If you were there this past week, I am sorry.

[Mickey's Best Girl]

Holy bananas. I can't even fathom spending more than 5 minutes with those children, or their parents (due to the fact they didn't discipline or reprimand). 2 things in life I have a hard time dealing with - misbehaved children and pets.

When we took our family vacation a few years ago I let my niece and nephew (8 & 9 at the time) know ahead of time how I expected them to behave. My brother is a little "softer" than I am in the disciplining department. I think my exact words were "I'm not your father, I will discipline you". They aren't bad children, I just didn't want to leave anything up for interpretation. We had a super time! The kids were kids and the adults were kids, just of a well behaved nature.

My sympathies OP

Now go grab a glass of wine and start planning your next trip!

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

Holy bananas. I can't even fathom spending more than 5 minutes with those children, or their parents (due to the fact they didn't discipline or reprimand). 2 things in life I have a hard time dealing with - misbehaved children and pets.

When we took our family vacation a few years ago I let my niece and nephew (8 & 9 at the time) know ahead of time how I expected them to behave. My brother is a little "softer" than I am in the disciplining department. I think my exact words were "I'm not your father, I will discipline you". They aren't bad children, I just didn't want to leave anything up for interpretation. We had a super time! The kids were kids and the adults were kids, just of a well behaved nature.

My sympathies OP

Now go grab a glass of wine and start planning your next trip!

Looking back, I should have asserted the rules at the airport. I doubted my DH would support me. I should have told princess in no uncertain terms, this is OUR van (rental) and you will sit where we tell you.

Next trip...hmmm...we do have those brand new annuals and more points in the current use year...

 

[Laundress]

Bless you and your patience. I hope your friendship survives.

 

[SimonSez]

The kids were obviously in charge in that family --what my dad used to call "the tail wagging the dog."

 

[leebee]

BT, DT, not going back. It's sad, because kids/cousins can have such a good time growing up together, but we were just done. They had the whole vacation planned when the family they were supposed to travel with backed out and they invited us (not free, paid our share, wouldn't do it any other way). Everything became about "well it's Princess's vacation, too" while we all stood around waiting for Princess to do exactly what she wanted, in her sweet time, complete with temper tantrums when not getting her own way. No way to leave them as the villa rental was in their name, as was the rental car. Princess's vacation became everyone's vacation, and I came home feeling bitter and gypped out of our vacation. The really hard part was this is a family that goes to Disney a LOT ( 4-8 times a year), but this was our only Disney trip for 2 years. Yes, it saved me some money, but cost me a lot in so many other ways.

 

[Shanti]

BT, DT, not going back. It's sad, because kids/cousins can have such a good time growing up together, but we were just done. They had the whole vacation planned when the family they were supposed to travel with backed out and they invited us (not free, paid our share, wouldn't do it any other way). Everything became about "well it's Princess's vacation, too" while we all stood around waiting for Princess to do exactly what she wanted, in her sweet time, complete with temper tantrums when not getting her own way. No way to leave them as the villa rental was in their name, as was the rental car. Princess's vacation became everyone's vacation, and I came home feeling bitter and gypped out of our vacation. The really hard part was this is a family that goes to Disney a LOT ( 4-8 times a year), but this was our only Disney trip for 2 years. Yes, it saved me some money, but cost me a lot in so many other ways.

Yikes. This is why I don't travel with other families. I'm a teacher & have seen enough over-indulgent parenting to know the risk. I hope your subsequent trips were more magical.