ride by omission

[maxiesmom]

A coworker of mine is at Disney World right now. She has been posting all sorts of pics on facebook of her family having a great time, but today I saw a post that makes me wonder a bit about getting children on rides.

The post today is a pic of her sun on Rock n Rollercoaster. Her son looks scared out of his mind, though her post assures us he loved it. The post is followed by the comment that she may have forgotten to tell him how fast it went or that it went upside down, followed by a row of Haha faces.

To be honest, I don't find it funny. But everyone else who sees the pic seems to, judging by all the comments. The whole thing makes me wonder, have you ever kept back something about a ride in order to get a child on? And how did it work out? And if you haven't done so, would you "forget" to tell your child details about a ride in order to get them to try it?

 

[Capang]

I’ve never done that, but that is exactly what my parents did to me. It was fine. I loved coasters but was afraid of anything that went upside down so they just never told me. Once I rode I was completely ok.

Now that I have DD I don’t do that but only because we watch the YouTube ride videos for anything she might be scared of. Although this year we will be frequenting a local park that is known for its extreme coasters. So I may deploy that tactic yet. We will see.

I think parents know their kids best and know what they can and can’t handle. Therefore I don’t really think it’s too big a deal. It does make for some classic ride photos, though.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

A coworker of mine is at Disney World right now. She has been posting all sorts of pics on facebook of her family having a great time, but today I saw a post that makes me wonder a bit about getting children on rides.

The post today is a pic of her sun on Rock n Rollercoaster. Her son looks scared out of his mind, though her post assures us he loved it. The post is followed by the comment that she may have forgotten to tell him how fast it went or that it went upside down, followed by a row of Haha faces.

To be honest, I don't find it funny. But everyone else who sees the pic seems to, judging by all the comments. The whole thing makes me wonder, have you ever kept back something about a ride in order to get a child on? And how did it work out? And if you haven't done so, would you "forget" to tell your child details about a ride in order to get them to try it?

Was this the in-ride Photopass shot on RnR? I’m pretty sure many of the photos taken of people (both young and old) on that ride would lead the viewer to believe they were scared.

I’m a grown-up (or so I’m told) and if you saw in-ride photos of me on RnR, EE, Dinosaur, etc. you would swear I was scared out my mind.

 

[JEng711]

I don't know. I'm with you, @maxiesmom. I don't think it's funny either. Maybe my husband and I are too sensitive or crunchy or whatever, but we like our toddler (3) to go into things like WDW rides informed so she can make the decision of whether or not she wants to ride.

As @Capang said though, everyone's different and only the parents know what a kid can and can't handle. For us, DD would certainly hate it and lose a LOT of trust in what we say is "fun" and probably wouldn't set foot on a ride after something like that.

 

[katyjeka]

I may not disclose the entire detail of a ride unless it a "big" ride. I was honest with my kids about Rock n Rollercoaster and such as they can be scary for younger kids. I do agree that the pictures can give the appearance that the ride scared them to death but it isn't always the case. We only bought our girls first ride pictures and the look on their faces were horrible but they wanted back on as soon as the ride was over.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I didn’t tell my daughter that EE went backwards. It wasn’t omission as much as I didn’t think it would be a big deal. She hated it at 6, but liked it at 8.

 

[Disneylover99]

I think you always need to downplay it a bit, otherwise some kids would never want to try.
I would avoid showing a YouTube video of most rides. I think that might backfire.

 

[PollyannaMom]

...have you ever kept back something about a ride in order to get a child on? And how did it work out? And if you haven't done so, would you "forget" to tell your child details about a ride in order to get them to try it?

Not intentionally....

but DH once did this to somebody else's kid!

We were in line for Rockin' Roller Coaster (which he had been on, but several years before) and a kid asked him if it went upside down. He really didn't remember, and said he didn't think so. - He felt so awful after!

But the best part was that the kid called him out on it - in the rest room after the ride. DS says it was priceless!

 

[kiramay]

I downplayed Tower of Terror, and my youngest (4 at the time) freaked out. He rode all the other roller coasters and loved them, but the up-down on ToT traumatized him. Still refuses to ride it at almost 8.

 

[KrazeeK120]

I’d never do that to my kid. I try to keep in mind how I would want to be treated, and treat him accordingly. I like to know what to expect on a ride before I go on. He’s only 2 right now, so I’m not sure how much he understands, but I will always let him know what to expect before he tries something.

I also would not like to be forced onto a ride I do not wish to ride, and wouldn’t force him onto a ride either.

Just because I’m older and know more doesn’t mean I should take advantage of him. And I wouldn’t think it’s cute if someone else did either.

 

[mom2att]

My daughter's 21, and she still remembers that I told her Big Thunder Mountain was "just a train ride" when she was 5. She rode it and liked it, as I knew she would, but she hasn't forgotten the fact that I was less than forthcoming about the nature of the ride. It's ok, we're still friends.

 

[North of Mouse]

A coworker of mine is at Disney World right now. She has been posting all sorts of pics on facebook of her family having a great time, but today I saw a post that makes me wonder a bit about getting children on rides.

The post today is a pic of her sun on Rock n Rollercoaster. Her son looks scared out of his mind, though her post assures us he loved it. The post is followed by the comment that she may have forgotten to tell him how fast it went or that it went upside down, followed by a row of Haha faces.

To be honest, I don't find it funny. But everyone else who sees the pic seems to, judging by all the comments. The whole thing makes me wonder, have you ever kept back something about a ride in order to get a child on? And how did it work out? And if you haven't done so, would you "forget" to tell your child details about a ride in order to get them to try it?

As a parent, I sure never would have done that. It can really backfire!! I've seen children so traumatized by parents not being truthful about a scary ride that they don't trust them about other new rides either.

Personally, I think it's very cruel, and a form of abuse to pull that on a child. If it's a ride that you 'know' is not scary and they balk at it, then if you insist, they will trust you. But don't lie - even by omission!!

 

[sunflowerfields]

I would not deliberately encourage a child to ride something they weren't comfortable with. I did that to my grandson really by accident and found out later what I had done. Fortunately he did fine on the ride. I feel sick though every time I think about it and what it would have been like for him if he hadn't been able to handle it. I can't do the roller coaster type rides and don't like people insisting to me it will be great, so I see a need to respect a child's choice not to.

 

[DoryGirl1963]

Parents did this with a young boy (maybe 5?) on Dinosaur last year. They sat behind us. Kid literally SCREAMED through the ENTIRE ride. For the love of Pete, don't, just please don't.

 

[Newcastle]

Parents did this with a young boy (maybe 5?) on Dinosaur last year. They sat behind us. Kid literally SCREAMED through the ENTIRE ride. For the love of Pete, don't, just please don't.

Last year we were the next people in line to get on RnR and there was a young boy who had boarded the ride with his father and he was absolutely screaming that he did not want to go on the ride !! He was screaming at the top of his lungs, pleading with his dad and trying to remove the harness and I thought, good grief, are they actually going to make this kid ride the ride? What was really interesting is that the CM, after observing this for several seconds, advised them that they would not be able to ride the ride given how distressed he was. I know this is slightly different than the thread question because I obviously have no way of knowing whether they discussed the ride with him beforehand or not but it was troubling to see that he was essentially being forced to ride had the CM not stepped in. Now, I understand that I didn't know this child and maybe he had done this before on other rides and ended up really enjoying himself but I can't imagine how he could have calmed down enough to actually enjoy the ride given that he was pretty much hysterical. It just doesn't seem worth it for the sake of a 1+ minute ride.

 

[gatormom2tots]

Yep.....or else my 6 year old would ride nothing. We know our child- and we know what she will like. We have done it on 7 dwarves, Tower of Terror, and Splash. And she will tell you that those are her 3 favorite rides! Its about knowing your child and knowing what they can truly handle. We know our child would be fine and she would like it.

Now I would never put her on Dinosaur because I know she would not handle it well.

 

[elaine amj]

Well, depends on the kid.

My DD adores coasters. But was absolutely terrified of any new ones. She would be in tears whenever we went on a new one. And it was dreadful for me because I felt like such an evil mom forcing her on. But I knew my child and she always loved it after the first few seconds of terror. She's in her teens now and is a coaster fiend.

On the other hand, my son still grumbles at me for the time I got him on a wooden rollercoaster that ended up being too much for him to handle. I honestly thought it would be within his limits (he liked fast rides as long as it had no drops), but he was not happy with me the entire ride as the drops were a wee bit too big. I was a bad mom that ride. But sometimes, it is so hard to tell!

Mostly I try to be as descriptive as possible and show Youtube videos when I can. My son has ridden everything at WDW except for EE and now chooses to stick to BTMR.

 

[MamaBelle4]

Kind of the opposite actually.

I read the description of Dinosaur to my DD (then 6) and it sounded good to her. I had never been on it. Wasn't a member of the Dis or you all could have warned me. Well, my dad took her on it. We were all waiting by the exit area and all these kids came out crying and distraught. I ran to the front and asked the CM if I could go ahead and warn my daughter and he sent me through the FP line. I caught up to them and told them I thought it was best they didn't ride it and they ignored me.

Well, DD came out with her face pressed in my Dad's chest, nearly crying. I tried to warn her when I realized it was scary.

 

[CeruleanMoon]

I agree with you, OP, that I would never think of doing such a thing, and if my parents had done that to me, I'm sure I would have distrusted them on all rides for a long time after. I would have found a too scary ride to be borderline traumatic I'm sure. I am also very sensitive to motion and was a very sensitive, cautious child, as is my son now. I'm frequently astounded by the numerous posts here of very little kids riding rides that I consider to be too frightening or wild to ride myself! I can only assume that people's temperaments really are that different and what might be traumatic for one child would register as barely a blip on their radar for another!

My son wouldn't even step foot on any ride in amusement parks, even the tiny baby rides, until he was 5 years old. He was terrified of regular swing sets and would scream and flail if I tried to gently push him in one of the baby swings, even at 2 years old! (I loved swings as a child btw.) He's 10 now and is contemplating riding on Big Thunder for the first time, but is still quite nervous about it. I suspect he'll love it, and I plan to encourage him to ride it, but I won't force the issue.

 

[Klayfish]

I probably wouldn't have done it, but I also wouldn't have a problem with the post OP describes.

I know my opinion is different than many, but we made our kids try all kinds of rides at WDW once they were tall enough. Even if they felt it was scary to them, we made them try it. If they didn't like it, fine, but at least they tried.