Adult Children Behaving Badly!!

[TheMorgans]

We just returned from an amazing trip to WDW!! Each time we are in WDW we notice more and more multigenerational family groups. However, this time some of the adult children were behaving badly!

Let me offer some examples of what we heard from several different groups.

"Mom, when I invited you on the trip I EXPECTED you to pay for this trip and to me that means ALL of this trip. I want the D&B purse and you WILL pay for it." from a 40ish female to her 60ish mother

"I don't care what you budgeted for, you should have planned on paying for ALL of our meals. Not doing so is just plain RUDE." 30ish female with DH and 3DD to an elderly couple while having dinner at Kona.

"I know you are tired and hot, but we want to stay in the park so I guess you are just out of luck. Deal with it." 30ish female to 60ish woman in a wheelchair.

These are just a few of the too numerous to count tantrums that we heard last week. I understand that we are in a difficult ecconomy now... but do adult children really expect their parents to just hand out the cash to them like they are still 8 years old??? IMHO I cannot imagine inviting my parents to vacation with our family AND expect them to pay for all of the trip.

Has anyone else noticed this trend? Has this become an acceptable way for families to take vacations that they could not otherwise afford? Am I way off base here?

Let me know what you think.

 

[r&kmommy]

I think it is absolutely disgusting and if I was nice enough to treat my kids to a trip and they treated me like that I would promptly ask them for their KTTW and tell them they're on their own. The sense of entitlement some people feel is so sickening. Of course the parents are likely NOT totally blameless in all of this. THEY raise their kids to be like that. . . so maybe karma's coming back around to kick them in the you-know-what?

I can't imagine being so UNGRATEFUL!!!!

 

[DebbieB]

I guess I had it wrong. When I took my mom to WDW, I paid for almost everything! All she paid for was her AP and the air sometimes. Room was DVC (mine) and I paid for meals. She did pay for any souveniers she wanted (not much).

 

[catne]

so.very.sad. Especially that these idiot adult children are doing this in front of their own children -- so soon there'll be yet another generation of bad behavior.

Hate to say this, though...there's that quote about "reaping what you sow"

These elderly parents raised these ungrateful, rude children.

That's all I'm saying.

 

[mskayjay]

Breaks my heart. DH and I are trying so hard to figure out how we can take my Mom to Disney just one more time. She loves it so much and it would mean the world to her. She has by no means been the perfect Mom (is there such a thing????) but as I have gotten older and had my own kids I know she did the best she could which is all anyone can ask. We just want to take her and treat HER one more time. I hope we get the chance.


To anyone who would think of talking to their Mom or Dad like that can I just say that you need to keep in mind that the roles we play in life will change and I so hope you get your turn at being treated like.......


hugs
K

 

[CathieArms]

Wow! I'm absolutely speechless! As someone who is completely spoiled rotten by my own inlaws, I can honestly say that we would *never* EXPECT them to pay for anything! They often do so out of the kindness of their hearts, but to EXPECT it from them - or, in the cases you've illustrated, DEMAND it of them - is reprehensible.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

People today have no idea what it is like to need - they only know how to want.

Even at 29, if I said something like that to my parents today, I'd better duck , because they'd both slap the taste outta my mouth.

 

[MandyMaloo]

Wow- I could never, ever expect to have my parents pay for us to go anywhere! My dad, stepmom and step sister invited us to go to DL last year on our first trip out there. I practically had to fight my dad to let me pay for my own stuff!!

Some people...

 

[FlightlessDuck]

How do people find time enough to pay attention to other peoples' conversations at Disney, let alone remember them well enough to share them when they get back from vacation?

 

[MistressMerryweather]

Ugh! That so horrible. Though, I agree with what pp's have said, "THEY raise their kids to be like that. . . so maybe karma's coming back around to kick them in the you-know-what?" That still doesn't give them the right to be that way. At some point you make your own choices, but yuck. So sad.

My parents usually come for a couple of days when we go so that dh and I can go out one day and leave the kids with the best babysitter in the world. I bend over backwards in thanking my mom. We pay for the flights, the room and the most of the food depending on how long they are there. I wouldn't think of acting like that.

 

[TandLMommy28]

I'm 28 and I'm paying for my mother to come with me--she took care of me for 22 years (through college) and she's done! It's my turn to return the favor as far as I'm concerned. I can't imagine being in my 40s and expecting my mother to pay for me!

 

[MistressMerryweather]

How do people find time enough to pay attention to other peoples' conversations at Disney, let alone remember them well enough to share them when they get back from vacation?

It's hard to ignore loud obnoxious people when shopping, eating and relaxing on a bench, and it kind of stays in your brain...YKWIM?

 

[sissy_42]

How do people find time enough to pay attention to other peoples' conversations at Disney, let alone remember them well enough to share them when they get back from vacation?

Because you've never overheard someone when you were in public?

 

[CLPClarinet]

I'm 22 and all my mom is paying for is she's giving me 10 bucks a day to go towards food. I paid for airfare, the rest of food, park tickets, and anything I'd like to purchase.

 

[bdoyledimou]

Sometimes, its not the parents wo raise thier kids like that, but the perception of the kids that they WERE raised like that.

I know a family where there are two brothers, and one of them pays their own way, and the other assumes that if they are offered an invite, and they accept, its a all expences paid trip.

I have seen the brother suggest a dinner out and then ask who was paying for him..

 

[FlightlessDuck]

It's hard to ignore loud obnoxious people when shopping, eating and relaxing on a bench, and it kind of stays in your brain...YKWIM?

Sort of. If someone made a big enough seen, I'd remember it. Like, for example, a parent beating the tar out of their kid. Besides that, I don't end up noticing.

 

[TheMorgans]

FlightlessDuck -

Most of these conversations were loud enough that most everyone around stopped to stare. I was just shocked at the way these "adults" were treating their parents and the attitude that their parents somehow are still obligated to support them.

 

[jd99]

Absolutely disgusting. I felt guilty when I was in college taking $$$ from my dad to help with expenses. I really can't imagine inviting my family on a trip and then demanding they pay for anything.

 

[DiRTyBuNNy]

People today have no idea what it is like to need - they only know how to want.

Even at 29, if I said something like that to my parents today, I'd better duck , because they'd both slap the taste outta my mouth.

same here.

--DB

 

[Kat&Dom]

Wow - that is unbelievable. Selfish, greedy behavior knows no bounds.


When I invited my mom to come to Disney to celebrate my son's 3rd birthday - I paid for her flight, all accomodation costs, car rental and gas, Disney tickets, Ball tickets to Tampa Bay Rays game and majority of food. I did let her treat us to one meal at Cracker Barrell and buy her own soveniors but everything else I paid for. My mom and dad sacrificed so much for us kids growing up that it was the least that I could do.

It is so sad that people feel entitled and raise their children to be the same way. Karma will come back to them because their children are seeing how they treat their mom and dad and will treat them the same way later on. It is a very sad cycle.