Thank you.
I guess I should add that to annoying things at the parks: grown ups who think little children shouldn't go to the parks until the 5 year old acts like a mature 35 year old.
Listen, it's one thing for rude kids to be brought under control by their parents. No one will
ever disagree with that except for the rude jerk of a parent who gets off on his/her kids being little jerks. But to complain about children in general, kids acting like kids (as in acting in a normal non-rude manner), or little kids being pushed in strollers in the middle of a family theme park is asinine. Sorry.
I can't speak for anyone else, but since my umbrella stroller question seems to be involved in some of this, I'll say a few of my opinions:
1) I, personally, would not bring a kid under 1 to Disney because I don't think they'd appreciate it. If I could, I'd leave them at home with a relative or trusted friend and bring them back when they're a little older and I feel they can appreciate it better.
However, I do understand that other people choose to bring children under the age of 1, and I don't fault them for that decision (I'm not saying they're not allowed, I'm saying it's not something I would do ... I also wouldn't go skydiving, but that doesn't mean I don't think other people should do it).
2) I believe that children should behave in a way that is not overly disruptive to others. I understand that kids will act like kids (which is great - you don't want them to grow up too fast), and you can't fault them for that, but if a kid does something that is inappropriate or disruptive to someone else (kicks someone, cuts in front of someone in line, vomits, etc), I believe that the parent should say something to kid to the effect that what they did was wrong, and the kid and/or parent should apologize.
3) If you're bringing a kid in a stroller (which I have no problem with at all), I don't understand why you wouldn't want to travel with a smaller, lightweight stroller (then again, people don't understand why I pack 4 pairs of shoes, so I probably shouldn't talk).
4) No matter what stroller you're using, I believe that you should be aware of your surroundings, try not to hit anyone with your stroller, and if you do hit someone by accident (which I know happens ... often because the someone who gets hit stops suddenly or isn't moving when they should be), apologize.
5) If you're paying more attention to your phone than to your kid, that's a problem. I once saw a kid climbing around and almost fall off and hit his head (he caught himself at the last minute) ... but I don't think his father noticed, because he was too busy on his phone call. I was so upset by that.
So, those are some of my opinions on Disney with kids. Note that these are coming from a young adult without kids, so I don't expect everyone with kids to agree with me. I just wanted to make it clear that I have no objection to kids at Disney World and absolutely no objection to parents who are courteous to others.
My question about umbrella strollers was just that: a question. There was a discussion about big strollers going on, and I don't remember seeing man umbrella strollers on my last trip, so I was wondering if it was something that just fell out of popularity, because when I was a little kid we traveled with an umbrella stroller for me.
