[_Ariel_]

Oh my...I'm sorry I just noticed that was completely off topic. I'm very sorry. I apologize.

[Dana]

Originally Posted by _Ariel_

I am 14 years old. When I go to a park, I hate how I don't really get to have an autograph signed, or my picture taken by a character at DL. I'm hoping it's different in WDW. I know that it's important for kids to get their fill, but I just started going to these places and I would really like an autograph too. Is this selfish? I don't think so but I could be completely wrong.

No way! You stand in line with everyone else and get those pics and autographs. It's not just for little, little kids. It's for everyone! I hope you ahve a great time and get man pics and autographs.

[tigger]

Originally Posted by Dana

No way! You stand in line with everyone else and get those pics and autographs. It's not just for little, little kids. It's for everyone! I hope you ahve a great time and get man pics and autographs.

My DW and I would stand in line to get pictures and Parents would push us out of the way when it was our turn or rush their kids in in front of us Sorry but I would like a few pictures with the characters too.

[_Ariel_]

Thanks, guys! You make me feel a lot better about waiting in line to get a signature from my favorite characters!

[jodilt]

I agree with Empress Jenny! I also travel without kids, but I am a teacher who loves kids and I know that kids aren't perfect. I don't have a problem with a tantrum from a tired kid, etc. What I do mind are the parents who think they are on vacation from their child instead of with their child! As I have posted before, I was in a restaurant last year and the little girl at the table next to us was actually taking things (sugar, salt, pepper, etc.) off of our table. The parents never said anything. I waited and gave them a chance to correct her, but they never did. I quietly said something to her, and she just smiled thinking it was cute. I raised my voice so that the parents could hear me correcting her, yet they still did nothing. On another visit, I was waiting on the boat dock outside the MK to go to the WL and their was a boy, probably about 8 (old enough to know better) who was chasing a duck. The duck went under the rail to get away from him. The boy proceeded to crawl under the rail after the duck. So, the duck goes into the water. Now the boy is hanging off the dock over the water. Obviously very dangerous, yet the parents weren't paying a bit of attention to him. Everyone around was trying to draw their attention to the fact that their child is hanging off the dock, but they didn't say a word! Finally a CM walked over and saw him and immediately yelled at him to get back. Then the parents told him to come back. I wonder what they would have done if he had fallen in?? Probably sue Disney for inadequate railing!!

[_Ariel_]

Those are very disturbing stories, Jodilt! Isn't WDW a place where kids as well as adults are supposed to have fun? Some parents said that the opposite way so many times that it turned into the inverted relation. It disappoints me to see that SOME parents just don't care. My kid cousin had a stuffed animal he had just bought, and this little girl came up to him and asked him for it. Well, he was only 5 so of course he said no. She was about 5 as well. She started screaming and crying, and kicked him! She tried to wiggle it out of his grip but he wouldn't let her. We tried to alert the parents of their child, but they seemed to ignore us. Then my uncle, after multiple times of saying "no, no, that's not yours," picked up my kid cousin, Cesar, and walked away.

[leslieh]

Hi all-

I never thought my first post here would be about misbehaving children... I feel fortunate to say that for the most part, I rarely find myself annoyed or have my trip affected by misbehaving children. In fact, I am surprised at how well behaved I find most children at WDW!! I also only vacation at peak times- Christmas, Easter, and Presidents week.

I can honestly think of only one incident in my last 9 trips that bothered me. That incident happened with a small group of rude preteens who were unsupervised in MK.

I'm sure calling the children "vermin" or "brats" is because you were upset. Once you have children of your own you probably won't say something like that again!

[_Ariel_]

We aren't really talking about the way the children act so much as how we are talking about how the un responsive some of the parents are. It's that some of them seem like they don't care about what their children are doing. I am not talking about everyone by the way.

[dznygrl]

Boy, I hear where you are coming from Jenny (and Matt!) As a CM, it was soooo difficult for me to refrain from yelling at parents who refused to raise their kids! These people made me sick to my stomach, watching the way they let their kids behave. There was even a time I had to stand with a lost child for an hour...his father had left his 8-year-old child standing in the middle of nowhere while he went and rode rides the kid was too short for!
I've also had kids run up to me and shout obscenities!! I want to know how these parents are raising their children!
Once, a kid no more than 4 or 5 ran up to my husband at the Disneyland Hotel...WHACKED him with a plastic sword and yelled, "I'm Bart Simpson! Who the h*** are you?!?"

Of course, his so-called parents were nowhere in sight.

[ressieb]

I just read a similiar post like this on another board and it was such a heated discussion. But anyway here's my take on the situation. To the orginial poster like stated previoulsy there is no reason for you to call someone's child outside of their name. Parenting always seems easy from the sidelines. And also as previosuly stated you will see for yourself if and when you have kids.

Second, kids are just that KIDS - yes even the "angels" have their moments too. But what do you expect parents to do when we are bombarded with messages like "just ignore the behavior and they will change" or "spanking and yelling are never proper forms of punishment" - you can't win. How then do you effectively discipline a child in public or private?????? You try to remove them from the situation and that makes it worse. You are sometimes stuck between a rock & a hard place.

As a parent I really don't care what others think of my son when he has a "meltdown" or what they think of my parenting skills-I have enough on my plate to think about than some stranger who hasn't walked a day in my shoes. Having said that however, I don't allow my son to harm anyone though.

[cindy1970]

I think I usually tune it out. I know some of you have already said this but the thing that is more annoying to be is the naggy parents who are yelling.

[MrDisneyfan1]

RESSIEB:
Your right on track! I agree. And again, unless your at Victoria & ALberts, or a few others...roll with it.
Den

[EmpressJenny]

And this is the sort of behavior I'm talking about. There is no reason this child should have gone unsupervised. Besides being a pest, the child could have easily been stolen in a busy park such as Disney with no parents to watch him/her. It's disgusting that the parents weren't watching, and said absolutely nothing to Matt or to his wife about Matt's daughter being slobbed over.

So my issue is this: Why don't I have the right to be angry about these people??

[Curtis]

Originally Posted by EmpressJenny

And this is the sort of behavior I'm talking about. There is no reason this child should have gone unsupervised. Besides being a pest, the child could have easily been stolen in a busy park such as Disney with no parents to watch him/her. It's disgusting that the parents weren't watching, and said absolutely nothing to Matt or to his wife about Matt's daughter being slobbed over.

So my issue is this: Why don't I have the right to be angry about these people??

I don't think anyone said you didn't have the "right" to be angry, but if you aren't clear, in your point, which has morphed quite a bit, as this thread has progressed, than you cannot be suprised people reacted the way they did. Your point has been clarafied, now, but initially, it didn't sound like that at all.

After re-reading your initial vent, there was almost no mention of the parents at all, just lots of nasty terms for the kids.

[EmpressJenny]

Originally Posted by Curtis

I don't think anyone said you didn't have the "right" to be angry, but if you aren't clear, in your point, which has morphed quite a bit, as this thread has progressed, than you cannot be suprised people reacted the way they did. Your point has been clarafied, now, but initially, it didn't sound like that at all.

After re-reading your initial vent, there was almost no mention of the parents at all, just lots of nasty terms for the kids.

Yes, that's true. In the heat of a vent I didn't make myself clear to begin with. But I think there are still some who are defending the "right" of their kid to behave badly until they "burn themselves out", so to speak.