas]

Originally posted by rileyroosmom
What is with this ride and the parents of kids? Just came back from WDW and my sons 10 and 7 wanted to ride. Once the presentation in the stretching room started, my 7 year old began to get upset. I couldn't calm him and finally had to grab the CM who was walking around the room banging the walls (This really helped my son!) and ask how to get my son out. (Unfortunately had to wait for the presentation to end.) The CM came right back to us and got us out. I did see a few other crying kids in there too. Anyway left son with husband who was waiting with 3 year old daughter and took 10 year old back in. There were so many crying kids, especially the closer you got to the doom buggys. Some kids were almost screaming! My point is, why do parents insist on dragging kids on a ride in that state? I can understand if they are apprehensive about a ride and you kind of coax them on. This is a "Haunted House" for goodness sake! Just needed to vent!

When my sister and I went to the Mansion last month, there was a mother and her small daughter right beside us as we waited in the "lobby" to get on the buggies. It was a pretty eerie atmosphere, with the flickering chandeliers and so on. The little girl wanted to know how scary the Mansion was, and her mom said, "Mickey won't let it get too scary, honey." The little girl calmed down after that.

 

[jeleebeene]

I think that once a child is scared and says that they do not want to ride a ride, the parents should not force them too.

I have witnessed countless parents dragging their children onto rides as they are crying and screaming that they do not want to ride. I can understand trying to explain to them that nothing will happen to them, however, once a child is scared of a ride, there usually is no convincing them.

I wish more parents paid attention to their children - I think the parents pay more attention to what they themselves want sometimes and I feel so sorry for those kids.

 

[petula]

This is interesting. I've never seen a bunch of crying kids in the Haunted Mansion before. In fact, it's been one of the calmer attractions whenever I've been there (except for once when one of the huge soccer teams started SCREAMING outside of the stretching room, scaring every single child in line). Most often there'll be some surprised-and-unsure-looking kids after the stretching room, usually up in a parents' arms by that point, but not upset enough to leave. (If a kid doesn't want to go on something, it's true, he won't change his mind! I once suddenly threw a fit in the line of Snow White when I was little, and my parents dragged me out of there so fast! lol)

I've heard the most unhappy children in Honey I Shrunk the Audience. lol Sometimes you just don't know that you don't want to do something until you're in the middle of it! My mom once saw some people forcing a screaming and crying child onto the Tower of Terror, though, and that just makes me shudder.

rileyroosmom, what do you mean the CM was banging on the walls? During the presentation?

 

[loriandmatt]

i believe there is a fine line here. it differs for each child, but they each hhave one. That line is between the scenarios of "trying to convince them that they will enjoy it, it will not hurt them and once they go on it, they will like it" and "ok - we hit a wall here and we should remove them from the line and let them chill out and maybe try again after they have had a chance to calm down. No use torturing them on vacation."

I know that i would never force my child to ride anything that i knew they would freak over, but then again....if they are afraid of everything, how much fun are they gonna have if they don't get up the nerve to try anything new.

I try not to judge other parents when it come to them interpreting that line for their child, but sometimes that is hard. Especially when you see a kid looking terrified and bawling their eyes out. (saw this one first hand as a much too small boy was just about having a heart attack in AE - parents were laughing at his reaction. i wanted to choke them.)

we didn't take our son to WDW until he was 5, but will be taking our DD from a very young age. We did give him the "Mickey wouldn't have anything here that you could get hurt on or that would scare you too much. It's all in fun and Mommy and Daddy will be right here." speach a few times that first trip, and he tried just about everything. (except TOT - he got up the nerve to do that the next trip)

- lori

 

[rileyroosmom]

Yes, after he told us to step into the middle of the room, he went all around it, banging on it as he went. The older teenager girls of course screamed in delight, but this did nothing to calm my son down!

I just hate to see a child being dragged onto something crying. I quickly realized this trip was for my kids, not me. I never got to ride Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, BTMR, or TOT. 3year old wouldn't go near the Little Mermaid show because she saw "Cursula" on the roof and she is "very mean and scary because she took Ariel's voice" Oh well! maybe next time.

 

[daystar]

Hi,
I surely agree with all of you i would never make my child go on a ride they do not want to go on.....Especially dragging them on screaming, what are these parents thinking....When we went to the HM for the first time my son who's five, wasn't sure at first i just told him that if he didn't want to go on that's fine ....My youngest son did go through the hm he wasn't afraid at first but when we got into the carts and they knock on the back of your cart that's when he started to get scared.....I calmed him down and made jokes of the ghost , anything to keep him happy...But afterwards he told me that his favorite part was when the ghost was sitting in our cart with us....He told me that he liked it but didn't want to try it again.....I think he was trying to be brave infront of his older brother maybe....I always tell both my boys that if you are unsure about a ride you can always try it and then decide if you ever want to try it again....But i would never push them.....I choose to give them that choice....We went to Ak to the Dinosaur ride we stood in line and when it was our time to go on my youngest decided he rather not try it and that's alright, maybe when he's older....
Sometimes i think it's a bad idea to put kids on rides they don't want to go on because my sister did this to my niece and now she will not ride nothing....She is afraid of every thing....My oldest was not really a kid that like to ride any thing big when he was younger but now he's 12 he rides almost every thing....I think it's because we never pushed him and let him decide for himself.....Over time he didn't realize how much fun these rides really were but at that time he just wasn't ready to try them yet...

 

[wannabee princess]

I think some parents are looking at the trip to Disney as the only chance to go (unlike most of us here on the Disboards), so they want to do everything, cram everything in, not miss anything in the entire park.

So, when they have a child who is being a child, and is a little apprehensive about a ride or attraction, they think they can convince them to do it. Then the child starts to get really terrified and the parent is not at all happy about this little "mess up" in their plan to do it all!

I remember being in a bathroom one trip and overhearing a mom saying to the child "You better start having fun!!" while the child cried and cried. It really broke my heart, that this child would remember Disney as a place that mom got mad and yelled at them in the bathroom.

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

My sister was terrified of HM until she was 18....and even then we didn't drag her on it.

 

[carolinagirl]

I agree with the person above who said that there is a fine line and that parents have to know when that line is crossed. While I would never drag my child screaming onto a ride (for the sake of others as well as my child's) I did have to do a bit of coaxing to get my DD 7 to ride on Haunted Mansion when we visited this past October. She was apprehensive and did do some protesting, although it wasn't outright screaming. I knew her and knew that her "idea" of what it was going to be wasn't what it really was. She ended up loving it and was one of her favorite experiences that trip. At the end when the ghost hitches a ride on your buggy.....she just loved that! She laughed and laughed. If I hadn't pushed her along a little, she'd have missed out on it.

Each parent has to try and determine where the line is for their child between apprehension and downright fear.

 

[oogieboogie]

My oldest DS (6 yrs old) is scared to try anything new. He will say no to any new experience because he hates losing control over what happens to him.

Each new ride we go to, he will fret and cry even before we enter the building. But DH and I will make him go anyway, because we know how he is. Usually when he comes out of a ride, he enjoys it.

Case in point, 1st time on BTMRR, he wept and wept, but we made him go on it. After that... it's his favorite ride! Last time we went to MK, it was all he wanted to do.

To other people we may look like mean and bullying parents... but other people don't know my son and his attitudes and behavior. We as the parents do... we know that we have to push him hard to try anything new.

OK... I'm done. Flame away...

 

[Troyfus]

I agree. Never force a crying screaming child onto a ride they truly fear. As a parent our role is to protect.

However! A few well chosen sentences in advance can prepare a child to be open to a new experience. Last year when my son was five he was nervous about trying Space Mountain and the Haunted Mansion among others. After preparing him and riding them, he completely abandoned Dumbo and Astro Orbitor. He wants thrillers! He desperately wants to hit 48" so that he can try Rock n Roll. Here is an example of how I psyched him up:

Daddy is with you and will protect you no matter what.
These rides are all safe or they would not let people get on them.
Wow! You are such a brave boy (or girl), I am so proud!
Look. That ghost is gonna try to scare us. Let's yell boo at him first.

Any number of building up phrases should be tried. Never use negative ones like "Youre just a baby" etc... They worsen your chances of a positive experience. Remember, children can be very brave when they choose to be. Some of the things they do on Monkey bars at the playground freak me out.

All in all, be prepared to harken unto their will.

 

[cobbler]

I know it is hard. My son the oldest is like the worlds biggest drama King. He acts as if he is going to die on things like haunted mansion even though he has been on it numerous times before and then literally 30 seconds into it he loves it.

So we have to kind of just ignore him during his whole "show" (not like a temper tantrum fit or anything obnoxious) and then tell him he liked it before and lets go.

I guess my oldest is just weird like that.

 

[Vivianne]

I just got back from my vacation. There were two occasions where children were crying loudly and parents were either laughing or ignoring them. One was It's Tough To Be A Bug. The child was about 5 or 6. She cried through half of the show. The other was at MGM The Magic of Disney Animation.

I could understand the first child getting scared initially although I did not enjoy having to hear a child crying through more than half the program. The second child cried through most of the presentation and the mother would not leave with her until the CM requested she leave and the father was the one who took the child.

I think these parents need to be more considerate of others but maybe misery loves company and if they can't enjoy themselves they want to share.....

 

[HunnyPots]

The thing I had the biggest problem with is the parents who lie to their kids to get them to ride. In line for TOT this mom kept saying to her daughter, who was about 5 or 6, "Come on honey, its just an elevator. You've been on elevators before"!
I'm thinking, 'OK, she's gonna need some therapy before she ever gets on an elevator again!'.

 

[VancouverFoppa]

Originally posted by jeleebeene
I wish more parents paid attention to their children - I think the parents pay more attention to what they themselves want sometimes and I feel so sorry for those kids.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[cokegal19]

We were just there a week ago, and I dont remember what ride it was, but there was a boy about 6 or 7 who didn't want to go on the ride, and the mom was SCREAMING at the boy saying "your such a little chicken!!!!!" over and over again.....

I just wanted to tell that lady to shut up before she ruines her kids self esteem any more!!!!!

I think that's crazy. If a child doesn't want to go on a ride, dont push them.... and especially don't call them names!!!!!!!!!!

augh.......

 

[decker96]

oogieboogie:

I know what you mean! Our oldest DD6 is exactly the same way! Our first trip she was 5 and we didn't push her to go on anything because DS was only 2 and couldn't ride them anyway. But, on our next trip she will be 8 and DS5 and youngest DD2. DS is really not afraid of much and I know he will want to try anything he is tall enough for. I've already started talking to DD about BTMRR and how it's not scary, no upside downs or anything and that it doesn't go too fast. She is still refusing, luckily we have over a year to keep working on her! LOL! I'm hoping that she will see her little brother doing it and not want to be outdone by him and will go on.
It gets frustrating because I know she would like it if she just tried. Case in point, she was invited to a classmate's birthday party and told me she didn't want to go because she didn't know this girl's mom. I pretty much told her she was going, she did and had a GREAT time! When she came home she told me she was glad she had gone. When I said see, sometimes it's good to try new things like new rides at WDW she just rolled her eyes and said I'm not going on it Mom. Maybe she will change her mind by next Oct.!

 

[SeanaB]

I was there in November and I was one of those parents who draged my screaming daughter on all the rides. I know what it might have looked like but you don't know my daughter. She is afraid of everything. From day one she was afaid of stairs, escalators(sp?), pools, bikes (or any toy on wheels). I have to force her to do things. She started crying as soon as the lights when out and cryied all the way to the buggies. She was shaking all the way through but when we were done she said she liked it. I am very sorry to all the parents that think I am cruel but if I didn't force her to do some things I would still be carrying her down the stairs! (I had to do it when she was in kindergarden!) She was 7 before I could get her in a pool deeper than 4 inches. Now I can't get her out of the pool. I still can't get her on a bike

When we were there I thought the only ride that might be too much for her was Rock and Roll Coaster, but my older kids insisted on getting her on it. She screamed but now she said it was her favorite ride in disney

 

[Stepharoonie!]

Miss Maddy's favorite ride at the World is the Haunted Mansion. She begs to watch the video clip of it on the computer all of the time...and she watches the Disney Sing A Long video of Grim Grinning Ghosts ALL OF THE TIME. I have that song constantly stuck in my head