You can call it rude all you want, but I think it's rude to not allow a child back in line after a potty break when his family has already waited in line a long time and going to the back of the line would achieve nothing but to make the child feel guilty and a few adults feel superior in their parenting skills and bladder control.
I have a picture of a family with 3 kids, all going potty before getting on a popular ride that has no Fastpass. Forty-five minutes into the ride, one of the kids has to potty....and yes, it happens. They all go to the back of the line. By the time the kid returns and they get back in line, it's 55 minutes spent. Kids 2 & 3 didn't need to go again because they're older. The ride is still popular and another 45 minutes into it, child #2 has to potty because now it's been an 1 hr. 40 min. since she pottied. They all go to the back of the line. She returns in 10 minutes, they go through another 45 and it's now 2 hrs. 35 min. Poor mom, who has had 3 kids and whose bladder is not what it was at 20, now has to potty. So it begins again. This could go on for hours, because no one wees on command. If they had just been able to let the first kid dash out for a quick wee, the family would have been out of the ride in an hour or so, instead of possibly wasting 3-4 hours trying to get through the ride. That's just ridiculous.
BTW, if you would do some research on that teacup incident, you'd find that just about the only person claiming the victim "cut" is the assailant herself. Several eyewitnesses, who didn't even know the victim, had been concerned about the assailant for awhile, ever since they were moved into some sort of holding/loading area. From the many accounts I have read, these people went where the CM directed them (including the assailant, victim and the 4 children with her) and it was then that the assailant perceived she had been "cutted/line-cut," and began to curse and shove others, including small children. The people...not just the victim... in that area asked a CM to remove the assailant, citing her cursing and shoving, but they just got assurances that "everyone would get to ride." THAT was not the problem. This woman was a rage machine. She has a history of assault. She's also enormous and the victim is rather small and was attacked from behind. The victim had loaded/was loading the 4 children she was with into the teacup when she was attacked. It took 5-6 people to pull the assailant off the victim. She's now facing charges. All that over a freaking teacup ride that she would have been on in a few minutes. Now that eyewitnesses are coming out with statements, there is much more to this story than first hit the papers.
Even though there is much disagreement on this board about what is/is not line cutting, there IS one thing I think many of us do agree on. This situation could be made much better if WDW would just come up with a policy and ENFORCE it. If it's a rule, I may not like the rule or agree with it, but I would follow it. For those who would not follow it, enforcing the rules would remedy that. What you fail to grasp, is that your "rule" is NOT a rule at all....at least not at WDW. It's your rule and it's the rule at some other parks. But it is definitely NOT a universal rule. I've never seen that rule posted at any park. So I am certainly NOT teaching my child that she is above the rules. If it's not a
rule, how can you be
above it? How could I possibly have taught her that she is
above a rule I've never even
heard of or
seen before? That makes no sense at all.
As for my parenting skills, you are clueless about them. My child is extremely well-mannered and teachers and other adults have complimented her regarding her manners since she was a toddler. Teachers I only know from sight at her school (because they don't teach her....just see her in the lunchroom or the hall) have stopped to ask me if she's my daughter, and then told me what a polite and pleasant child she is. She didn't just wake up that way one day. It took guidance and effort on our part. I do think she's pretty special, but every parent thinks that of their child....I would hope. We teach her that the rules are to be followed, even when they are not fun or easy. So you can be sad
all you want, but you're misdirecting your energy. Be dismayed at what you consider poor parenting choices, while I am raising an amazing child who is respected by her teachers, coaches, and fellow church members. You know NOTHING of my child, (or the other children whose parents believe it's acceptable to return to the line after a potty break) yet you feel free to insult her by subtly implying she is a spoiled brat whose mother doesn't know how to parent.
Where I come from,
THAT is rude, insulting, ill-mannered and completely uncalled for. So where am I from? I'm from a place where we know better than to do such a thing.
EMom, I don't know where you're from, but I have also conducted an informal poll or sorts of family, friends and coworkers, as a result of this thread. People I asked were incredulous that anyone would attempt to reenter the line after having left it for a potty break. The general consensus was that anyone attempting to do so would be most certainly be cutting in line. Two different people asked if I was asking because I had witnessed this behavior at WDW, because they have seen this same rudeness repeated often there.
The thing I find most interesting is that many of the people in my informal poll are, like myself, parents to older children. Our conversations generally went off topic to discuss the fact that not only did we never do this when our children were young, but we never witnessed other parents doing it then either. This appears to be a relatively new parenting trend of teaching your children that they are more special than other children and rules don't apply to them.
What I have concluded from reading this thread is that some of us will continue to exercise good manners and treat our fellow Disney travelers with respect and others will continue to place their own desires before the rights of other people. Until Disney takes a stand on line cutters, this debate will continue and unfortunately, incidents like the one at the Teacups will become more and more prevalent.
By the way, I'm from the South and I will continue to allow others to break line in front of me if they happen to have a small child with them. I will also continue to be dismayed at their poor parenting choices as they continue to teach their children that they are above the rules.
Edited to add: I have never agreed that parents of small children should get a GAC so that their children can take potty breaks unless there is a medical reason that your child can't learn to go before entering a line, as most other children do.
) When I pinned them down for an actual answer, it was a variation of, "Of course not." Then when they asked me why I was asking about something like that and I explained about this thread, every one of them was skeptical that the group would be so split in this issue...It didn't seem credible to them that an adult would begrudge a child a potty trip and refuse to let them back in line with their family. (Which is exactly what I thought the reaction would be.)
Do that many people really get so disturbed by a kid taking a few minutes to go to the potty and then going back to the place he was in before, thereby leaving the "waiter" in exactly the same position they were had the child never left? Or are the Line Monitors who think an emergency potty trip should dump you to the back of the line merely a very vocal minority? Well, no way to really answer this question, is there? Even a poll wouldn't represent the real world. So we're all left wondering which group thinks more like the average American. 
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I like it!
