Things Parents Say That Make Your Cringe

[Zippa D Doodah]

One thing that I found myself say several times during our WDW trip was "if you whine again, we're going back to the room". That usually shut them up really quickly. If overheard by someone, I am pretty sure I can be labeled as a bad parent

I am guilty of saying the same thing. There was one particular morning in MK when the kids were just not wanting to cooperate. I didn't yell, but I made it clear that I would lead us right back out the gates and back to the room if attitudes did not improve. I vividly recall standing in front of Pinocchio Haus, wagging my finger at the kids, and feeling like one of "those" parents

 

[Family Fun Mom]

As a parent the tough thing is that reading these posts you hear complaints about parents that do nothing to discipline their kids and about parents that discipline their kids. Things like "I can't believe they just let the kids run around like that" and then again, "I can't believe they told the kid to sit down and shut up". Short of abuse, I don't think anyone can really have good judgement on how a situation should be handled by the parents except the parents. They are the only one that knows everything that leads to a certain situation.

I was just about to say this exact same thing! I also wanted to add that maybe these aren't all bad parents. Disney can be overwhelming and exhausting. My dh and I bickered a few times while there and I found myself snapping at the kids on occasion. If someone only saw those moments, they might think I am a wretched woman. Normally I am a bubbly, upbeat person but put me in 95 degree heat with 100% humidity and make me walk five miles with three kids and cracks start to show. I am not a bad mom, I am human. Every time I snapped at one of my kids, I felt bad and apologized later with kisses and hugs. Maybe these so called "idiots that shouldn't be allowed to have children" do, too.

Don't we all mess up once in a while?

 

[mrscoobs]

On our last trip:

We were in line for BTMRR and their was a father with his son who looked like he just got tall enough to ride. The little guy was sweating bullets about riding, and when it came to just before loading (we were in the back of their car) the boy starts wailing about going on the ride, big old crocodile tears streaming down his face. The father kept saying "it's just ride, now come on" load into the car, kid is terrified and tries to walk through car, father grabs him from his shirt collar seats him in the seat and pulls the lapbar down. Poor guy wants nothing with the "runaway twain" Its to the point the whole half of the station is watching and a CM comes over to see if everything is ok. Father just deadpans "He's fine, I swear, he'll love it" calm as a cucumber and holdin his son's shoulders. Well, off on our trip we went, and as soon as we get through the tunnel with the bats and are outside, the kid is starting to stop sobbing, dad's saying "see, it's okay" and by the second lift hill the little sport is raising his arms in the air! The kid was all smiles when we got back in the station and the CM who asked gave him a high five on the way out. We saw the family meet up with their DM and little sis (to short to ride) by the exit and we saw sport just drag DM back in line for the parent swap

It just goes to show that sometimes you have to see the whole story, some people may have thought the father was horrible for making him go, when really he knew his son would love it after he went on.

 

[tonio]

Now I'm missing my family

 

[Madi100]

Misbehaving is one thing. But, some of the things that these parents say take the cake. But, then again, I am pretty sure I said some obnoxious things when I get frustrated with my own kids at times. Hopefully not too many people overheard those comments!

This thread is not a judgement of parenting skills, but rather listing what you have overheard that surprised you. It can be useful for some of us since it shows another point of view that we may not realize when we're in the parenting mode.

One thing that I found myself say several times during our WDW trip was "if you whine again, we're going back to the room". That usually shut them up really quickly. If overheard by someone, I am pretty sure I can be labeled as a bad parent

You are right. I don't think saying that if they dont' behave you are going back to the room. I think I have changed how I parent because of these threads. My 8 year old can have quite the attitude. I used to just listen to her mope and whine (or ignore it). This last trip I made it very clear that we would be out and about as long as both of the girls were happy. If they decided to have attitude I just reminded them that we could be out as long as they were happy. What I thought was funniest was when she was whining a little bit. Just whining because the world doesn't revolve around her and she had to do something because I wanted to. I replied back, "That's right. And you are going to like it because we are in the happiest place on earth." Someone did overhear me, and made a comment, but it was supporting me, not going against me. I think she said something about how much we paid for our vacation. The funny thing is my daughter wasn't being that bad, and I was more joking with her than reprimanding her.

The most embarrassing thing that happened while we were there was on the walk to the bus stop. We had just crossed the bridge. DH and I were disagreeing on something. We weren't arguing, we weren't fighting. We were disagreeing. And my eight year old told us that she thought we were on vacation and we were supposed to have fun and get along. If so, we needed to quit fighting. How embarrassing since another couple walked by as she said it all.

 

[frayedend]

On our last trip:

We were in line for BTMRR and their was a father with his son who looked like he just got tall enough to ride. The little guy was sweating bullets about riding, and when it came to just before loading (we were in the back of their car) the boy starts wailing about going on the ride, big old crocodile tears streaming down his face. The father kept saying "it's just ride, now come on" load into the car, kid is terrified and tries to walk through car, father grabs him from his shirt collar seats him in the seat and pulls the lapbar down. Poor guy wants nothing with the "runaway twain" Its to the point the whole half of the station is watching and a CM comes over to see if everything is ok. Father just deadpans "He's fine, I swear, he'll love it" calm as a cucumber and holdin his son's shoulders. Well, off on our trip we went, and as soon as we get through the tunnel with the bats and are outside, the kid is starting to stop sobbing, dad's saying "see, it's okay" and by the second lift hill the little sport is raising his arms in the air! The kid was all smiles when we got back in the station and the CM who asked gave him a high five on the way out. We saw the family meet up with their DM and little sis (to short to ride) by the exit and we saw sport just drag DM back in line for the parent swap

It just goes to show that sometimes you have to see the whole story, some people may have thought the father was horrible for making him go, when really he knew his son would love it after he went on.

That is a good story. After reading some of these posts I asked my wife how we would handle it if our kids didn't want to go on a ride and started freaking out. I assumed that we should not go on the ride. Well, she said that if it was a scary ride we would not go on, but if it was small world or something then we would make them get on. I wouldn't put up too much of a fight if they are really freaking out, but sometimes getting them on is the only hard part, then they realize what fun it was. It took me about 15 years to finally try a roller coaster and once I finally did I realized what fun I had been missing.

The great thing about these boards are that we get to think about these things in advance and at least have a plan on how to handle some thing we will run into.

 

[frayedend]

One thing that I found myself say several times during our WDW trip was "if you whine again, we're going back to the room". That usually shut them up really quickly. If overheard by someone, I am pretty sure I can be labeled as a bad parent

It's great that saying that to your child actually works. My guess is that if he/she did whine again you would actually go back to your room. I've realized that my biggest problem parenting has probably been using empty threats. For instance, I know I am not going back to the room if it is early and we just got to the park. I have to try hard not to threaten that we will because my kids really know that I won't follow through. For my January trip I think I will try to use punishments I can follow through with, such as "if you whine again you aren't going on that ride again, or you aren't getting that ice cream"

 

[lucincia]

It's great that saying that to your child actually works. My guess is that if he/she did whine again you would actually go back to your room. I've realized that my biggest problem parenting has probably been using empty threats. For instance, I know I am not going back to the room if it is early and we just got to the park. I have to try hard not to threaten that we will because my kids really know that I won't follow through. For my January trip I think I will try to use punishments I can follow through with, such as "if you whine again you aren't going on that ride again, or you aren't getting that ice cream"

Actually, we did, on our first full day at MK DD3 was acting up and we gave her the "threat". She acted up again within a short period of time. Since we're on vacation, we let that slip and gave her the rare "third chance". She acted up again. I took her back to the room while DW and DD7 enjoyed the park.

For the rest of the week, the kiddies behaved, relatively well for 7 and 3 years old. Can't expect perfection

 

[cmaelltt1]

I had to read this whole thread to make sure no one was saying something about me. I know my kids and I had some moments last week that I could have handled better. If you were on the tram from MK when my 3 yo threw his tantrum on Saturday, sorry.

I have taken my kids on rides before even though the cried and asked not to. When my oldest was younger, she would get very afraid of the rides while she stood in line. On our first trip to DW when she was 4, she was extremely frightened of the monorail. People must have though we were kidnapping her as we literally drug her on kicking and screaming, "no no no." I think we had to push her onto every ride she rode. But once she is on and it starts, she is fine. I had many looks from other parents, but I would never put her on something she wouldn't like. These were rides like Dumbo and Peter Pan, not Space Mountain. She always came off happy and asked to do it again. Then the same thing would happen for the next ride. She's 12 now and will get on things even though she's afraid because she has learned that her fear of things is rarely as bad as the real thing. She surprised me and road Dinosaur and the spinning roller coaster at AK last week.

My middle daughter, almost 6, is much less afraid than her sister. She has talked and talked about riding Goofy's roller coaster for 7 months now. So we get in line and she starts getting upset. Since it was rare for her to get upset I was trying to calm her down and convince her that she would like it. There was a lady in front of us with a little girl who tried too. Well, she road it but cried the whole time and for about 5 minutes after. I felt pretty bad but I think she would have been very upset if she came home and hadn't riden it. She said she didn't like it afterward, but the next day she talked about it like it was great. She wouldn't ride it again though.

So sometimes we look like bad parents, but aren't as bad as we seem. Since we stay off-site I threatened my 3 yo to go out to the car if he didn't behave. And I would have taken him. He knows that because I have done it at other places. So it usually straightens him out.

 

[Disney Fool]

During a recent trip, I observed two adorable little girls in their princess dresses waiting for their favorites princesses to show up for autographs. When the Princesses do arrive, the mom, in a loud voice, blurts out "Gee, I wonder how much Disney pays these women to dress up like that? Nice work if you can get it." Sort of killed the magic for those little ones.

Another time, during a Mickey meet and greet, the parent loudly asks, "I wonder how the guy in that suit stays cool. I'll bet he gets sick of these kids running up to him all day."

 

[tlbwriter]

It's great that saying that to your child actually works. My guess is that if he/she did whine again you would actually go back to your room. I've realized that my biggest problem parenting has probably been using empty threats. For instance, I know I am not going back to the room if it is early and we just got to the park. I have to try hard not to threaten that we will because my kids really know that I won't follow through.

And that's exactly why I don't use that particular threat - because I'm NOT going back to the room to ruin my day just because DD is misbehaving! I have to pick a threat I don't mind carrying out.

 

[NMAmy]

We have a running joke in our family--long ago, when my sister and I were snotty teenagers, we were on a vacation with my parents. My mom had had just about enough togetherness and I remember her stalking off and saying over her shoulder, "We're going to have fun if it kills each and every one of us!" It cracked everybody up and we all calmed down.

Now it's a catchphrase in my own family. So if you see me lean over to dd when one of us is getting a little cranky from too much family time at WDW, I'll probably be saying, "We're going to have fun if it kills each and every one of us!" And we'll all chill out a bit.

 

[disneymom2one]

DH and I were in line waiting to ride Spaceship Earth and this boy about 10 or 11 years old was throwing an enormous fit about riding....even thought I agreed completely with his dad telling him he was acting like a 5 year old....I don't think him picking up his son and putting him in the seat was absolutely appropriate.....he kept screaming that he wanted off...it ruined the entire ride!
(snipped)
.

I'm going to guess the kiddo might have been mildly autistic or had Asperger's. We have a wonderfully adorable 10 year old with Asperger's. She looks completely normal but when she decided there's something she won't do and we push the issue it's about like that. We tend to avoid situations like that but sometimes it's hard to just not want them to do something in the hopes that once they get on they'll enjoy it. We had a disastrous day in August over the boat from the MK to Fort Wilderness. It's more than a fear for these kids - they process sensory information different than we do and sometimes very normal things can be terrifying as a result.

 

[OceanAnnie]

Interesting thread! Subscribing.

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

We just got back from Disneyworld and we were unusually struck by how bratty so many of the kids seemed to be, and how many parents just let behavior pass that screamed "time out" to me. I really get that kids get overwrought at DW and need to be cut a little slack, but sheesh. There were many times when, no matter how much we'd paid for a vacation, if my kids had misbehaved as badly as some of the kids we'd seen, there would have been one warning to straighten up and then we'd be headed back to the room for a nap. We saw big kids (7 + yrs old) throwing toddler-quality tantrums while their parents seemed oblivious to the chaos they were creating; a family with two 5-6 yr old kids screaming for 10 minutes straight on the back of a crowded bus (that was a fun way to begin the day), and more kids than I could count announcing to their parents (in the manner of a small king) that something WAS going to be the way they wanted it to be, without any reaction from their parents other than a mild argument on the kid's level.

I get that WDW is all about kids, and it wasn't up to me to throw a tantrum of my own and make things worse, so I kept smiling and kept my mouth shut. But I did wonder if some people even notice or care that their kids' behavior might be affecting the experience other people are having. So memo to the parents of the 8+ yr old child in the SW Airlines line leaving Orlando on Dec 9: I'm sorry your child couldn't have his way and I know you're ok with him pushing, whining and yelling at you, but you were out in public and there were other people who were trapped in line for 45 minutes listening to this. If you don't mind being treated this way yourself by a small tyrant, that's up to you, but assuming your child doesn't have some horrible neurological disorder, he is old enough to control himself, and you are doing him no favors by letting him believe he exists right smack dab in the middle of the entire world. There. Off my soapbox.

 

[88Keys]

Disney should provide Time-Out booths

Meantime, a friend of my sister's did something terrific -- she has 2 small kids and they would constantly fight. So the parents said, if you fight on the drive to Florida (WDW), we are going to turn the car around and go home. Within 30 minutes in the car, the kids, not taking the threat seriously, started fighting, So the parents turned the car around, unpacked the suitcases and told them the trip was cancelled. A week later, the parents said, "ok we we will try it again.". They loaded the suitcases and the kids, having been devastated, were perfect angels. The punchline? The parents never intended to go the first week -- they booked the second week all along.

 

[Syrreal]

Disney should provide Time-Out booths

Meantime, a friend of my sister's did something terrific -- she has 2 small kids and they would constantly fight. So the parents said, if you fight on the drive to Florida (WDW), we are going to turn the car around and go home. Within 30 minutes in the car, the kids, not taking the threat seriously, started fighting, So the parents turned the car around, unpacked the suitcases and told them the trip was cancelled. A week later, the parents said, "ok we we will try it again.". They loaded the suitcases and the kids, having been devastated, were perfect angels. The punchline? The parents never intended to go the first week -- they booked the second week all along.

That is wonderful!!! I love it!

I have to admit that the last time we went to Disney there were a LOT of misbehaving kids. The kind of actions that you see on those nanny shows )nanny 911 and whatever that other nanny show is). I mean just screaming and kicking adn biting at their parents. Now, we are planning to have kids soon and I have vowed to myself that there is no way I'm going to let my kid treat me like that. And the big question I have to ask is this
--> You wouldn't let an adult treat you like that so why let a child?
o.k...my turn to get off the soap box

 

[ILuvWDWorld]

The comment that always makes me cringe (and I hear it at least once or twice every time I am at WDW) is, "We paid a lot of money to come here- shut up and have fun or we'll leave right now and never come back!". I feel so bad for the kids who are probably just tired or overexited- they get berated because their parents think they aren't "getting their money's worth" out of the vacation.

Whenever I hear comments like that, it makes me stop and really think about one thing- are we having fun, all of us? I understand wanting to do and see it all at WDW, but if part of the family is having a rotten time (or just pooped out), it's time to take a break.

I agree. I only feel like I'm "not getting my money's worth" if I stay in the parks with exhausted children. We've always taken our kids back to the hotel for naps, etc. I feel so bad for them when it's hot and they're tired. Even if they are too excited too sleep, I think it's good just to go back to take a break from the rides, bright colors, heat, and larger-than-life icons.

I can either stay in the park and have a miserable time or take a break and come back later refreshed and excited again.

 

[tlbwriter]

The punchline? The parents never intended to go the first week -- they booked the second week all along.

OMG, that is brilliant!

 

[phisigprincess]

Any time anyone says things like "we paid $___ for this trip and you're going to have fun."