Not our finest moment as a family..whats yours lol

[cjbcam]

Mine was like the worst melt down ever. I, who NEVER spank, spanked my 4 year old in the magic kingdom. It was DH, DD10, DD8, DD4, DS2 and my first trip to WDW. Everyone was having such a good time and behaving themselves except my DD4. She wanted this, that, and the next thing and nothing seemed to make her happy. Well I finally had enough when she wouldn't stop whining and refused to move unless we took her back on BTMRR ( her favorite ride). Well I snapped picked her up and gave her a spank on her butt. She was just as shocked as I was. I then looked at my husband with tears in my eyes and said what a magical place. She stopped acting like a brat but I felt like mother of the year and I still feel bad I did that.

 

[PEC]

As I look back on our trips Day4 is the meltdown day. I think that is when the long days, heat, walking, sensory overload just catches up. My next big trip I am really pondering of including an extra day and just staying at lodging on day 4. Maybe a swim.
The interesting thing is the meltdowns were teenagers nagging and then DGD 5. I kind of take the blame for DGD 5 because it was my DW that melted down on her (yes spanking) that I should have just done what I said before the trip and stayed with it and that is take the step back, sit on a bench a few minutes and relax. We did that a little later and it worked.

 

[Caseheidi]

We have had a few of these moments, but I think the most memorable was in December of 2008. My DH and I have been many times, but we invited my parents and brother and family to join us. There were 6 adults and 2 children in our group. Neither of my parents move that we'll, and we made arrangements for mom to have a scooter all week due to her Rheumatoid Arthritis . To compound things, Mom broke her foot in the week leading up to the trip. Their second day there we did Hollywood Studios. It was cold and wet, disappointing to my family who all come from Oregon. We wanted sun on our Florida vacation. Mom was in pain, and really being crabby. No thing nice came out of her mouth all day, and she was really nasty to my Dad. Finally at Dinner in the Commissary, I had enough and basically told her that she was being mean and ungrateful and would ruin the trip for all of us if she did not have a change of attitude. I am embarrassed to say that I did this in front of my whole family, which kind of shocked everyone. I am typically the peacekeeper in the family and avoid confrontation, but I had been so looking forward to sharing our favorite place with my loved ones and felt that she was ruining it.

So anyway, Mom looked at me shocked, and drove away from us all without a word. This is not like her. Usually she would have yelled back, but I guess it was he shock of coming from me. After a few awkward moments, the rest of my family told me that she needed to hear the things I said. My Dad went out to talk to her a few minutes later, and she ended up apologizing to him for how she acted. She rejoined the family, and was really pleasant to be around for the next 5 days while we enjoyed ourselves. Really it all came down to her being in pain, and my speaking up made her realize that she wanted to try and move through the pain and enjoy herself.

 

[PersonalizedMouse]

I cracked up reading some of these lol

 

[siskaren]

Zombie thread alert!

 

[powellrj]

There seem to be more and more zombie threads. What's up with that.

 

[mommy123]

First trip first day, I was that parent who had enough of the whining, fighting, crying, demanding souvenirs, refusing to cooperate, etc. After threatening to leave, and still escalating behaviors, I wheeled them all the way to the front gate with them screaming the whole way, promising to behave. Needless to say, we did end up staying that day, they had a good time, and tho nowhere near perfect, there were no more major outbursts ( at least by the two older ones) for the rest of the week.

 

[elcmum]

2001, traveling with an entire family including my in-laws. I had my 3yo daughter holding the stroller handle which held my 1yo daughter, while carrying a backpack and lugging a camera around my neck. My sister-in-law turned to my empty-handed (then) husband at the entrance of EPCOT and said, "don't you think you should help your wife?" and he looked me up and down and said, "nah, she can handle it". I honestly thought they were going to drop into an all-out fist fight... until he walked away without any cash or credit cards on him, and spent the entire day by himself. My father-in-law told me to not worry, that we were going to have a great time without him -- and we did.

 

[22Tink]

Fun Topic !

Our family's "finest moment" came at DHS, during Star Wars Weekends 2010. We usually get to parks at open and take a break around noon, but on this trip, we decided to stick around for the parade and lined up about 45 minutes early, staking out a great spot so I could photograph it. It was scorching hot, and both my 4 year old and 10 year old were feeling it, whining and complaining about everything.

Two minutes before the parade starts, as the cast member closes down the path, a group of 4 British tourists (obvious from the accents) shoves right in front of my 4 year olds stroller, completely blocking his view, having to push the rope forward so they could "fit". I ask them to move and the woman, apparently drunk, starts screaming that the cast member told them they had to stand there. Her husband, a burly guy who looked like a soccer hooligan, looked embarassed, but did nothing to control his wife, who continued to scream as if this was all my problem.

When it became clear they wouldn't voluntarily move, I reached over a grabbed toy lightsaber from a vendor, and smashed the woman over her head in an effort to knock some sense into her. Her husband rears back and takes a swing at me, which I duck to avoid. He hits the man next to me, an off duty cop, square in the face. The cop, filled with rage and overpriced beer, tackles the hooligan into a crowd of rowdy frat boys. Pretty soon fists are flying, stands are getting knocked over, and uttter chaos reigns. Just then, the parade rounds the corner, and the 501st, seeing chaos, rears into action, jumping into the fray to restrain people. Long story short, 14 arrests, 2 years of ongoing litigation, and I have scars on my fist from the front teeth of the hooligan when I knocked them out of his skull.






hehe - just wondered who read these long posts. All of this really happened except the preceeding paragraph; I just ended up yelling at the woman until her husband, a very nice guy, ushered her to the back of the four deep crowd with an apologetic nod of his head.

Well played!! Made me glad I do read the long posts!!

 

[22Tink]

Our not so happy moments usually come, not surprisingly, at meal times. One person will pipe up that they're hungry, and it'll turn into a "where do you want to eat", "I don't know where do you want to eat"...that goes on until someone (usually a hungry and grumpy DH) loses it!! He gets mad, the little ones cry, and we end up eating at the closest CS place, not enjoying our meal at all, with everyone miserable. It's my own fault for under planning, and I've since learned to book those ADRs!! My family definitely needs that nice relaxing TS meal to regroup for the rest of the day.

 

[starsweeper]

With 4 kids, I've had my share of moments but our most recent happened this past Easter week. I had taken my 4 kids (8,8,4,3) to WDW by myself during the week leading to Easter. Knowing it would be busy and I was completely outnumbered, we were taking it easy by hitting the parks early to take advantage of low morning crowds to reduce time for my preschoolers in line, then leaving the park by 2-3pm. This worked great for a couple days. On day 3, just as we got to the FP+ 2nd check for the Little Mermaid ride, YDD (3) threw a massive fit, screaming, crying, refusing to stand or let me pick her up easily. The CMs seemed clueless on how to help me. I kept asking for a way out and they directed me to the loading area for wheelchairs, I'm holding a preschooler screeching nonstop with 3 other kids in tow and noone seemed willing to help me exit until another guest screamed at them to open the entrance for me--thank goodness for that guy!

We were trying to get 1 more ride in before slowing down but she was overtired after 2 days of this and lost it. We returned immediately to the resort and she calmed down after a nap, and was fine for the next 2 days. I learned my lesson, day 3 needs to be a shorter day in the park with some downtime at the pool or something similar.

 

[tinkermom23]

I know this is a resurrected thread but it's fun to know "melt-downs" have been happening forever!
Our worst is also Epcot and Day 4. (What's with that?) We were doing the Mission Kim-Possible thing and all 3 kids shared the phone and took turns following the clues. Well, every clue leads you through a gift shop and DS who was 9 at the time, asked for EVERYTHING! Finally, DH had enough, yelling "Disney takes ALL MY MONEY just to get here and now they want what little is left!" Then he yells at the kids about how ungrateful they are and why can't they just be happy that they are AT Disney, why do they need to keep buying stuff..... on and on... We were all in tears, returned the Mission phone-thing, and just walked in silence for about an hour.
Now we always plan Day 4 to be a down-day, hanging out at the pool, sleeping in, doing laundry....