Parents that let their children run down the hallways like animals are awful!

[valee]

I have absolutely no problem with age (chronological or developmental)-appropriate behaviour: small children will cry when tired or hungry, will run (and run into people) when excited, and may have an occasional tantrum. Adults should model and mold culturally appropriate behaviour by children, not ignoring actions which can reasonable be expected to be found annoying or dangerous, such as throwing food or running in the dining rooms, or which overtly violate established rules, such as quiet hours or line cutting.
As part of "the village", I try to reinforce good behaviour by children. I'll thank a child who is talking in an "inside voice" in the hallway, or who lets someone get on the elevator before them, and try to ignore the rest.

 

[cruiser21]

3 kids in public school....I have a pretty good idea of what's going on.

I thought your kids were out of school for some reason. I certainly can't blame the poor education system on the parents. I actually don't blame it on the teachers either. I don't want to take the thread off topic. It was just an observation I made reading the thread.

 

[twinsouvenirs]

One crazy thing... our serving staff told us once that if we were doing Remy or Palo, we should consider sending the kids by themselves to the rotational dining room. But our kids are four, four and three--which he knew! I was aghast--do people actually leave preschoolers unsupervised except by the servers? My children would absolutely knife someone unintentionally with a butter knife.

 

[cruiser21]

One crazy thing... our serving staff told us once that if we were doing Remy or Palo, we should consider sending the kids by themselves to the rotational dining room. But our kids are four, four and three--which he knew! I was aghast--do people actually leave preschoolers unsupervised except by the servers? My children would absolutely knife someone unintentionally with a butter knife.

We have, but they were 8 and 10. Now they are teens they just do whatever they want when we go to Palo. They'd rather eat the junk on the pool deck. At 4 and 3 I don't think so.

 

[belac]

I have, however we do late seating and schedule PALO at 6-ish then go with DS to main dining. We will enjoy a cup of coffee or glass of wine while he eats and tells us what activities he did while we were upstairs. The only thing is trying to say no to our wonderful servers as they try to ply us with more food.

 

[cadien]

Kids can be as excited and loud and active as they want. Until posted quiet hours.

There is nothing unreasonable about that.

 

[hrhdhd]

One consistency I've noticed with this thread is that teachers have a some real resentment towards parents. Interesting to say the least.

You know how some people say everyone should be a restaurant server to understand what that job is like and appreciate their servers when they go out to eat? I suggest that everyone should be a teacher for a year to see what it's like.

 

[elvispursley]

I agree with the pp re. age-appropriate behavioral skills. Yes, there will be instances when little ones will throw food in the dining room, but I'd hope that older children who be appropriately redirected to what are socially-accepted dining behaviors--including having little miss or jr. apologize to other diners if food landed on their table. What tends to bother me is when behavior like that is ignored, or worse yet, thought of as cute and laughed at.

I know when my kids were very little and food was being tossed about like they were in training for quarter-back of the Seahawks, we quickly took them outside for a timeout and explained why they were removed from the table. I can recall one instance when both of my kids were tossing food back and forth at our table when we were dining out (thankfully, it didn't land anywhere near another table) and that was it. We promptly took our food to go and left. DH and I ate our "take-out" at home and to boys went without. That was the last time, thankfully, they ever did anything of the sort when we dined out.

I would be absolutely mortified if my kids were sitting at a table with their cousins while the we adults sat at another and things got out of control to where the kids table was either way too loud or was throwing food! My head spins at the mere thought of that...how can an entire table of adults be so absorbed that not one is paying just the slightest bit of attention to whats going on???

But I have seen lots of kids on the cruises use wonderful manners! There is nothing more adorable than the little girls who are dolled-up from just having gone to BBB and their social graces are every bit a princess! Or the awkward tween boy who holds the door for you. I think it's only that we're in a thread that's brining up some of the negative behaviors of kids that we're able to recall bad behavior on cruises and some of the more lax-parenting styles that are more present than in generations past. I think if we were in a thread about "Best/Most adorable behavior observed by kids on a cruise," you'd hear tons of stories!!

I totally understand that kids won't be perfect. Lord know my 2 certainly aren't! I would hope though, that if they were off on their own and were "overly excited" and coming back to the room after a late movie, etc, that they would listen if someone told them politely to keep it down

 

[Minnie & Daisy]

I think the original topic was just about kids running down the hallways. I really don't have a problem with it, except when it happens way, way late at night, when I would think that most adults and children would be sleeping. Quiet corridor hours start at 10 PM. If there are teens or preteens running down the hallways yelling back and forth to each other, it is a little hard to sleep with all of that going on. I would think that they should be in their own staterooms by 10 PM. If I were their parent, I would be waiting up for them to return to find out just what they have been doing. I don't know how late the kids clubs are open, but I do know that people may have early morning port adventures, or early morning debarkation. Is there no curfew anymore? Just because you are on vacation doesn't mean that the children can do whatever they want and that parents can take a break from parenting.

 

[cruiser21]

You know how some people say everyone should be a restaurant server to understand what that job is like and appreciate their servers when they go out to eat? I suggest that everyone should be a teacher for a year to see what it's like.

Well I guess you could say that about any profession.

 

[elvispursley]

Jumping the rails for a moment...I think teachers are seriously under-appreciated and under-paid and have a really stressful job at times. I applaud all the teachers on this thread (and board) for what you do. Even though my kids are in a church school, I doubly applaud the teachers who work in the public school system!! Ok, back on the rails!

 

[jiminyC_fan]

I might be quite verbal on this thread regarding the running and loud voices in the hallways after 10 on the ship and that as parents we can use it to teach them proper manners. I am, also, quick to thank a well mannered child that says please and thank you, holds the door for me etc here at home and on cruises. I always ended it with "nice manners". Child and parents both love to hear that. Positive reinforcement from a stranger is good. I know as a parent of twins that I would glow when I heard things like that.

 

[Dug720]

I might be quite verbal on this thread regarding the running and loud voices in the hallways after 10 on the ship and that as parents we can use it to teach them proper manners. I am, also, quick to thank a well mannered child that says please and thank you, holds the door for me etc here at home and on cruises. I always ended it with "nice manners". Child and parents both love to hear that. Positive reinforcement from a stranger is good. I know as a parent of twins that I would glow when I heard things like that.

Agreed. Like I said in retelling the experience on RCCL, I was on the verge of complimenting the little girl and her parents when her mother said that horrible, snobby remark that the little girl didn't have to thank the server. Given the snippiness of the mother, I didn't even dare to nod approval at the little girl much less open my mouth and say something. I feared I'd be stabbed with the mother's butter knife - or maybe even her fork.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Agreed. Like I said in retelling the experience on RCCL, I was on the verge of complimenting the little girl and her parents when her mother said that horrible, snobby remark that the little girl didn't have to thank the server. Given the snippiness of the mother, I didn't even dare to nod approval at the little girl much less open my mouth and say something. I feared I'd be stabbed with the mother's butter knife - or maybe even her fork.

Gosh, I would love to know what I would do in that situation. Probably be too shocked to say a thing.

 

[belac]

Agreed. Like I said in retelling the experience on RCCL, I was on the verge of complimenting the little girl and her parents when her mother said that horrible, snobby remark that the little girl didn't have to thank the server. Given the snippiness of the mother, I didn't even dare to nod approval at the little girl much less open my mouth and say something. I feared I'd be stabbed with the mother's butter knife - or maybe even her fork.

Gosh, I would love to know what I would do in that situation. Probably be too shocked to say a thing.

I would probably wait till we were ready to leave or they were, and then compliment the little girl on her wonderful manners anyway, being super sweet & very enthusiastically! Who knows maybe it would negate the comment her mother said to her a bit, and reinforce good manners.
I'm sure the Mom would get my point.

 

[Sytrace]

You know how some people say everyone should be a restaurant server to understand what that job is like and appreciate their servers when they go out to eat? I suggest that everyone should be a teacher for a year to see what it's like.

To really go off topic here at the risk of sounding political, I think our elected officials in government (especially those dealing with education) need to volunteer everyday for a month for 3 hours in each grade level to get an idea of what teachers and students go thru on a daily basis.
I honestly doubt they would make it past 2 hours in a Kindergarten class much less the full 4 hours in a higher grade level.

Oh, and they need to be evaluated at the end of the 30 days using the standards that are handed down by their peers in government to teachers. They also need to be given state mandated tests and score over a 3. If they do not pass either or get an excellent rating on the teacher evaluation, they must return to the Kindgergarten class and do another month of volunteering.
And they need to pay for their own extra certification and pay for all the school supplies for every student in their classroom.
Yeah, I see that happening.

 

[AquaDame]

We're definitely off the rails at this point - I am going to close the thread.