Parenting at its finest

[Seussgirl]

Ok, I got one. I was working at over in Seuss Landing at One fish Two fish (for those that don't know what that is, think Dumbo with water) one hot summer day when I was loading the guests on the ride, this kid about 12 or 13 that was obviously mentally handicapped started yelling to his mom "You b**ch!!" "Come back here!". Everyone in line heard him so I went over to him and asked him to please not use that language and where was his mother. He told me on the ride. I asked him to point her out and told her she needed to get off the ride and control her child. She said he was bad so he needed to stay there. I told her again, and she got off and grumbled something in Spanish. About 10 mins later, I was going on break and I saw him again alone, this time he was outside Cat in the Hat. I felt really sorry for him because he seemed to have the mentality of a 5 year old, and I walked over to him and started talking to him and he started crying and saying his mom left him because he was bad. Well, I was livid at this point, called my lead, which call her supervisor. (I hate that damn chain of command, why not just call security?) Well, the mom came out a few mins later and since my supervisor was nowhere around yet (probably in his office, drinking coffee), I proceeded to give her a lecture about how she cannot leave her child by himself. I really laid into her. I didn't care. She walked away and then about 10 mins later my supervisor finally showed up and I told him about the incident. He asked me how old the child was and I told him and he said there was nothing we could do because a child that age can take care of themselves. Excuse me? I told him again how the kid was retarded and he said it didn't matter. What an idiot!

[SRT_GB]

Had a 2 year old little girl screaming her little head off for at least 5 minutes straight in Marina Sundries the other day. All for a small unicorn pop. I bet they could have heard this little girl all the way from Bonita Tower. The worst part was the parents weren't doing a damn thing about it, except to tell her she couldn't have the lollipop. Didn't tell her to be quiet or anything. I rang mom up for something and she acted like nothing was going on. I chose not to shout and spoke in my normal tone in an effort to hint at her to do something about the girl's screaming, but that proved futile. And little miss future golddigger was still screaming as they headed out of the building.

My head hurt after they left. Small store + loud screaming = headache for SRT_GB.

A few months ago at Mickey in Paradise I had a lady come in with some princess item she had bought inside the park and said to me, "I want to return this because my little girl is being a brat and if she's going to be that way she's not getting a toy." I happily processed her return.

Just proves I haven't entirely lost faith in parents who spoil their children.

[PirateJohn]

Had a 2 year old little girl screaming her little head off for at least 5 minutes straight in Marina Sundries the other day. All for a small unicorn pop. I bet they could have heard this little girl all the way from Bonita Tower. The worst part was the parents weren't doing a damn thing about it, except to tell her she couldn't have the lollipop. Didn't tell her to be quiet or anything. I rang mom up for something and she acted like nothing was going on. I chose not to shout and spoke in my normal tone in an effort to hint at her to do something about the girl's screaming, but that proved futile. And little miss future golddigger was still screaming as they headed out of the building.

I don't necessarily disagree with this. Very often, children yell and scream because they want attention, so a good way to train them not to yell and scream is to ignore them when they do.

Sure, it causes some headaches along the way, but it can prevent a child from being a brat in the future.

[CerasiJ]

I don't necessarily disagree with this. Very often, children yell and scream because they want attention, so a good way to train them not to yell and scream is to ignore them when they do.

Yup, always worked for me! Well, that and when my Dad told me if I didn't stop crying he was going to leave me in K-Mart. That shut me right up! :D:

[NikkiGrrl]

working McD's drive thru i've seen the worse of the worse.

I've seen people pull up with rap music blaring with all sorts of obcenities coming from the song and the kids int he back sitting quietly. Great, let's teach 5 year olds how to cuss. i've had drunk parents pull in once or twice, or at least they appeared to be drunk. i've had parents yelling into cell phones with f this and that with kids int he back, parents screaming and yelling at kids to "shut up".

i honestly don't know what is wrong with parents today...my parents taught me that it's polite to be quiet when someone else is talking not to "shut the f/hell/etc up"

[Fantasmic_Freak]

I say send all parents through Disney History and culture before they get in the gates, except speed up the process. :D:

[joanna71985]

This story happened at MGM. I had met up with MommytoMJM and friends and we had gone to Playhouse Disney to see the show. While we were waiting to enter outside with a CM was a little girl. Apparently the mother had left her with the CM so she could go on the big rides! I couldn't believe it. Who does that? (MommytoMJM, if I didn't tell the story right, please help me out!).

[CBeilby]

This story happened at MGM. I had met up with MommytoMJM and friends and we had gone to Playhouse Disney to see the show. While we were waiting to enter outside with a CM was a little girl. Apparently the mother had left her with the CM so she could go on the big rides! I couldn't believe it. Who does that? (MommytoMJM, if I didn't tell the story right, please help me out!).

That's worse than bad parenting. That could technically be considered child abandonment. We CMs are paid to do our jobs, not to babysit for lazy parents. If she'd tried it with me, I'd have said no, and if the parent had insisted, I would have told a lead and security. :mad:

And that reminds me of a story from when I was working at the Visitor Center at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. One day, I was at the welcome desk, when I saw a boy of about ten years old sitting by himself. I approached him, and talked to him, to find out that his parents had left him there INTENTIONALLY! I told my manager, who called the Williamsburg Police Department. I'm not too sure about the resolution, but I believe that he and the other child in the family were removed by Department of Social Services and abandonment charges were filed against the parents.

[M6l24m86]

There was a kid who came in and said he couldn't find his mom (he was about 6 years old) He said his mom had let him walk in and pick a toy himself. So we are walking around looking for her in DTD and finally I see her and she is on her cell phone. She didn't even care when I told her that he child was frantic looking for her. She didn't say thank you or console him or anything and just kept talking on her phone.

Not really a parenting story, but there was a girl who looked around 15 years old and she comes up to me and says "I lost my mommy" in this mock child voice. So then I go into the whole lost child questions, (When did you last see her etc.) and she just keeps looking at me stupidly and she says "I'm adopted. My mom is about this high and she's asain" (this girl was obviously NOT asain) and I am humoring her kinda asking her what she wanted me to do and eventually I get sick of her messing around with me because she is A TEENAGER and OBVIOUSLY joking around with me during BLOWOFF at World of Disney with a TON of guests in line. So I tell her that she'll need to look for her mom by herself. I notice her walking away and meeting up with a few of her friends LAUGHING (One of her friends was an ASIAN girl btw) So I was busy so I let it go. Anyways, I forget about it and not too long later I see the girl walking by and she says "I found my mommy" and I say to her "Oh good, I'm just going to need you to come over here with me because we've called security out to verify that you've actually found your mommy" and her face DROPS and she looks so worried but comes with me anyways. My lead needs to talk to me (I didn't REALLY call security) and out of the corner of my eye I see her looking at me worried and she SLOWLY sneaks away from where I told her to wait. I told my lead about what happened and he and I were just laughing that I was able to scare the crap out of her while still being "Disney". It was SO satisfying lol!

[Maleficents Raven]

Ugh, I hate it when parents come in thinking that we can take care of their children. I know I've done it plenty of times, and there are always the exceptions (if I'm in Acorn's, parents are shopping and I'm playing with the kids with a bear puppet we have), but still, I have enough to deal with, please don't add your kids to the mix.

One day, I was working in Acorn's, not too many guests in the store, and this girl comes in and claims that she is going to be my little helper. Her mother was in the bar and the girl was tired of drinking Shirely Temples. The mother said that she could come into the gift shop and just wait for her there, that we would watch her! And of course, the girl follows me like a shadow and goes on and on about anything and everything, stopping only to show me and every guest who walks into the store that she can do the splits.

Me to guest: Hi, how are you today?
Girl before they can answer: Wanna see what I can do?

I tried to politely get to to leave, or at elast behave a little. She ended up starting a guessing game so I could know her name (like I really cared) and when we get to her middle name, she tells me "it's a fish."

Girl: I don't think you can eat it.
Me: ...Um, there are lots of fish out there...
Girl: It starts with an 'h'.
Me: Herring?
Girl: Yeap.
Me: Actually, you can eat those and therefore could eat you, but that would be considered cannibalism and is frown upon in most societies.

She didn't get it, and didn't leave and I was on the verge of going into the bar and yelling at her mom. Poor girl just wanted attention, but I wasn't the person to give it to her and her mom was too drunk to give it to her either. Eventually, she really pushed my buttons. She asked for my cell phone number, asked if she could see my cell phone and right as I was helped a guest with out more expensive pottery began to drig through my pockets trying to find my cell phone.

I'm not being paid to babysit, so parents, please take care of your kids yourself. Vacation or not, they are your's, not mine.