Shocking incident in Space Mountain

[Sarah28]

We were about to board RNRC the other day and this poor little girl was crying her eyes out and her dad was adamant she was going to go on it. Luckily a CM stepped in and took her off while her dad still went on it but we could hear him having a go at her before they took her off. It was awful, like you said this could have been avoided with rider swap, poor girl

 

[catherine]

We've just got back and were appalled at the way some young children were treated and don't know whether it was the heat or what, but this is the first time that we've been at this time of year and the first time that we seem so much child abuse. One little sitting it a stroller was slapped hear by her mother it was so upsetting, but I think the worst incident was when we were waitng to be seated at Trex, a young girl of a round 6 or 7 was screaming and throwing herself down on the ground because she was so afraid to go into the restaurant, she was absolutely terrified, but her parents still took her in! We were so upset by the situation, surely it's not worth putting your child through that to go and eat in a restaurant!

 

[Lisash]

It's a real bugbear of mine. I also hate parents keeping kids up late for fireworks etc when kids just spend whole time wailing because they're tired out. It's just cruel. The other night when we stayed back for Wishes there were kids spark out on Tarmac pathways you had to tread over them to get round. Why do it to them?

 

[DisneyNutMary]

That's so sad. Isn't a trip to Disney supposed to be fun for everyone? My kids never had to worry about ride pressure- I'm afraid of so many rides that if they really didn't want to go, I would stay with the ones not going on, and DH would ride with the ones who did. And when they were afraid, but wanted to try it anyway- I would try it too, to be the fear buddy. Only once have I had to take a kid out the chicken exit- the queue was longer than expected on RnR, and the anxiety tripled by the time we got to the front.
Sometimes you just want to smack a parent upside the head when you see them bullying their kids.

 

[joolz1910]

We have a policy of not pressuring any of the kids to go on rides if they are unsure. We have to remind the kids not to pressure each other too! It can be frustrating when your child is afraid - we have a DD who is afraid of her own shadow lol, but we would NEVER tell her off for that! She was scared of characters when we went and we had booked a few character meals. She was allowed to sit next to me and hide away from them, which was far from ideal but we have two other children and didn't want them to miss out. By the end of the trip, she was hugging Chip n Dale and asking for Minnie.

 

[Disfanx4]

I'm in no way condoning abuse, but in some cases, such as my DD10 who has Autism, her fears have to be faced head on. I'm not talking rides like TOT or roller coasters for that matter, but when she says she doesn't want to go on a ride I know as her mother she will love once she has experienced, I do sometimes get dirty looks and comments as she is tearful in line. She ends up loving them and asks to go on repeatedly every trip. There are only a handful she rides but am so glad I pushed when I as her parent knew she could handle it, with her it is the fear of the unknown. My. Husband takes my DD9 on the thrills rides and we sit in the shade to wait and spend that time talking about all her favorite things at Disney

 

[Disneynutinlondon]

I'm in no way condoning abuse, but in some cases, such as my DD10 who has Autism, her fears have to be faced head on. I'm not talking rides like TOT or roller coasters for that matter, but when she says she doesn't want to go on a ride I know as her mother she will love once she has experienced, I do sometimes get dirty looks and comments as she is tearful in line. She ends up loving them and asks to go on repeatedly every trip. There are only a handful she rides but am so glad I pushed when I as her parent knew she could handle it, with her it is the fear of the unknown. My. Husband takes my DD9 on the thrills rides and we sit in the shade to wait and spend that time talking about all her favorite things at Disney

I think this is true (or should be true) for all parents. It's the process that we adopted for both our boys when they were younger. We also explained that there is absolutely no way that Disney would build a ride/attraction that would in any way hurt them. However if they tried the ride once and then decided that they didn't want to go on it again, then that was fine, in fact our 15 year still sits outside when we go and see It's Tough To Be Bug as he just doesn't like it

 

[buzz242]

I'm in no way condoning abuse, but in some cases, such as my DD10 who has Autism, her fears have to be faced head on. I'm not talking rides like TOT or roller coasters for that matter, but when she says she doesn't want to go on a ride I know as her mother she will love once she has experienced, I do sometimes get dirty looks and comments as she is tearful in line. She ends up loving them and asks to go on repeatedly every trip. There are only a handful she rides but am so glad I pushed when I as her parent knew she could handle it, with her it is the fear of the unknown. My. Husband takes my DD9 on the thrills rides and we sit in the shade to wait and spend that time talking about all her favorite things at Disney

Our eldest son is just the same and it has taken many years but he now chooses to try most of the new rides each time we go, there are still some that he has never ridden such as Hulk, The Mummy and Dragon Challenge but he will ride RRR and virtually all of the Disney coasters. When I know it's a ride he will like but his anxiety is preventing him from doing so then we will encourage him but if he was hysterical we wouldn't dream of making him ride.

 

[foxxxy83]

Yeah, I agree. I have to say my son's Autistic so I am expecting him to get bit agitated but I know how to control the situation so he feels safe. If he really didn't want to ride, I wouldn't force the issue but I would encourage him if he was just a bit agitated coz I know that is his fear of the unknown as previous posters have said. I have a policy of encouraging him to try something once and if he really doesn't like it, never do it again. He tends to go on slow fairground rides these days and LOVES the dodgems (boys and cars! Lol!) Am hoping Tomorrowland Speedway at MK as a 1st ride will get him "in the mood" to try others If he REALLY hates the rides, figure we'll just watch the shows

 

[JintyB]

Our DD (who is 13) cried on RnR two weeks ago! We didn't force her to go on, she forced herself (it's the only ride at Disney she hadn't been on) and when she sat in the car she became tearful. She was next to my DH who reassured her, but he fully expected them to take her off. They didn't notice, which turned out to be a good thing as she LOVED it and wanted to go straight back on. Later in the holiday she commented that her best ride on it was the one where she cried...!

We've never forced her on anything, and she has chosen not to ride at the last minute on more than one occasion. When she was younger and at DLP this resulted in her getting lots of attention from the CMs, stickers etc.!

There is no reason to force any child (or adult on). We used baby switch even when she was quite old to ride certain rides or chose to give them a miss. There's so much more to Disney than the rides