Have your children embarrassed you at Disney/Orlando?

[WantToGoNow]

I can’t remember any right now but I’m sure if I thought about it long enough I could come up with something.

Children remember more than you think. The last trip my dd was celebrating her first birthday and my ds was 3.5. It’s been a little more than a year. My ds was looking through the picture album and said “where’s the Peter Pan boat?”. He remembered riding it – as a matter of fact he remembered that he and daddy missed the parade to go on a second ride. He remembers the monorail and that he rode up front. He remembers the fit he took after he was already seated on Splash Mountain because he didn’t want to ride – he didn’t ride, we got up and excited the boat. My dd of course doesn’t remember anything about it but I have tons of pictures and she loves looking at them. Both of them are very excited about our trip in November.

 

[Pigletlover]

I just remembered an incident with a friend's 4 year old daughter (although not at Disney). Her mum is very overweight and cannot walk very fast. Anyway one day we went to the zoo and the little girl was fascinated by the elephants. She sat and watched them for a long time and then finally turned around to me and stated "My mummy is an elephant!"


Oh and the pooping incident! A friend told me about the time she took her little 3 year old to another child's birthday party. The children were all running around on the grass and playing in the paddling pool. Before my friend could realise what was happening, her daughter pulled down her pants and did a large poop right in the middle of the lawn in front of everybody. She was so embarrassed!

 

[LibertyLover]

Oh gosh yes. We just got back from WDW and yes, my DD3 did several of the things you listed. She started on the plane down by throwing a royal temper tantrum before we had even left the gate because she had to put on her seat belt. I honestly thought DH was going to get up and walk out of the plane he was so disgusted with her. As soon as we got in the air she was fine. There were several episodes of tantrums during the trip usually because we would not buy something for her or she was hungry or thirsty. The worst ones are where she throws herself on the floor and won't get up, you know - floppy child syndrome. That in particular sends my DH's temper through the roof. He will pick her up, throw her over his shoulder and march to a secluded spot to have a discussion with her which usually involves informing her that she has lost a privledge, which results in even more tears. She has wet herself and the chair at 9 Dragons and thrown up in the ladies' rest room at 9 Dragons (the former because she didn't want to miss eating the rice and the latter because she had eaten too much hot and sour soup). She hasn't broken anything in a store yet nor has she really thrown anything, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time. Ah the good times being a mom at WDW.

 

[AlmostApril]

Oh yes, I know. I've seen that "magical look" on a young child's face. It's the exact same magical look my son had on his face when he was 2 and saw about 50 ducks in the river down the street. The same magical look he had when he saw 2 feet of snow on the ground when he was 3. And the same magical look he had when he found a broken seashell at the beach when he was 4. Snow, ducks, seashell, Mickey Mouse...all the same to them. Except snow and seashells don't cost 2 grand. And if kids decide to pitch a fit in front of ducks, the ducks aren't always gonna have the memory of the screaming child that ruined their special day and us parents aren't gonna get embarrassed and have a migraine about it.

 

[slk537]

I am certain your son will be very happy when he may go to WDW after the age of six. And my four year old will also be very happy when he goes to WDW after the age of six, however with his very happy memories of the past five years. Both will have magical vacations.

However, I believe you need to take into consideration that children misbehave and do all of the things on the OP's list, even when they are (gasp!) over the ripe age of six and often don't do these things when they are (gasp!) under the age of six. I'm not sure if you have been to WDW before, but please understand that truly, you don't walk down Main Street and have to dodge the tantrum throwing, peeing, spitting and insulting under six crowd while the 8 and 9 year olds look on and nod with the sage wisdom of the elders. (Although...does anyone else agree that this would make a hilarious mental picture??)

Shall we agree that you will wait to take your child until he is older and we will continue to "waste" money on creating memories for ours before and after they are older?

 

[bunnysmum]

We were waiting in line for Soarin' after getting in and bypassing much of the line thanks to FastPasses. My dd5 had earlier in the day announced joyfully to all the other long-line waiters, "WE have FAST PASSES! WE get to go up FRONT!" I guess she expected everyone to cheer for her or something.

I warned her NOT to make her "We have FastPasses" speech to the people in line this time, to which she replied, "But I WANT to talk to the people, Mom!" To which I replied, "Tough patooties!" (real rough language, huh?)

Ever one to carry a grudge, my dd, as we approached the CM to get us lined up properly for seating inside Soarin', announced very loudly and vengefully, "My Mommy said a BAD word!" He cracked up, and I just rolled my eyes, and explained feebly, "Um..it was just Patooties! That bad word I said.... "patooties", as in "tough patooties"."

I'm not sure he believed me, though. My own Mom, who was with us, thoroughly enjoyed this exchange. I'm sure she felt it was payback time for me.

Less funny, but way more humiliating and stressful was the morning that dd had an absolute meltdown at the bus stop at POR because I wouldn't let her take one of her stuffed animal plush toys with her to the park. (Well, she has a habit of dragging them along every handrail, and dropping them on the ground a lot, and getting really germy, you know?) She attempted to change my mind by pitching an absolute fit, at which point, there was NO WAY I could give in to her and reinforce her behavior.

She couldn't handle it. At all. I tried my very best parenting techniques, including time out and ignoring the behavior, but she still squalled and would NOT hush and everyone at the bus stop was looking at me like I was parent of the year. And not the good kind. I know I should have taken her back to the room and had her stay there with no TV, etc as a consequence. But I didn't want to! It was my vacation too, and I knew that as soon as she got to the parks she would forget about the stuffed animal and have fun.

Oh, she was dressed like Snow White, too, so she was a very ugly-behaving little princess that morning! I kept hissing at her to "BE QUIET!!", and every time I walked in her direction, she screamed, "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO ME???!!!!" As if!! What a drama queen!

That's the same morning that she pitched a fit and cried and said she didn't want to go the Storybook Princess Breakfast "because I'm shy and I don't like new things very much". Yeah right! At first I told her that was fine, she didn't have to go, but when I called to see if we'd be charged for not showing, and found out we WOULD be charged $10 apiece (3 of us) I just said, "okay, we're going". She cried, she howled. I hid. And in the end, she loved the PSB, the little twerp. She told me so herself, afterward. But that didn't keep her from scowling through every picture we took of her that morning. You never saw such an unhappy child at Disney World, judging from our photos that morning.

 

[golden1]

I USED to think this way - until I had my own kids. By the time my daughter is 6, she won't believe that princesses are real anymore. I think that this age is a really magical time and I think my dd will love it AND at age 4.5 she will remember it to a degree. I remember things from that age. I also will have memories of my own.

 

[Jerseylicious]

AMEN TO THAT!!! I agree 1,000%, and I have a 6 year old so I know what I'm talking about!!!

 

[kerry34]

Let me just start by saying that I am one of those people who get very embarrassed very easily and hate attention of any kind. That being said, one of my darling 6 yr olds was nothing short of exhausting on our last trip. Of course most of the time, I take it in stride. It seemed like no matter what we did, DD wanted to be doing something else. Now this is fairly new to me overall because my other kids, while they all have their moments, have not acted out in public all to often, I can say that 3 of them never have. On our second night on vacation this past december DD pushed my buttons big time. We were eating at Ohana's (which I was very excited about doing) anyway, throughout the entire meal DD kept whining that she wanted to go swimming. I told her we would be going to the pool after dinner but she had to eat first. Of course she kept it up and kept it up (this was in between the 3 bathroom trips she need, 2 were legit and the last one was just a ploy to get out of her chair). After having a completely interrupted dinner I was really losing my patience. Finally it was time for dessert and DD started up again, this time in much more audible tones. Along with that came a sarcastic comment, which at that point, all the other kids at the table stopped eating and were just looking at me because I think they knew i had enough. Anyway that is when the warning was issued. After I told her if she spoke to me like that once more, she would not be going swimming, she looked at me and said loudly I will do whatever I want and you will not stop me!! Well like I said, that was loud and a few people heard it. So that was it. Told Dh to take care of the bill and picked DD up and took her back to the room, and all the while she continued to yell at me as I was walking out of the restaurant. I was mortified. Back to the room we went. DH came up a short while later and the four other kids and I went to the pool. Once she realized that she was going to miss out on the pool she became very appologetic of course, but I had issued the warning. She, needless to say did not swim, and thought twice about talking like that to me again. We still had to deal with some whining during the rest of the trip, because like i said no matter what we were doing she was asking to do something else but the tongue definately got curbed a bit from losing the night at the pool. Gotta just love kids!

 

[SusanWasHere]

oh gosh! after reading these stories i have called my doctor to get my tubes tied ASAP!! maybe someday there will be an adults-only disneyworld... "when you wish upon a star..."

"the more kids i meet, the more i like my cats"

 

[Jerseylicious]

LibertyLover - just noticed your post! YIKES!!!! Did you at all have a good time on your trip?? lol Let me tell you, your husband has the patience of a saint!!!! The first time my daughter ever even attempted to throw a tantrum....actually she just started to get an attitude...my husband put an end to that one!!!! I can assure you it was more than a discussion. And she has yet to forget it, believe me!! She's 6 now, and we have been tantrum-free for 6 glorious years, thank God! lol

 

[SusanWasHere]

LibertyLover - just noticed your post! YIKES!!!! Did you at all have a good time on your trip?? lol Let me tell you, your husband has the patience of a saint!!!! The first time my daughter ever even attempted to throw a tantrum....actually she just started to get an attitude...my husband put an end to that one!!!! I can assure you it was more than a discussion. And she has yet to forget it, believe me!! She's 6 now, and we have been tantrum-free for 6 glorious years, thank God! lol

you go miss delicious jerseylicious! that's the way you do it! show that kid who the boss is! she's going to grow up to be a very good girl! i'd take your creepy kid to disney anytime!

 

[Jerseylicious]

You know you love my creepy daughter (your creepy niece!). Kids NEED to know who's boss, and believe me, mine does. And we live a VERY peaceful & happy life because of it!!

Now, back to my tea & Americal Idol. LOL (I just wanted to use that smiley! hahaha)

 

[SusanWasHere]

You know you love my creepy daughter (your creepy niece!). Kids NEED to know who's boss, and believe me, mine does. And we live a VERY peaceful & happy life because of it!!

Now, back to my tea & Americal Idol. LOL (I just wanted to use that smiley! hahaha)

you do that. but let the creepy kid out of the closet once in a while. she needs light at least once a day, be responsible please

 

[Jerseylicious]

ROFL you're a freak! You KNOW some of the DisBoarders are going to take you seriously! hahahaha

 

[SusanWasHere]

ROFL you're a freak! You KNOW some of the DisBoarders are going to take you seriously! hahahaha

huh? what? i have no idea what you are talking about.....

 

[Jerseylicious]

huh? what? i have no idea what you are talking about.....

No playing dumb now!

 

[maddhatir]

MareSINY, your post is hilarious!

What parent hasn't done the restroom laundry routine? Stripping off the offending icky clothes, throwing ickiest in trash and holding outerwear firmly in toilet and "flushing" to remove chunkiest poop/barf, ordering kid to stay in bathroom stall while you do a sink laundry with handsoap and use the automatic hand dryer thingy to try and dry the clothes! Hopefully there's a sympathetic mom on hand to corral your youngster while you deal.

Voice of Experience: Always carry a change of clothes!

OMG! been there and i dont even have a child--nor do we want one!!

DH and I took our 4yr old niece and for some reason she kept on peeing in her pants! i tried everything to get her to go to the bathroom everytime i went. but no-- of course not--
i had to RUN to the closest clothing store in the park- buy a pkg of tink underwear and SIT ON THE BATHROOM FLOOR and change her while she is running around the stall (had to put her in the handicap one for this!) hanging on my head playing with my hair, trying to make a run for the door- while i am cracking up. i said to her she needs to tell me when she has to pee so i dont have to keep changing her-- she said THATS OK- YOU CAN KEEP BUYING ME NEW TINKERBELL PANTIES! ----good thing there were 3 in a pack becasue we used them all. one pair had different color strips on them and when i went to take them off of her, after she peed again she said --OOO LOOK- I PEED A RAINBOW!

I never thought i would see the day i would actually be sitting on a bathroom floor!! eeewwww

wont be doing that again for a long time!

 

[SusanWasHere]

OMG! been there and i dont even have a child--nor do we want one!!

DH and I took our 4yr old niece and for some reason she kept on peeing in her pants! i tried everything to get her to go to the bathroom everytime i went. but no-- of course not--
i had to RUN to the closest clothing store in the park- buy a pkg of tink underwear and SIT ON THE BATHROOM FLOOR and change her while she is running around the stall (had to put her in the handicap one for this!) hanging on my head playing with my hair, trying to make a run for the door- while i am cracking up. i said to her she needs to tell me when she has to pee so i dont have to keep changing her-- she said THATS OK- YOU CAN KEEP BUYING ME NEW TINKERBELL PANTIES! ----good thing there were 3 in a pack becasue we used them all. one pair had different color strips on them and when i went to take them off of her, after she peed again she said --OOO LOOK- I PEED A RAINBOW!

I never thought i would see the day i would actually be sitting on a bathroom floor!! eeewwww

wont be doing that again for a long time!

 

[maddhatir]

my niece was only 4 when we took her in dec- we did the princess breakfasts etc. when she saw any of them it was like someone seeing a rock star! she knew who all of them were- who their princes were. she knew more than i did! mulan asked her a question i hadnt a CLUE what she was even talking about- but my niece knew the answer right away.

we were in morocco and i said hurry up there is Aladdin---when we got there she said-- thats not Aladdin-- thats just the genie!

and believe me- all they WANT to do is where their princess dresses to the park--

sorry