Lies parents tell their small kids at Disney?

[crl]

You know...with YouTube being so prevalent, I'm surprised that parents would fib to their kids about a ride.

We have been watching YouTube ride through videos of all the rides my son is tall enough to go on come our December trip. We've also been watching a Disney Special on Netflix every week so he sees (some of) the rides and is prepared for when we get to Disneyland to say "yeah, I'll ride it" or "no...I remember this one from netflix/youtube and I'm not ready for it". Now, do I expect him to ride the few things he's told me he WANTS to ride based on seeing it on Netflix or YouTube...nope. I'm prepared to be cool with his decision and I won't push him to go on something he doesn't want to go on. Nothing worse (in my opinion) than scaring the crap out of your kid and having a miserable trip because they won't get on anything other than Dumbo or Pooh.

We do this too. DS was excited to be tall enough to ride some of the rides, but after seeing some of the videos he has decided to wait a little longer to ride them.

 

[squirrel]

I'm sure I haven't lied to my niece's when I took them on rides. I may have left out a few things like I have never called it Snow White's Scary Adventures, just Snow White.

The oldest niece is scared of most rides-I'm sure that has something to do with her dad. Still remember the first time I took her on Winnie the Pooh. You would have thought I was trying to get her on ToT or something. Calmed her down and told her a bit about the ride and she then went on it and loved it at 4 yrs old. At 5 yrs I did force her on the Jungle Cruise as I insisted she try one new ride this trip. Well guess what she liked it, but we had no time for a second ride as we waited till the last possible moment to get that new ride in.

The youngest niece was terrified of Spaceship Earth. I don't know what her older sister told her but she was convinced that it was too scary. I knew she would like it so I made her ride it, she liked it a lot and then told me that her sister told her it was a scary ride. I had her ride KRR and she liked it, just didn't like getting wet (I packed her a change of clothes so she wasn't wet for long). On her second trip I did make her try Splash and she said the drop was scary. I reminded her it is sometimes fun to get a bit scared and that I wouldn't take her on anything that I didn't think she could handle. I wanted her to see the fun inside part of the ride.

Neither one have been on ToT, Space Mtn., EE, Dinosaur and of course RnRC (height requirement).

I think lying will cause them to not trust you. Some children need a bit of a push to try new things.

Next year we are going to DL so I hope I can get them on some new rides.

 

[pacrosby]

Sometimes you don't know unless you go. Many kids don't understand that there are degrees to things. It's not simply a matter of 'scary' or 'not scary'...and not everyone finds the same types of things scary. Helping kids to learn to let their knowledge and experiences guide their decision-making instead of their fears (what they know as opposed to what they think they know) is not a bad thing.

Kids are a heck of a lot more resilient than some people give them credit for. They aren't going to be scarred for life if Mom/Dad fibs to get them to try something they might otherwise be hesitant to try (unless the kid has some underlying issues which obviously should be handled differently).

 

[indimom]

Only by accident.

We took our kids for the first time in 2005. DH and I had gone to DHS for one day in 1993, and I remembered liking The Great Movie Ride, in particular the Wizard of Oz scene.
I was looking forward to it.

My son, five at the time, asked if it was a scary ride.
I told him, with utter confidence, "No, it's alot like Peter Pan except you ride through grownup moves instead of a cartoon movie."


O-M-G, The kid was petrified.
He thought our tram driver was really kidnapped.
He thought the gangster had a real gun. And we were sitting in the front row, right next to him!!!

I totally forgot that part of the ride.

Then, just as I managed to pull his head out of my armpit and calm him down, "it's all fake, just actors, just part of the show...."

We hit the fog and flashing lights and I recognize the scene from Aliens. Bad Mom, Bad Mom, Bad Mom.


My poor baby didn't trust me for the rest of the week. He would ask Dad if the rides were scary, but not me.

 

[chinchiller]

I don't have a child old enough to ask questions like this so I'm going to answer with what my dad did with me instead.

He would never lie. Ever. He said exactly what would happen on everything (as long as he knew himself). The thing was, he was always very calm, cool, and collected. He wasn't agitated, he wasn't nervous, he did't try to turn my questions around and he wasn't evasive. He was upbeat and happy to be going in the ride, but he wasn't overly enthusiastic acting like it was the best thing ever either. It was what it was. I think his demeanor and the way he presented himself did way more for me and easing my fears than what he said ever would have.

This is how I want to be with our children and something I'm working on with my husband. He gets motion sick on coasters (or he did, when he was 8, and he's still convinced he will now, despite doing just fine on things like Dinosaur). This translates to him saying things like, "I don't understand why you would get any pleasure out of torturing yourself." or "That's too intense. You're nuts." It's a downer for ME, a grown adult who can process my own feelings and thoughts just fine. I can't imagine how terribly that stuff is going to translate to our children.

 

[Jaime4004]

I'm okay with downplaying (lying) about a ride if i'm quite certain that my child would like it if they weren't so worried about it (DD9). Wouldn't do it to a child I knew is afraid of most rides and would hate it (DS7).

 

[pinktink83]

I almost did this to my then 3yo daughter one year, lol. I hadn't been to Disneyland in a few years and I forgot how scary, dark, and fast Matterhorn was. I kept trying to convince her to go on it because she was tall enough, but in the end she insisted she didn't want to go, so we relented and did a child swap. (this was immediately after her trying Mr Toad and bursting into tears during the hell scene, then being even more traumatized by Snow White, lol, so we were trying to avoid the "indoor dark" rides)

I took her 5 yo brother and as soon as we got inside the mountain I was like OMG, I'm SOOOOOOOO glad she didn't listen to me, she would've FREAKED OUT! So I didn't really mean to lie to her, but thankfully she stuck to her guns and I didn't force her because I would've felt bad and probably ruined the rest of the day (if not trip) by traumatizing her even more.

So I'm very persuasive, but I won't force them to go if they really don't want to. We did the same thing to her at DCA last year to get on Mickey's Roller Coaster...bribed her with something she wanted (I think it was cotton candy?) and she went with us and LOVED it more than anyone. I was SO worried because again, I forgot how fast and scary it really was, and I couldn't even see her face over the bars during the ride. I was so sure she would be bawling when we got off, but she thought it was awesome. I was so thankful!!! So ya, I probably shouldn't trust my memory anymore, lol.

 

[midaroco]

So....these "little white lies" as everyone is calling them, are ok because it serves your purpose - but then when your children get older and begin to lie to you, you'll wonder why they lie so much??? I find it a bit frustrating that adults find it acceptable to lie to a child when it serves their purpose - to get to a theme park faster, to calm a child down - thereby insulting the child's intelligence. They WILL eventually see you lied, thus they learn from you.

 

[pascalstongue]

So....these "little white lies" as everyone is calling them, are ok because it serves your purpose - but then when your children get older and begin to lie to you, you'll wonder why they lie so much??? I find it a bit frustrating that adults find it acceptable to lie to a child when it serves their purpose - to get to a theme park faster, to calm a child down - thereby insulting the child's intelligence. They WILL eventually see you lied, thus they learn from you.

So you have never lied to your children?? Santa claus, the tooth fairy, how delicious vegetables are???

 

[Marionnette]

So you have never lied to your children?? Santa claus, the tooth fairy, how delicious vegetables are???

I don't think that the PP has children, based on another post of theirs that I've seen.

Back to the OP. I don't remember lying to any of the kids about an attraction. I did tell them that they wouldn't get wet in PoTC. My younger son was very quick to point out the droplet of water on his hand after a water cannon went off near our boat in the fort scene. Does that count as lying?

 

[megan10310]

Big difference in saying a roller coaster has "some good turns" when it goes upside down (nbd IMO) and categorizing tot as a "little show"!

I have encouraged my ds to ride, told him sometimes its fun to be scared, told him a ride is more fun than scary, told him it is only 3 min and I will be right beside you.

But tot is not a "little show". He rode it for the first time at 3 yo. He begged to ride it. We made him try a bunch of other "scary" rides first to make sure he wasn't going to freak out. We told him it has big drops. We told him it is pretend scary. He still wanted to ride and he loved it.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Big difference in saying a roller coaster has "some good turns" when it goes upside down (nbd IMO) and categorizing tot as a "little show"!

I'm the poster who told my DD about Corkscrew having "some good turns". I would like to clarify that had we not stood under the ride and watched it go upside down, I would have definitely verbally shared that information with DD before getting in line. But since we had seen the ride go upside down, I didn't feel guilty evading the question when DD asked just before boarding.

 

[Bnb0627]

I did this once but not entirely on purpose. We were at Six Flags NJ and DD7.5 kept coming up with excuses why she didn't want to ride some of the roller coasters like Runaway Train and Skull Mountain similar to BTMR and Space Mountain. So we would split up and and DH and I would take turns taking DD9 on. She would ride other rides and a small coaster.

DH and I went alone one day and finally did all of the coasters!! Next day we went with kids and thought they, or at least DD9, could handle Rolling Thunder an old wooden coaster a step up from the other two. After DD7.5 saw all the roller coasters we went on she was feeling brave. You also can't see the drop from the line so I'm sure that helped.

When we were in line she asked if it was a big drop. Now just the day before I had been on about 10 roller coasters and this was the 3rd smallest so in my mind I'm thinking no. But I do know it is scarier than the other two she doesn't want to go on again.

But I also knew she was like me and needed to be pushed. She says we are not afraid of heights we are afraid of falling!

So the roller coaster has two trains that race side by side. First drop and she is freaking out screaming, 2nd drop crying, when we pull in she goes oh man they beat us!

Since then those other two roller coasters that were scary are now pieces of cake that we ride over and over and she has even gone on El Toro which has the steepest drop of any wooden roller coaster in the country at 76 degrees!

She is now disappointed that she is too short 48.5" to go on any upside down roller coasters min 54".

We just told the kids last night that we are going to Disney in May and she will be able to ride her first upside down coaster RnRC!!!!!

 

[midaroco]

So you have never lied to your children?? Santa claus, the tooth fairy, how delicious vegetables are???

I don't have children - I DO have a great deal of nieces and nephews whom I adore. Unfortunately, this fact will probably make many people say "we'll, your opinion doesn't count then...talk to me when you have children of your own..." I do not lie to the children around me, I will however, participate in the societal norms that their parents have set forth for them in terms of the traditional icons such as the Easter bunny, Santa Claus, etc. because I do not want to disrespect the parents. I will not, however lie to them when they are in my care to get them to eat their vegetables, or go to bed, or clean their room. I just feel it promotes an incorrect message, that they will recall later in life - that it is ok to lie to serve your purpose.

 

[Granny square]

Kids need to learn to appropriately lie. To say thank you for the book the great aunt bought them 2 years straight, or that the meal presented was good even of ot sucked. So id say your opinion will coy t more when and if you have your own and are responsible for all of life'slessons. Not sure what kind of room cleaning lies are flying about. I didn't lid to mind about scary or . That is a trust rather than a character issue.

 

[arminnie]

I accidentally lied to my 80 year old aunt about Space Mountain.

I hadn't ridden it in almost 20 years because I'd always been with little kids. I just didn't remember it as being very much of a roller coaster.

But once we were on it and it started going I thought "OMG It's going to kill her."

 

[midaroco]

Kids need to learn to appropriately lie. To say thank you for the book the great aunt bought them 2 years straight, or that the meal presented was good even of ot sucked. So id say your opinion will coy t more when and if you have your own and are responsible for all of life'slessons. Not sure what kind of room cleaning lies are flying about. I didn't lid to mind about scary or . That is a trust rather than a character issue.

So wait - my opinion doesn't count just because I don't have my own children? That is both horribly offensive and awfully ignorant of you to say. You know nothing of my situation other than what I've indicated, so to make a bold statement such as that is, as I've stated, ignorant.

 

[MSSANDRA]

Kids need to learn to appropriately lie. To say thank you for the book the great aunt bought them 2 years straight, or that the meal presented was good even of ot sucked. So id say your opinion will coy t more when and if you have your own and are responsible for all of life'slessons. Not sure what kind of room cleaning lies are flying about. I didn't lid to mind about scary or . That is a trust rather than a character issue.

Those are not lies, they are social graces and they can be taught to children without teaching them to lie. They can, and should be be taught to say think-you for EVERY gift and not just the ones they like the best. They can be taught even at an early age not to tell a gift giver they already have the gift or certainly not that they do not like it. They can learn, to be gracious for a meal prepared for them without saying that they love it. A simple thank-you grandma for fixing me lunch is certainly doable by most typical 3 year olds.

 

[kohlby]

So you have never lied to your children?? Santa claus, the tooth fairy, how delicious vegetables are???

Nope. Veggies are yummy! And my kids know that we put the gifts there or the money under their pillow.

I agree with the PP about social graces. You don't have to say a meal was delicious if it wasn't. It's actually not a good idea or the person may make that meal especially for you the next time! It's is always good to thank someone and tell them that you appreciate all the time and effort they put into making the meal. Plus, there's usually something you can compliment at a meal. "This bread is so amazing I'm having a hard time wanting to eat much else!" Or with a friend who asks you about her new haircut that she's loving, you can comment on the wonderful color if you don't like the cut.

 

[CandleontheWater]

Not about the rides, but have convinced DS that the rate information on the back of the doors are Mickey's hotel rules. It's been working since he was two but now he reads well enough that it will no longer work. There are rules about kids under 5 having to take a nap every day, that you have to eat breakfast before you can ride the bus to the parks, you have to get dressed as fast as you can so you will not be late etc. Not big on lying to kids ever, but this little trick has saved soooo many melt-downs that I don't feel toooo bad.

This is genius, and I'm totally stealing it!

I have certainly lied to my DS at Disney. I told him that the train was broken, because if I hadn't, we wouldn't have done anything but ride the train all day.