Sneaky parents beware

[feetkeds]

hello,

I was reading some of the posts about the kids areas and thought it might spare a few children an awful experience to re-tell this story told to me earlier in the year by an ex-crew member.

she was saying how parents would often sneak their 3 year old yet un-potty trained children into the kid's club. the staff are not allowed to clean up any child who has an accident, they have to page the parents come up and do it. she said their were several instances of parents hopping off the ship on excursions making them ,obviously, unavailable to come change their child. so they only thing they could do was to have the child stay in the same spot until the parents returned. she said this was often up to 5 HOURS.

it was about 1.5-2 years ago that she worked on the ship, i hope policies have changed by now, but if not, please take note!

 

[MarceRN]

You would figure that people on this cruise are high payed employees somewhere and have some common sence.
I just hope these are not the same people that invest my 401K money. [Thats kind of spooky isn't it!!!]
But as a bartender once told me back in '79 "these people get to go on vacation once a year and they feel they can do what they want no matter what it is!!!

 

[jgalecpa]

MarceRN

I agree 100%.

Plus: You are on my cruise!

Plus: We're neighbors (almost)

I grew up in Shady Side, and my sister has a weekend place in Chesapeake beach.

I fish out of the rod & Reel often , but I like frenchies and Stinnets to eat at (more reminiscent of old Chesapeake beach)

I remember going to the old amusment park at CB, but don't remember the gambling.

Hope to see you soon. Join our trip under "Cruise meets"

Jim

 

[AnnMorin]

My class is 2.9-6 year olds they are ALL suppossed to be potty trained, however accidents do happen even with the older children. It would be abusive to have a child sit in waste for any amount of time. sorry I just don't buy it.

 

[SandraLee]

I don't buy it, either. How can you even get a 3 year old to sit / stand still for a few minutes -- forget about doing that for hours.

No way. I'm guessing they would not let that child back in to the club later -- I think that would be appropriate. But, I cannot believe they had the child just stand there.

 

[lbgraves]

When we took DD & DS to register we heard a couple people say that their kids were just PTd and would be in pull ups to make sure. The counselors just asked that they check on the kids. That's what we did with DD but she only wanted to go to the club twice. I knew going in that they wouldn't change her so I wasn't going to leave her for more than an hour without checking. That was just neglect on the parent's part to drop their child where they didn't have the changing facilities & leave the ship for a few hours...IMO anyway.

 

[CanadianCruiser]

I can't understand a counseller that would leave a poor kiddie who's had an accident like that, but honestly, the parents should have been more responsible since they know their kid wasn't PT'd. Also consider the legalities for the staff if they had to clean the kiddies. In this day and age, I think anyone would be a little scared to clean some kid's privates. And if anyone thinks a "simple soak" is going to do it for job number 2, they probably don't have any kids!

It's gross enough to clean an accident up for your own kid let alone some stranger's so I don't blame them for the policies in place. I don't think those kids areas are meant as full day care facilities but more of a playschool. My kid's in playschool for two hours every other day, and they fully expect the kids to be potty trained although they do handle the occasional accident.

I think the DCL policy is in place to avoid people doing what those parents who left their kid for 5 hours did. Can you imagine the entire ship dropping off their non-potty trained kiddies alone for 5 hours??? I don't think I'd want to have my kid playing around in that kind of environment.

 

[Threehearts]

The line about it being gross to clean up someone else's kid's "number two" really threw me. I am the parent of 2 small children and as a pediatric nurse I have cleaned HUGE numbers of messy diapers and pull-ups. Just as I would do CPR on any person befallen with cardiac arrest(without thinking of whether they had a communicable disease) so would I also help an innocent child. I'm not saying that I wouldn't be burned up if a parent dropped off a clearly untrained child but I would hope that the kid's club counselors would have gloves and do the right thing. What would they do if a child vomited? I realize that people are afraid of catching diseases but it is highly unlikey that any damage would be done if the person used the most effective deterrent- soap and water. Someone has to help the helpless and I'm happy to be one of them. Threehearts

 

[Alex]

I have to wonder about this. Even a toilet trained child can have an accident, especially when in unfamaliar surroundings and eating unusual food. I can't believe they would make a kid stay in soiled clothes for hours.

 

[axsimpson]

My daughter is potty trained and if she is really involved in something, she may have an accident.
I belive that they would not have the means to change the child. What are they to do, leave the child without anything on? That would be a far worse scenario for the child and the cast.
It is the parents responsibility to check and make sure the child is ok. If the parents lied about the child being potty trained, they have no business going off on a five hour excursion.
Arlene

 

[jellymoon]

Personally, I cannot imagine any parent willing to leave a child that small in a foreign port to be away from the ship while on an excursion. It seems awfully risky to me, and very poor judgement on the part of the parents.

Secondly, I agree with the poster who pointed out that there is nothing to change the children INTO.

We were on DCL a little over a year ago, and I did see CMs helping kiddos with accidents as best they could until the parents arrived. Everyone has accidents.

It does annoy me, though, if people knowingly leave unprotected and untrained kids. DD stepped in a poopy mess from another kid who did "job number two" in the pile of dress up clothes. I don't mind changing another childs accident, but it is undeniably disgusting to have to clean up your own child from being smeared with the products of a stranger. Ugh.

But, accidents do happen. If kids are little and unreliable, I think sending them in a pull up is a good plan, just for safety sake.

 

[natdencro]

I know 2 CM's who are children's carer's on board, and NEVER would they leave a child in that state. I also agree that responsible parents would NEVER leave the ship for a long period and leave their small child. Nat

 

[GinaAnn]

My 3.5 year old is semi trained meaning if he gets caught up with what he is doing he will forget to go and because of that he is never ever in underwear. Always a pull up or the new convertible diaper. We are cruising the first week of Feb 04 and I was hoping that he would be able to go to the kid club even if for an hour.

So my question is if he goes with a pull up on will the club take him?
I know we still have a month and a half to work on the potty thing but otherwise would he go to the nursery?

 

[MarkLem]

Parents like that are morons. But instead of taking it out on the kid, they ought to take it out on the parents, maybe adding a big "service" charge to their bill.

 

[Regina]

I believe it. In today's world who knows what kind of litigation that they'd be opening themselves up to if they touched a child, no matter what the reason.

 

[crisi]

Yeah, I'd think they'd pop the kid into the nursery and have the nursery staff change them - then bill your room for an hour. And I'd think the nursery would have some diapers.

 

[Grumbo]

I thought the reason that the CM's wouldn't change/clean the small children was due to the possibility of a complaint of abuse or touching of the child in what could possibly construed as being a sexual manner. I realize that this is far fetched, but believe me the litigous ways of some people can rear its ugly head.
Then again they must change the kids at Flounder's Reef don't they? So that argument kind of flies out the window. You have to pay extra though at Flounders.
Anyways for the most part you are always closeby unless you get off the ship and can be with your child within 5 minutes with a pager.
Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[feetkeds]

Hello,

Just some further thoughts...

I completely believe what this girl told me- she is a qualified english trained nursery nurse (child care provider in our terms) who currently holds a position of authority. she would have had no reason to make this up. she further added that if any of them had attempted to clean up the child, if found out, they were fired no if and or buts. it all did come back to abuse. disney does not want to put itself in the position were even a hint of abuse could possibly happen. to be quite honest, i don't blame them. they've worked really hard to build a strong family imagime. one head line could destroy it all.

-K

 

[Gillian]

My son is 3 years and 2 months and trained. Sometimes he doesn't like to go, because he's afraid he'll miss something! Lately I've had problems with this at home, but he's fine at school. Never had an accident. I think they have a scheduled bathroom time for the 3 year olds though.

My preschool has told me that if he goes #2, they can't help him clean up after himself. Until he's better at it, I stay "on call" in case they need me to come to the school. It hasn't happend yet, and we're practicing, but they don't do that, I assume for liability reasons.

Good to know!

 

[lbgraves]

One of the times DD was in the club, I arrived a little early & stood by the desk to watch how she was doing. The counselors stopped an activity & told everyone to go use the bathroom. This was with the 3-7 yo group in the OC. I think they realize that kids can get involved & this is their way to try to avoid accidents like that.

Regarding the pull ups, there are lots of kids who go to the club after dinner who will probably fall asleep there who are in pull ups. For a child who is newly PTd it simply helps to avoid an oops. We told the counselor who signed us in that she would be a pull up just to make sure but we intended to either stay with her or check on her & would not be leaving the ship without either child. They noted it on the form & in the computer. There were other kids in the same situation & I heard their parents told the same thing.