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

[su_A_ve]

After having an amazing time with our older son prior of him turning 3, when our younger one was going to turn three, we decided to go and invited my dad. We never pushed the pace or anything but had similar expectations we had with our older one.

Not the case. Our now DS12 would constantly get cranky and upset. Could not keep him in long lines (we went in early Nov so crowds were light) and hard time keeping him happy. We had to split up so our older son (DS16 now) would enjoy the trip. But not all was bad - he enjoyed me walking him while on the stroller, even interacting with characters...

Six months later he was diagnosed with Autism...

 

[Autumnslight]

We just returned from a nine day trip with our seven and three year olds, plus a good friend and her six year old. There were PLENTY of whiny, unpleasant moments, but the one that sticks out most was when we were leaving Animal Kingdom. Our seven year old son was behaving terribly, and we were all completely fed up with his attitude. My husband started lecturing him, and said something that included the phrase "if you don't shut the hell up...". There was some woman and her family walking by who must have heard that part of what my husband was saying, and as she passed by, I heard her say to someone else "Did he really just tell his kid to shut the hell up?", in a really snotty tone of voice. I nearly lost my mind. I was SO tempted to yell at her that I was really glad she was a perfect parent who never said or did anything out of frustration that they might regret later. I managed to keep it together though, and just ignored her and kept walking. That certainly wasn't our finest moment!

 

[mom2kandj]

Our first trip to WDW with the munchkins was 7 years ago when my dd was 5 and ds was 4. After a very long day park hopping and evening at DTD, we were walking near WOrld of Disney when DS yells "I've got to pee!" Fine...we start walking towards the bathroom when all of the sudden, DS jumps up on a planter, drops his shorts and waters the flowers. He then yells "I did it dad! Just like at home!" My husband and dd keep walking by - totally ignoring "that kid" while I'm left to scoop him up as everyone watched with their jaws dropped...

 

[ChelleFeegan]

Thank you so much everyone. I thought I had just been a horrid parent. I had two meltdowns this August which were not my finest moment.

The first I can't even remember what sparked it; but on our way to universal my DD7 had been acting the spoilt brat and I lost it. And proceeded to MARCH the entire length of city walk. By the time we got in to Universal I had calmed down somewhat but god knows what people must have thought as I stormed past them

The second was on our last day. This is seriously embarrassing and if anyone saw me I apologise profusely. We went to DTD for our last few hours; and coupled with heat, tiredness and the fact that none of us wanted to go home it was a disaster waiting to happen. Anyway; we go into Goofy Candy Co and I proceed to fill up 2 bags of jelly beans coming to $27 my DH went mad (even tho he had brought $30 of fudge) saying it was a ridiculous amount of money to spend la la la. I got uppity as it was my money and could spend it on what I wanted and let's just say it escalated... A few choice names were called; my daughter ended up with her hands over her ears. I told my DH to go; we'd make our own way to the airport, he walked off to come back ... He tried to talk to me, I walked off. This went on for about an hour until the sky opened and we resembled drowned rats... And then we gave up!

There were lots of other grumbles and snipes. DH for example being humpy about costs, DD being a brat, me rushing everyone through the parks at top speed but heat and tiredness played a MASSIVE part and once we figured out slow down, take refuge in shops and DD getting a talking too it was great

So great we have booked again for next year. August again. wonder if there'll be any "fine" moments this time... I am sure there will be though.

 

[LCoulter]

We went to Disney for a week when DD was 4, had a great time. On our last day, our DD4 did not want to leave but she was really good and got in the car for the long drive home. As we were driving, I pointed out to DD that you can see the Disney ship in the distance. I asked her if she would like to sail with Mickey and she said, no, she wanted to go back to Disney World. Guess I should not have asked.

We get on the ship and she is fussing and is moody because she doesn’t want to be there. We ate a quick lunch, by the time we finished, our cabin is ready so we head there to try to get her to take a nap. She is being stubborn and won’t nap and the moodiness continues. We start preparing her for the muster drill explaining it to her and she doesn’t want to do it. We tell her we have no choice.

We leave the cabin at the last possible second and head to our station with me carrying DD. As we are heading to the stairs, DD starts screaming an ear piercing scream….I want to crawl under a rock somewhere and hide. There is a guy that screams at me…”shut her up or I am going to throw her overboard”. DH screamed, “Hey”. The guy took one look at DH and turned and bolted down the stairs shoving everyone out of his way. DH took two steps in pursuit, saw the security watching the situation and DH stopped dead in his tracks. DD did at least stop screaming shortly after the incident and the CM at the station were trying to calm her down as she was still crying. Looking back on it now, maybe DD thought there was a real emergency and she was scared.

DH watched for that guy all through the cruise just so that he could talk to him about not giving an angry parent a punching bag.

DD did warm up to the cruise quickly and was back to her usual cheery self the next day. She loved the kids club and that was the only major meltdown in the two weeks.

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

After having an amazing time with our older son prior of him turning 3, when our younger one was going to turn three, we decided to go and invited my dad. We never pushed the pace or anything but had similar expectations we had with our older one.

Not the case. Our now DS12 would constantly get cranky and upset. Could not keep him in long lines (we went in early Nov so crowds were light) and hard time keeping him happy. We had to split up so our older son (DS16 now) would enjoy the trip. But not all was bad - he enjoyed me walking him while on the stroller, even interacting with characters...

Six months later he was diagnosed with Autism...

That would explain it.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Ladygoldenhair]

these definitely made me giggle, though I apologize for laughing at everyone's misfortunes! hehehe

After being a grumpy gills,

After he apologized for not listening to me in the first place and I stopped being a baby, we ended up having a great day in Orlando, getting boba tea, and looking around a comic book shop before heading home early and napping before he had to go to work.

.

I had to laugh at everyone use of "poor grumpy" being an adjective, I go with Grumpy, sleepy, sneezy, etc also!

AND Boba Tea makes anything better! Glad we all can smile and share.

 

[kiramay]

Our fiasco... My mistake. We arrived to WDW after 2 days of driving. We had a park ticket for that day and I wanted the kids first WDW experience to be MK.

We got on the wrong bus.

Ended up at HS. No FP available. Long lines. Hungry kids. Started raining.

We saw a few indoor shows, ate dinner, ran through the Osborn lights in the pouring rain, and basically the kids were not feeling the Disney Magic.

Thank goodness the rest of the trip was better.

Note to self: pay attention to the bus labels....

 

[GrumpyGoat]

You could go golfing or fishing or boating.

I don't play golf, I don't fish and twenty years in the US Navy cured me of boating...

 

[dansamy]

I don't play golf, I don't fish and twenty years in the US Navy cured me of boating...

Well, you're just up a creek, ain't ya?

 

[DisneyRegulars]

My meltdown happened at Epcot. I totally lost my patience and my cool. It was over a battery. My son had bought a remote control toy earlier in our trip that of course did not come with batteries. We had looked in a couple of gift shops for the battery with no luck. But my son would not quit nagging about the battery. Finally, I saw the battery we needed in the Test Track gift shop. I thought it would be quick and easy to get it and go on to Soarin' before heading over to WS for fireworks. Nope. My sons started whining about something, DH was ready to go and I just wanted to make everybody happy. There was this one customer at the register that wanted to look at every single item in the display case and only one cast member. It took forever. I snapped at DH and my boys who were whining. DH snapped back at me. It was taking so long I finally sent DH over to Soarin' with the boys.

I was so sad as I walked over to meet them at Soarin'. They rode without me and that made me sadder. I sat on the bench waiting for them to come out. I almost cried. I was still upset with myself on the walk over to WS. I apologized to DH and DS. I worried all night that I had ruined our trip with my outburst.

My son bought a toy train one year that needed 3 AAA and a 9v battery and 2 different screw drivers to open the battery cases. I think the batteries ended up costing more than the darn train and took FOREVER to find. I can totally see someone melting down over the battery hunt, especially with a nagging kid. Since then we have always packed a variety of batteries with us just in case, as well as a set of screw drivers, just to avoid the battery hunt child whining screw driver hunt mess.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey12]

It took me two days to be able to finish reading all these. It seems a lot of the meltdowns have a common theme, heat and hunger for the most part.

I have been lucky that since my kids are all teens and tweens they don't really have meltdowns and Dh and I haven't had one either. We have had wonderful trips.

But I do have a not so great mother of the year moment.

It didn't happen at Disney. We were on our Disney trip. 9 nights. But this day we went to Busch gardens. There was just one main ride I wanted to ride there called Cheetah Hunt.

Now my DS12 was 11 at the time and he has always been my fearful child. We have had to talk him into and bribe him to get him on some rides. There are very few that he refuses to ride a second time. ToT is one.

Usually he will tell me very plainly that he doesn't want to ride something and I will let him wait for us at the exit of the ride.

We all got in line to irde Cheetah Hunt and he never told me he didn't want to ride. I didn't know at the time he was scared to death of riding this ride. I just got us all in line and we all boarded the ride cars.

I always ride with him so if he gets scared I am close. So we get seated in the car and are about to take off and I reached over and patted his arm and said something like HERE WE GO and looked him in the eyes and he had HUGE tears rolling down his face. He was so scared of this ride that it had caused him to start crying silently.

I saw his tears and immediately my heart broke into a million pieces and I knew there was nothing I could do because in just a few seconds we were going to take off.

I had looked forward to that ride for 6 months and it is the ONLY ride I really wanted to ride at that park and all I could think about during the whole ride was my son sitting next to me so scared he was crying. I felt horrible. i don't know if I have ever felt so horrible as a mother as I did in that moment.

He ended up CLAIMING to like the ride but later when asked if he wanted to ride it again he said no.

I apologized to him numerous times and told him SON you really should have made it clear to me that you were scared to ride it.

Ever since then I ask him on every ride if he is sure he wants to ride it. But ToT is really the only one he doesn't ride. He doesn't ride ANY of the big coasters at Universal or IOA but I don't either. We don't make anybody ride anything they don't want to ride.

I should knock on wood that we have never had a PUBLIC puking thing. DS12 did get sick one trip two nights in a row right at bedtime he felt sick and went in the bathroom and threw up and felt better. It happened two nights in a row and he thinks it was because he ate too many spicy Cheetos. So he has never eaten spicy Cheetos again since that trip.

On DH's and I's last trip this April it was freakishly hot. around 90 degrees every day with 75% humidity. Almost intolerable for me. I cannot tolerate heat at all. We had made our way through Future World at Epcot and by the time we got to making our way around World Showcase I walked right past every country not stopping to see anything I made the loop and headed right towards the front of the park and told DH we need to go I am just too hot.

I vowed never to go back any time between April and September.

Now hopefully our trip coming up in 4 weeks will go smoothly and have no hiccups.

But thanks to everyone who has shared their story I have enjoyed reading them.

 

[dansamy]

Heat, hunger and dehydration.

And we're from coastal AL, so we're used to the high humidity heat.

 

[jnoble82]

This didn't happen to me but I witnessed in, shockingly, Epcot. Japan. Pick-a-pearl if you want the exact location. I am in line to buy my pearl ticket and there is a little girl (about 2 1/2-3) throwing a fit on the floor, rolling around and screaming while clutching in her hands...a dirty diaper(it was balled up like I often see parents do when they are changing their kids). Every time her parents tried to get it from her, she would scream, grab it, and throw her body over it. I really felt for her parents who were trying to do all they could to get it from her and get her into the stroller (she fought that too). They almost got it from her but she kicked her legs up, rolled onto her back, grabbed it, and rolled back it over. Eventually it ended. I really wanted to give those parents a hug. At least they now have an embarrassing story to share when she's older. "Remember that time you had a fit over a diaper at Disney?

I wonder why she was so attached to the darn thing.

 

[GotLabradors]

Our first trip to WDW with the munchkins was 7 years ago when my dd was 5 and ds was 4. After a very long day park hopping and evening at DTD, we were walking near WOrld of Disney when DS yells "I've got to pee!" Fine...we start walking towards the bathroom when all of the sudden, DS jumps up on a planter, drops his shorts and waters the flowers. He then yells "I did it dad! Just like at home!" My husband and dd keep walking by - totally ignoring "that kid" while I'm left to scoop him up as everyone watched with their jaws dropped...

 

[dansamy]

This didn't happen to me but I witnessed in, shockingly, Epcot. Japan. Pick-a-pearl if you want the exact location. I am in line to buy my pearl ticket and there is a little girl (about 2 1/2-3) throwing a fit on the floor, rolling around and screaming while clutching in her hands...a dirty diaper(it was balled up like I often see parents do when they are changing their kids). Every time her parents tried to get it from her, she would scream, grab it, and throw her body over it. I really felt for her parents who were trying to do all they could to get it from her and get her into the stroller (she fought that too). They almost got it from her but she kicked her legs up, rolled onto her back, grabbed it, and rolled back it over. Eventually it ended. I really wanted to give those parents a hug. At least they now have an embarrassing story to share when she's older. "Remember that time you had a fit over a diaper at Disney?

I wonder why she was so attached to the darn thing.

Because 2 year olds aren't cognitively developed to the point that they can separate self from their bodily products. Literally, they view the products of their bodies as parts of themselves. It's a very normal phase of cognitive and psychological development.

 

[rachael95]

Because 2 year olds aren't cognitively developed to the point that they can separate self from their bodily products. Literally, they view the products of their bodies as parts of themselves. It's a very normal phase of cognitive and psychological development.

This. I've been researching potty training and one of the most common fears for children is what happens to the poop. They feel like they made it, it's part of them and all the parent wants to do is flush it down this scary toilet and what if they end up getting flushed down too? Considering this is also the age where the child is just beginning to understand that things don't disappear when they aren't looking at them (talk about terrifying) and that mommy is a separate being from them and can leave them (even moms who send babies to daycare, the child begins the separation anxiety around early toddlerhood), makes sense.

 

[dansamy]

It's also why auto flush toilets are terrifying.

 

[chimilady]

This past trip 2 months ago, I got a lot of "But I don't want to do that!" and I would make her go on. I got so many ugly looks from parents that I shouldn't be forcing her to go on, but they didn't know that just the week prior, we watched these on youtube and she WANTED to do them, or she already did them last trip! My daughter often will say she's scared when she's not, and every time but one (Kali River Rapids) she was loving the ride after it was over.

 

[jnoble82]

Because 2 year olds aren't cognitively developed to the point that they can separate self from their bodily products. Literally, they view the products of their bodies as parts of themselves. It's a very normal phase of cognitive and psychological development.

I didn't know that about 2 year olds but it does make a lot of sense when I really think about it. Thank you for that info! Her parents were fairly calm though I don't know how long it had been going on when I got there or what they did to finally calm her down. I just know one minute she was crying and on the floor and the next time I saw her, she was in the stroller, red faced but quieter. I kind of drowned out the noise because I work in a science museum that is visited by lots of children (and yes, I take a vacation from there to go to Disney. Some of my coworkers think I'm crazy to leave a job full of kids to go to a place full of kids. I say they are just jealous ). You could say I'm used to almost anything (except apparently this kind of incident and then again, kids always seem to surprise you) kids do.

It's also why auto flush toilets are terrifying.

Those things terrify me sometimes when they go off when I am still doing my thing! There's one at work that no matter how still you sit it still goes off. We have labeled the bathroom stalls as autoflush or manual mainly for kids who get scared for the noise but I'm sure parents dealing with kids having a hard time saying "goodbye" appreciate it as well.