Shocking incident in Space Mountain

[zippy99]

We were waiting to ride Space Mountain today and DH, DD & DS were waiting behind this guy and his 2 sons - the youngest of which was beside himself crying he did not want to ride.

The friendly cast member (who resembled a burley bouncer) said 'hey he don't have to ride' but the Dad remained adamant that he was ok. The CM protested not to make him ride - at which stage the father grabbed his son (maybe 5 or 6) by the hair!! Pulled him back and gave him the biggest wallop you ever saw!! People were stood aghast! The elder son rode and the CM shouted that his behaviour was not acceptable and then appeared to call security.

I know kids can be hard work but for a parent to behave like that in public makes you worried what occurs behind closed doors. I must confess it really affected us today as we kept thinking about what those poor kids must go through with a parent who loses control like that.

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

How sad. As you said, we probably don't know half of what happens.

I don't ride the coasters but it doesn't lessen my enjoyment of the parks.

 

[dani7776]

Sad glad the cast member steeped in !!

 

[anniedream]

This is so awful
Disney is a place that creates so mang happy memories for children and this child will clearly not associate Disney with that.
Well done to the CM though. I never know what to do in situations like this. At the end of the day the childs welfare is number 1 but some parents can get angry at you interfering.
Prayers go out to the child & hope this was a one off for the parent.

 

[Button]

Awful, reminds me of those parents trying to get kid to stand on tiptoes or pull the ponytail higher so it looks they are at the right height. Hey idiots it's a limit for your kids safety.

 

[tinkerpea]

That's shocking! I would have been able to keep my mouth shut if I had been there and I know for a fact my dh wouldn't have managed to!
Thank god the CM spoke up,

It's so sad to see things like this, but we have seen it more then once at Disney, not to the extreme of this, but mum & dad don't want to have to be separated and so the child is made to ride, the child is crying and scared and the parent a shout at the child to grow up as its ruining the day!!

We have always encouraged our children to ride everything once but in now way have we ever made our children ride something, I can not tell you how many times we lined up for TOT for me to be the only one to ride as the kids was too scared,
It happened at least 8 times they would beg to go on then end up in the exit, until one by one each of them braved it up to go in with me lol.....

I can't imagine forcing and then smacking a child for something so simple, that could have been resolved by rider swap! I don't like to thin of what else could happen if willing to act like such a complete jerk in public and I hope that he had the speaking to and belittling he deserved!!

 

[joolz1910]

How shocking!

I was surprised by the amount of people dragging tired kids around - the result will always be the same! Tired kids = grumpy kids = angry parent = meltdown of both. Why are people so stupid?

We witnessed a family do something similar at DLP on ToT. The child was clearly distressed and the family was trying to persuade him that everything was OK. Suddenly the child (around 9 or 10) was very sick. The shocking thing was that the family tried to insist that he still went on the ride! The other riders were all shouting 'No!' and the CM had to step in and insist that the boy was taken off.

 

[angelicamy12]

That is really horrible. I'm so glad to see the CM stepped in though and I hope security did come and deal with this. I also really hope the CM never got in trouble for interfering - he was totally in the right but people obviously get upset at people interfering with their children.

 

[jb68]

This is so awful
Disney is a place that creates so mang happy memories for children and this child will clearly not associate Disney with that.

Exactly - clearly not 'The Happiest Place On Earth' for this poor child - very sad

 

[wilma-bride]

Absolutely awful As the parent of a (now 19 year old) child who still won't ride the coasters, it can be incredibly frustrating when you know that, if they just gave it a chance, they would probably enjoy it. However, I have never forced my DD to ride anything and never would. I did once tell my DS that the coaster didn't go upside down (even though it did) as I knew he probably wouldn't give it a try otherwise - he ended up loving it and is now a bigger daredevil than me.

I truly feel for some parents and their children who quite often look miserable at Disney World. It can't be any fun for them.

 

[jtlover]

I am glad the CM stepped in. I know kids try your patience but to actually physically abuse them is totally unacceptable!

There is no need to ride if they dont want to, they can wait with the CM and then be picked up afterwards!

I hope that person really thinks about their actions!!!!!!!

 

[LeaversOnTour]

As a mum of 4 I know that kids can try your patience.

But there is no excuse for this kind of treatment of a child.

It is frustrating when you know if they gave it a go they would like it, but traumatising your child so they "fear" it is kind of defeating the object!

CM made the right call. People are too frightened to speak up these days through fear of reprisals. If more people had the confidence to speak up perhaps there would be less of this kind of behaviour in the first place!

 

[zippy99]

The poor lad was saying to the CM 'mister - I dont wanna ride I am scared' but the father was having none of it. I wonder how the CMs cope and keep their cool when things like this happen.

In the Dinosaur queue at AK just now - very hot here - nice to be in the cool!

 

[jockey]

Thats awful poor kid

 

[GirlDreamer]

It's so awful that parents can be like that. I see it a lot as I'm a ride operator myself. Unfortunately, I don't think a lot of parents understand how scary a ride can be for a child. I know though, because I used to hate rides when I was younger. Luckily I haven't seen anyone physically abuse their children over it, but I've seen a lot of psychological abuse. Parents calling their kids name and being really condescending towards them.

 

[zavandor]

Disney has a policy that no crying child can ride. Any ride. So the CM had to enforce the rule. If the parent refuse to step down, they might even need to stop the attraction until he complies.

 

[foxxxy83]

I agree with you all, there is NO excuse to hit a child. If I had witnessed that, I would've had to step in. I realise it's risky to do but it would be a LOT harder for me to keep quiet. I've never understood how parents can mistreat their flesh and blood.. do they not understand they only have a few years to play and be a part of their son/daughter's childhood and then they will have to chase round in the hope their children will want to spend time with them?? That said, isn't that how the world's in such a bad way?? My son's 6 and Autistic and until a few months ago, he was scared of those little rides you get at supermarket that cost 20p! Thankfully, through showing him rides on YouTube, he's realised nothing bad will happen and we can now get him on slow carousel type kiddie rides At the end of the day, I don't care if we get to Disney and he says he doesn't want to go on any rides as there's always the shows and character interaction as well as just the general buzz of the place to mean it'll still be a dream come true for him!

 

[Meggysmum]

We saw a similar incident last year in the queue for Kilimanjaro Safari. The kid wasn't scared but was bored (it was very slow moving that day) and was swinging on the ropes. His mum and dad just ignored him, they were both playing on their phones. Obviously once dad had had enough he just turned around, shouted some abuse at his son, hit him really hard and then went back to his phone. The dad was about 6'4" and built like a barn door. I am used to dealing with aggressive people at work but I actually found myself shaking as I was upset but felt my kids may have been at risk if I had intervened. You saw other families react the same and pull their children closer. It upset me for the whole day when I thought of the life that poor lad must lead.

I wish there had been a CM there to step in. At 5' tall I think he would have sent me flying if I said anything.

 

[tinkerpea]

We saw a similar incident last year in the queue for Kilimanjaro Safari. The kid wasn't scared but was bored (it was very slow moving that day) and was swinging on the ropes. His mum and dad just ignored him, they were both playing on their phones. Obviously once dad had had enough he just turned around, shouted some abuse at his son, hit him really hard and then went back to his phone. The dad was about 6'4" and built like a barn door. I am used to dealing with aggressive people at work but I actually found myself shaking as I was upset but felt my kids may have been at risk if I had intervened. You saw other families react the same and pull their children closer. It upset me for the whole day when I thought of the life that poor lad must lead.

I wish there had been a CM there to step in. At 5' tall I think he would have sent me flying if I said anything.

See I would of had to of Said something maybe along the lines of how inappropriate that was to do and maybe he should pick on somebody his own size!! ( I'm 5ft too but would not have been able to have kept my mouth shut no matter how hard I tried) at least if he had started on me i could then have done something about it!

 

[wicket2005]

Terrible, we saw a kid being dragged on tower of terror once.