Please hang on to your kids!

[Jenn Lynn]

Monday night we were waiting for the monorail at Epcot after Illuminations. We were all in the sections and ready to board the monorail that was on its way.

There was one little boy (2ish) who was running around. One time he got over the rail to the walkway. Can you see where this is going?

All of the sudden we hear his Mom scream his name. He had some how gotten through the CM gate and was where the CM's walk when there is no monorail, just the empty track. 1 CM started jumping the dividers to try to get to him and another female CM came running. And alarm went off and the monorail hit the brakes (it was pulling up right when this happened.)

The Mom got her son and he was ok, but man was it scary! Please hang onto your child.

Thank You.

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

How scary! I'm glad he's okay! And thanks for the reminder.

 

[Sammy]

Good reminder! We were at the MK monorail station three weeks ago...a family of two adults and 4 very young kids (they had to all be under the age of 6) were there. Two of the kids (maybe 2-ish and 4) were out of control. Running everywhere, darting in and around the other passengers waiting for the monorail. The parents were not even paying attention to them. The 2-yo was climbing on the cross-wires/bars of the metal fence surrounding the outside of the platform and was just starting to wobble towards going over. I started to lunge to grab him, but luckily, the Mom finally "noticed" him and grabbed him off. Then she started yelling and screaming at him for not staying with her! I swear he was no older than 2. Helloooooo....it's your responsibility to know where your children are and make sure they are safe!

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

EEEEK!!!!! That is so scary.

I'm glad he is safe

 

[Castlebound]

Some people are total clueless to their kids, and it doesn't just happen at Disney. It drives me crazy when I see parents at my childrens' school letting little kids run around going wild while they catch up with the latest gossip. These kids are running all around a parking lot full of cars coming and going! I don't get it. I may have two kids but I don't view either of them as a spare!

 

[iwannabeminnie]

You see it everywhere. In the grocery store where the toddler is standing on their head hanging over the side of the cart, the 3 year old riding his big wheel down the middle of the street. I just want to take these kids home with me when I see them. If you love them you will keep an eye on them and say "NO" and mean it sometimes.

 

[TerriP]

How scary!!

Isn't it sad that people would have to be reminded to watch their kids??

 

[Robmom]

That's crazy. My DD is 12 and I still don't let her out of my sight.

 

[spiceycat]

I know there is no excuse for not watching your child.

but when my niece and nephew were younger - when they wanted to they could get out of the strollers and into something like 5 seconds flat - now when you wanted them out it was about 3 to 5 minutes.

No excuse ever!!!

and especially in the monrail or bus area.

Some parents are so busy studying the park maps or just looking around that they forget to constantly be watching the kids....

 

[Miss Park Avenue]

You know....I try really hard not to stir up the pot but something is just driving me to write this.

Please wait while I put my flame-proof suit on...

But some people, no matter how careful they are, no matter if they don't look at a single sign, map, or have the self dicipline to not be distracted at Disney, need a little help. Some kids can get into trouble in a nanosecond and a harness could literally be a lifesaver.

That said, I've never had to use one, and my husband was always against them. But I would not have ruled them out if I felt I needed one.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'd much rather see a child on a harness than what could have happened to the little boy on the monorail track. That poor mother must have had a heart attack.

 

[crl]

Wow! How Scary!

I'm just now learning the joys of a roaming toddler. Though she is normally well looked after or in a safe place. I'm hoping that between 2 adults, a child leash, and a stroller with restraints, we should be able to keep her safe at WDW.

 

[TheRatPack]

We saw a little girl, probably 6/7 years old lost in tomorrow land at the 10/8 MNSSHP. We notified the nearest CM and he seemed very unconcerned. She was just sitting on the curb past TTA, crying. When we walked back past the spot a little later, the CM was stooped down talking to her but they hadn't moved.....???? I thought they took them somewhere and located the parents?


My husband mentioned her all night, saying how bad he felt for her...etc. I had to remind him that it could happen to any of us, especially in that kind of crowd. We would have approached her ourselves but I was afraid we might scare her more.

 

[SnoWhiteRabbit]

Originally posted by Sammy
Two of the kids (maybe 2-ish and 4) were out of control. Running everywhere, darting in and around the other passengers waiting for the monorail. The parents were not even paying attention to them. The 2-yo was climbing on the cross-wires/bars of the metal fence surrounding the outside of the platform and was just starting to wobble towards going over. I started to lunge to grab him, but luckily, the Mom finally "noticed" him and grabbed him off. Then she started yelling and screaming at him for not staying with her! I swear he was no older than 2. Helloooooo....it's your responsibility to know where your children are and make sure they are safe!

I have definitely noticed that parents tend to yell loudly when they are at fault and generally want others to *think* they are parenting their children....Like you didn't notice all the unsupervised wildness, but then when it got very dangerous and the parent yelled at the child, you would be tricked into thinking, "Oh wow, good parent and bad child...." NOT!!!

Watch for this parenting phenomenon -- parents will be sure to reprimand their children nice and loudly after they have been very neglectful!

Of course nobody is perfect and parenting IS hard work, but most of the time you can tell the difference between an out of the ordinary situation and the parents who are just too lax and let their little ones run wild!

 

[Tink561]

That is really scary! I don't know about this person, but sometimes no matter how hard you try...they can get away. I'm glad the CMs got him in time.

 

[DisMN]

Originally posted by TheRatPack
We saw a little girl, probably 6/7 years old lost in tomorrow land at the 10/8 MNSSHP. We notified the nearest CM and he seemed very unconcerned. She was just sitting on the curb past TTA, crying. When we walked back past the spot a little later, the CM was stooped down talking to her but they hadn't moved.....???? I thought they took them somewhere and located the parents?


My husband mentioned her all night, saying how bad he felt for her...etc. I had to remind him that it could happen to any of us, especially in that kind of crowd. We would have approached her ourselves but I was afraid we might scare her more.

That monorail story is SCARY!!!! Dang!!

As far as not moving the child to "somewhere" it's much better to sit with the child and wait to see if the parents show up. By taking the child somewhere else you are opening up a whole new set of possible problems.
If the little peanut hadn't wandered far from where she last saw her family, this is the area mommy and daddy would probably start looking in first.

 

[Jenn Lynn]

Yes, the boy was everywhere. It looked like he was there with his Mom, Brother (a couple years older) and maybe Grandma? They did not have a stroller for either child.

At WDW, when Avery wanted to walk, she had to hold our hand if we were in any kind of crowd. And she got one warning and then she was back in the stroller. Fortunately for us she pretty much wanted to ride the whole time and never tried to take off. She would just see something and get excited. I think a lot of kids get lost that way.

 

[spiceycat]

this has not happen in a while - but kids in the MK use to come up to me - they had been crying and were upset.

one say that "her mother was lost" - well I was about to take her to the first aid station - when a bunch of CM - one in an uniform - the others street clothes (security) say they would hand it.

at Epcot almost same situation - again lots of (I think) Cm's

I am sorry in your case it did not happen.

Lost children are brought to the first aid station in all the parks.

WDW is generally prepared for lost children and they generally handle the situation without problems. Sorry that they didn't in your case.

I would say that the CM's in your case didn't know what to do - but I find that kinda of hard to believe.

I have even had lost children in the hotels - I call the front desk and generally security is there before I hang up the phone.

sorry you had a bad time.

 

[Pats Dragon]

I had my 2 y/o's hand one night in the emporium after the fireworks and it was very crowded. I ALWAYS watch my kids but somehow he jerked away and took off running out the door and into the night. I totally freaked out but before I even got to the door a cm carried him back in. Bless vigilant cm's. Its scary how that can happen.

 

[SandrainNC]

My heart was racing reading this post! That had to have been so scary to see! I am glad everything turned out ok!

Sandra

 

[missypie]

I should show this thread to DH. At the State Fair on Monday I felt like I was chasing him around all day. He walks fast and expects all of us to "keep up." He even did this when the kids were toddlers. Someone could snatch one of the kids or mug us or we could faint and he would be 10 blocks away before he ever noticed we weren't with him. DRIVES ME NUTS!