The worst parenting I ever saw in Disney was...

[lbklyn]

Kids pee in the street in New York City?

I Live in New York and am sad to say not only do kids pee in the streets but adults do as well. I would think in most States you have that disgusting behaviour going on (unless it is an ABSOLUTE EMERGENCY and can't find ANY other option, which there almost ALWAYS is). I have seen grown men in business suits peeing in the subway behind a pole (like no one notices).

 

[marmalade]

I Live in New York and am sad to say not only do kids pee in the streets but adults do as well. I would think in most States you have that disgusting behaviour going on (unless it is an ABSOLUTE EMERGENCY and can't find ANY other option, which there almost ALWAYS is). I have seen grown men in business suits peeing in the subway behind a pole (like no one notices).

Well, I guess you really do learn something new everyday.

 

[BigGreen73]

Sad thread. Amazing, however, that in the face of the child abuse, meltdowns, and everyday insanity we see posted here, we also have a small (but vocal) contingent of sanctimonious posters who somehow equate a soft drink on vacation with people choking and threatening their children.

Do you folks realize how absolutely disconnected with reality you are?

Here's a hint: choking a child not only introduces physical harm, but can emotionally scar that child for life. A soft drink yield some empty calories. Which is honestly worse? Please, use some logic on this question.

If you choose to ban soft drinks at all times for your family - good for you. If you feel that vacation is no excuse to deviate from your chosen lifestyle, more power to you. If you want to look down on the rest of the unwashed masses who sully their children with carbonated poison, be my guest.

But do everyone a favor, please - discuss this is another thread. Only a lunatic would honestly think that giving a child a soft drink is the same kind of example of bad parenting as some of the other craziness posted here.


Thank you, sanity.

Well put...just started shaking my head when the post of child obesity and soda equals child abuse started poping up. That is a conversation for another thread.

Anyway, this is quiet the thread. Haven't witnessed anything to some of the experiences posted so far, just maybe a few minor things. The things some parents do is just.....

 

[Whereisalyssa]

Hahaha okay, here's a good one, on our last trip my family and I had ADR's for 1900 park fare, it was extremely busy so we had to wait for about an hour to get in. My brother and I got so bored of waiting we decided to wander around GF and look around - we got on the elevator where there was a boy (about 12) and his mom and dad and the boy was SCREAMING at the top of his lungs and his mother turned to him and popped a little chocolate in his mouth... he happily chewed it and then began screaming again... once again she popped in another chocolate. This went on for a VERY long time because they ended up waiting for the restaurant with us and my brother and I just sat and watched them in awe... he was almost a teenager and she was allowing this behaviour.. it was disgusting .

 

[Butterbunkins]

I have been lucky to have never seen an out of line parent. I’ve seen parents at their wits end but I know to take that with a grain of salt. Parents are human and have their breaking points too. Many parents go through hell to save for a trip to Disney, put in a lot of effort to plan and do everything they can to create the perfect family vacation. And it isn’t easy to keep your cool when the kids don’t appreciate it and all they do is want more or start complaining. I know my brother and I probably gave my parents a few moments where they would have preferred nothing more than to leave us where we stood, but usually it just the look of death from my mom to let us know that it was time to shut up and behave.

 

[marmalade]

Hahaha okay, here's a good one, on our last trip my family and I had ADR's for 1900 park fare, it was extremely busy so we had to wait for about an hour to get in. My brother and I got so bored of waiting we decided to wander around GF and look around - we got on the elevator where there was a boy (about 12) and his mom and dad and the boy was SCREAMING at the top of his lungs and his mother turned to him and popped a little chocolate in his mouth... he happily chewed it and then began screaming again... once again she popped in another chocolate. This went on for a VERY long time because they ended up waiting for the restaurant with us and my brother and I just sat and watched them in awe... he was almost a teenager and she was allowing this behaviour.. it was disgusting .

If I witnessed this, I would just assume that most normal 12yrs do not scream on the top of their lungs for chocolate and that maybe there is more than meets the eye in this particular situation.

 

[Jennasis]

Of course, it's only fair to mention the BEST parenting I ever saw at Disney...

We were in line for RnRC and there was a family behind us. Mom, Dad, daughter of about 11 and son of about 13. The little girl is clearly the self-appointed troupe leader and is loudly informing (whining?) to them that they are in the wrong line. We were in the standby line which extended about halfway through the courtyard. The FP line was moving quickly. The girl insisted they needed to be in the FP line, but they did not have FP. She was getting more and more shrill and agitated about the whole thing, while her parents gently but firmly corrected her. She continued her tirade now complete with foot stomping and eye rolling, so dad guided her out of the line and about 15 feet away, lowered his face to about an inch from hers and said...SOMETHING. Couldn't hear what he said as he was very quiet, but the look of absolute seriousness on his face and the sudden abject what-have-I-done look on hers was priceless. A moment or two later he guided her back to the line where she had retuned herself to the cheeriest happiest voice EVER and offered a sincere apology to her mom and brother.

I don't know what he said but it worked!

 

[TiggerTrigger]

While I have been that mom with the screaming child that everyone stares at (we take considerable mid day breaks, but DD3 seems to hit some sort of sensory overload thing on day 3 of our trip)...and I'm far from perfect ...I do try and move to a spot so she's at least less disruptive for others (except for that one time we were trapped on a bus and she opted to flip out...and to this day, I'm still thankful for the man who showed her pics of his dog to help her chill)...the worst I've ever seen is this...

We were doing BBB in early Dec of 2010. We stopped by to see if they'd let our girls change in their dressing rooms, but the place was a madhouse and they decided to only extend the rooms to the people doing the castle pkg. So, we headed over to the family bathroom by Pinocchio's Village Haus. If anything, I think it afforded us more space. So, on our way back to the castle I see this mom and her daughter standing right in the middle of the castle walkway- i.e. right in between CRT and BBB just changing her daughter (and we're talking full change) into her costume. It was about 38 degrees outside w/a nasty wind chill!!! The poor girl was FREEZING and she was standing there, in the middle of the open park with crowds milling about in nothing more than her underwear. I don't think the poor girl was any more than 6 years old. I was so shocked that I stopped in my tracks, went totally slackjawed, and shot the woman a look of shock and anger. She sneered back at me and went about her business. I overheard her later on griping about the lack of changing spots. I wanted to say something, but at this point- DD5 (who was 4 at the time) was fully immersed in the magic and DD3 (who was 2 at the time) was needing extra attention b/c she was pretty jealous- so I just dropped it. PRobably a good thing b/c one of the staff did say something about just going to a bathroom. So, they got to make her look like an even bigger fool and I didn't ruin our experience.

 

[dreamscometrue101]

The worst example of parenting I've witnessed at WDW was on our February trip in 2009. My niece and nephew absolutely loved the TTA in Future world so we rode the ride several times in a row as there was no line up.

At the end of our second circuit the father and daughter in the car in front of us were getting ready to get off the ride. The little girl (maybe 3 years old) stood up to get off. her father pushed her back, roughly, told her he was getting off first and proceeded to step off. when he pushed her back she hit the floor of the car and not the seat. The father didn't help her up and the CM at the controls didn't see her so didn't stop the car. the look on the fathers face, was like he didn't care she was on her own. As soon as the girl realized she was alone she started to get upset. My nephew sat on the seat and they started talking back and forth to one another to keep her calmed down.

By the time the circuit ended she was laughing. When her turn to get off came around, her dad was standing there like it was an inconvenience to wait for her, he said something to the effect that it was about time.... she wanted to wait until my nephew was off. I felt for her because her dad was getting mad but it was seriously only 30 seconds.

Once my nephew was off the ride she came over and gave him a big hug. The smile on his face was priceless. He was only 7 and knew he had done something amazing.

We saw them a couple times throughout the day, and every time we were close enough the kids talked to each other and she was smiling, but as soon as we would walk away she looked absolutely horrified. My heart broke for her.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Mine is tame by comparison (well, except to those who consider a soft drink abuse...). I once saw a young girl whose parents had looped their end of her kid-leash around a door handle and were standing a ways away from her looking at a map and not paying attention at all. She was leaning and pulling against the leash, just like a dog tied to a tree. I don't have a problem with people who use kid-leashes, but I think this was not their intended purpose.

 

[mdsoccermom]

I guess to each her own - I think vacation is a great time to teach kids about nutrition, diet and moderation. I give my kids plenty of treats while we are at Disney -- but we always to try to balance it out with healthy choices (hard to do at DW). A giant cup of pop is totally unnecessary and just reinforces bad habits.

If you teach your kids good nutrition regularly, a deviation from the norm on vacation will not undo that. Unless you are following a family carrying soda around every day, all day you cannot make any judgement about what they are feeding their kids.

A giant cup of soda is no different than any of the treats you choose to give your kid.

 

[t_catt11]

Unless you are following a family carrying soda around every day, all day you cannot make any judgement about what they are feeding their kids.

I would submit that (a) most families at WDW are drinking little but soda for the duration of their trip, and (b) I'm not sure that you ever have the right to judge what another family drinks.

Again, though, I am one of the child abusers, so what do I know?

 

[RobDIS]

Hahaha okay, here's a good one, on our last trip my family and I had ADR's for 1900 park fare, it was extremely busy so we had to wait for about an hour to get in. My brother and I got so bored of waiting we decided to wander around GF and look around - we got on the elevator where there was a boy (about 12) and his mom and dad and the boy was SCREAMING at the top of his lungs and his mother turned to him and popped a little chocolate in his mouth... he happily chewed it and then began screaming again... once again she popped in another chocolate. This went on for a VERY long time because they ended up waiting for the restaurant with us and my brother and I just sat and watched them in awe... he was almost a teenager and she was allowing this behaviour.. it was disgusting .

Seems that he has trained his mother well.

 

[foodrocksluver]

Mine came in the form of an oblivious father and bratty daughter last October.

I was waiting in line to ride KS by myself, minding my own business, when next thing I know something is poking me in the butt. And I mean poking me IN the butt. Thinking I had leaned too close to one of the rails and it had a plant or some kind of vegetation growing over it, I didn't freak out right away. That is until I looked down and saw this little girl (maybe 5 or 6) looking up at me.

Now the first thing I usually do when something awkward with a child happens is try to locate their parents. I see this man in front of us (and I honestly can't remember who else was with him. Maybe his wife and the little girl's grandparents?) grinning at her. Next thing I know she's bouncing her hand on my butt. I look at the father again and he says to me, "She does this all the time. It is like her thing." SERIOUSLY?!

Behind me there was a couple around my age (25ish) who are staring at the little girl and the father in disbelief about what he just said to me. I struck up conversation with them and the next thing we knew, little miss butt poker was attached to the man's leg. The father is still watching the poker and says to us, "That's Paris. We names her after the city, not the bimbo."

At this point my mouth was just hanging open. I continued to watch Paris torment other guests waiting in line while her father laughed and smiled about every little thing she did. Ripping apart plants, poking other people's butts, you name it, she did it.

When it came to the part in the line where you decide to go left or right, I let people get in front of me so I could distance myself from Paris and take the opposite line she and her father took.

I remember calling my BF later in the day and telling him "The Story of Paris" while he listened in horror. His closing words were, "Paris may have been named after the city, but with the amount of great parenting she's getting, she may just grow up to be just like the bimbo."

 

[olive]

We did witness some pretty upsetting abuse (hitting a toddler in the face repeatedly and screaming things like "I am going to beat your *** face in" while the poor little child was screaming and crying), and then were threatened ourselves by the parents physically (closed fist pulled back and threatening my husband while he held our child if we got involved). I asked nearby CMs to call security and that family disappeared quickly. The father was following us and yelling at us and threatening WHILE we were talking to the CMs until they said security would be there soon. I thought he must have been drunk, but couldn't be sure. We were horrified. Toddlers have meltdowns. That is part of being a toddler. But two grown parents out of control like that - one abusing their child and the other threatening to harm other parents - is shocking. It has been a couple of years now but I still worry about that child. Disney actually moved my whole family to a different resort after that. We didn't want to risk another run in with people who seemed unbalanced and downright dangerous. We didn't request this, by the way. I was so upset about it that I didn't think of anything like that. I just wanted to get us and my son away from there, quickly.

Ugh. Edited to say this has upset me all over again! Thankfully that was the only experience we had like that at Disney over many trips.

 

[pmaurer74]

Last year I was waiting outside an arena for Disney on Ice and we were waiting in the freezing cold for about 20-30 minutes. They finally opened the door and we were in a line to get in. A lady and her daughter come off an elevator and the mom says to the daughter, "just blend in like you were here all along". I said in full voice " that's a great example for her daughter." I am not sure if she heard me or not.

 

[pooh2001]

Hahaha okay, here's a good one, on our last trip my family and I had ADR's for 1900 park fare, it was extremely busy so we had to wait for about an hour to get in. My brother and I got so bored of waiting we decided to wander around GF and look around - we got on the elevator where there was a boy (about 12) and his mom and dad and the boy was SCREAMING at the top of his lungs and his mother turned to him and popped a little chocolate in his mouth... he happily chewed it and then began screaming again... once again she popped in another chocolate. This went on for a VERY long time because they ended up waiting for the restaurant with us and my brother and I just sat and watched them in awe... he was almost a teenager and she was allowing this behaviour.. it was disgusting .

Maybe the teenager has an issue people can not notice - such as Bipolar Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Psychosis, Diabetic, Depression, Anxiety, Claustrophobia, or something else.

Never judge a book by it's cover

Compassion goes along way

 

[divawife]

I LOUDLY say, "It's not really New York City, y'all."

And I say LOUDLY-why the New York City bash?

 

[divawife]

I don't have any children. This thread just breaks my heart.

 

[foodrocksluver]

And I say LOUDLY-why the New York City bash?

I'm pretty sure it's because they were on the Streets of America. Which is made to look like NYC.

I don't think it was said as a bash.