Share your stories of being *That* family

She was very overtired one evening and we were scheduled to do the Luau at the Poly. They bring you to this holding area of sorts before they walk you down to the stage/seating area. She was being so naughty, not listening, telling me "no" repeatedly and then started hitting me in the arm over and over. I remember there was this one woman in particular who kept looking at us. In that situation, there was really nothing I could have done, we were in extremely close quarters with other guests and if I reacted to my 3 year old the way I wanted to, it would have been a complete scene which I was trying to avoid. But this woman kept giving me the evil eye as if she couldn't believe I was letting my daughter act this way. I'll never forget it. Thinking back I wish I had said something to the woman but at the time, I just wanted the moment to pass. Anyways, we finally got to the table and after she filled her belly with food, she passed out in my lap and slept through the whole thing.
I hate when people are so obviously judgmental in public! I’m sure we’ve all had private thoughts sometimes about other people’s kids, but I would never make it known. We were in the airport once when our DD was a toddler. We got bumped from our very early morning flight after we got to the airport. We had to wait several hours until the next flight. We had gotten up at 4 a.m. and DD was exhausted. She fell asleep on my husband’s lap after a few hours. This woman walking by with a teenage girl pointed at us and said loudly, “They should NOT be letting her sleep now! She should be making her wait to nap on the flight!” I was so shocked I said nothing at the time, but I wish I would have. It made me so mad.
 
I hate when people are so obviously judgmental in public! I’m sure we’ve all had private thoughts sometimes about other people’s kids, but I would never make it known. We were in the airport once when our DD was a toddler. We got bumped from our very early morning flight after we got to the airport. We had to wait several hours until the next flight. We had gotten up at 4 a.m. and DD was exhausted. She fell asleep on my husband’s lap after a few hours. This woman walking by with a teenage girl pointed at us and said loudly, “They should NOT be letting her sleep now! She should be making her wait to nap on the flight!” I was so shocked I said nothing at the time, but I wish I would have. It made me so mad.

Before I had kids, I thought it would be non-parents that would be the most judgmental. Other parents are the worst sometimes 🙄
 
This probably works great if you have two adults and two kids. While my children are all now adults, at the time I had four kids and was the solo adult for most of our trips.

Wow, that sounds challenging to be 1 adult with 4 kids at WDW.
We are usually a party of 4 adults and 2 kids and even that can be taxing.
 
OP, I took DD23 for the first time when she was three along with my parents. Thought it went well until we got home and my mom sent me the MK park map with all the timeouts circled for my DD LOL. In reality it was beyond challenging but didn’t put me off traveling to WDW again with her. She’s made twice a year trips since then and at 23 she’s the one planning our November trip lol.

We have all been there. It will get better! And that map? Hanging in her bedroom at her house lol
 
In 2005 we took our four kids for their first ever trip. They were 12, 10, 7, and 4. On our MK day it was also the four year olds actual birthday and we’d told her she could choose her own toy from the stores. We were putting off the shopping until later in the day but she didn’t like that idea and had a meltdown on a bridge by the castle screaming “shopping now!!” at the top of her lungs while people walked by. We stood about 10 feet away waving when people stopped to look and saying she’s ours it’s fine. Eventually she wound down and stomped over to us. To this day if she gets wound up we can say “is this going to be a ‘shopping now’ situation?”.
Same trip the 7 year old is ordering his food at Coral Reef and for some reason the server can’t hear him and he loses it and puts his head down on the table and starts crying. The server brings him a light up Buzz to get him to stop. For years afterward his siblings would tell him in restaurants “start crying maybe you’ll get something..”
We felt embarrassed when these events were happening but it’s all part of the hilarious memories now.
 
Wow, that sounds challenging to be 1 adult with 4 kids at WDW.
We are usually a party of 4 adults and 2 kids and even that can be taxing.

It really wasn't too bad. There's almost a 10 year difference in age between the youngest and the oldest, and the oldest was a lot of help. As I posted upthread, spending a day in the hotel room cured the bickering. My kids always knew I would follow through with any threatened punishment. I'd also gotten good over the years of reading the hungry/thirsty/tired clues and we took plenty of breaks. We went frequently so it wasn't one of those "we have to get it all done" in one trip mentality.
 


Three years ago we took our kids for the first time to Disney. At the time a 2 year old and 6 year old. It was September for the older ones birthday. It was horribly hot. We had 2 strollers so I pushed one my wife the other. We were drenched in sweat from minute one. Our plan on day one was get to the MK to see the train come in. I said, hey, we are at Contemporary lets walk it since its right here! That mistake set the tone for the entire 9 night trip. We were drenched by the time we got to MK. My wife was pissed beyond belief, we missed the train. We get into the park and have a fast pass for peter pan. Great I thought! Everything will be ok. Yeah no. My oldest has a complete meltdown. Refuses to go in the building to enter the line. Refuses to go on anything. Screaming and crying for 2 hours. A cast member actually helped us and explained what is in the little mermaid ride. That calmed her down and we did that ride first. About 3 hours after entering the park and not doing anything but standing around trying to calm her down. (we later find out she has vision problems and sensory problems but that is another story).

So fast forward a few days and we have dinner at Saana. I thought it would be fun cause the kids can watch the animals as we eat. Yeah not so much. The kids were complete beasts. Screaming, crying, throwing things. I had to take them out of the restaurant a few times. Not a good dinner. It was because they were super tired and hot and cranky.

Fast forward again, epcot day. We go to meet Mulan (I think). We are standing in line. My kids are swinging, hanging, pulling on the chain ropes. I tell them to stop, over and over. Eventually my 2 year old falls and hits the metal bar with her head. I loose it completely. Yell out a F*#K it! I Told you to F*&*in stop! Right in front of Mulan. Ugh, not my best moment by far.

After that trip we vowed to never go back in the heat, we also over scheduled the trip, we had the deluxe dining plan and had all kinds of reservations combined with fast passes and were rushing around the whole time. Never again.
 
First visit with my kids in 2016 it’s our last night, we’re on our way out of Animal Kingdom, everyone is tired, I’m annoyed with my mom (refused to get up or out the door before 11, refused to understand FP, ADR, then got annoyed at crowds and lines) and my sister (would wander off without a word in the middle of shows or waits to get a drink without telling anyone). We haven’t eaten yet, I made a nice last night dinner reservation at Sana’a, my 8 year old decides that her heart’s desire is a ten dollar stuffed lion. Except that she’s already spent her souvenir money. Cue meltdown. In an attempt to salvage the evening, I offer to loan her the money, if she does extra chores when we get home. Cue my mom’s meltdown about how my overstimulated child is ungrateful. I start crying in frustration.
We made it to Sana’a, my kids were so cold that my mom bought them each a $20 Disney blanket at the gift shop. It’s a miracle they agreed to go back to Disney. The redemption trip with just DH and my kids went much smoother!
Wow, I guess I still needed to vent, even after four years! Thanks for the therapy, guys!
 
My husband spent our entire 1st trip in May saying never again. My boys 5&8 spent 2 whole days fighting over who was going to hold my right flipping hand. 2.whole.days. If they weren’t fighting about that it was whining they wanted to swim. Their fit throwing resulted in a mommy fit (not my proudest moment lol). It was a cluster of epic proportions despite all my planning and breaks. Fast forward 7 months and trip number 2 (which also was a mess) and we are DVC members lol. My kids were a mess and quite embarrassing at points. But it’ll be ok. I’m sure lots of ppl talked about me as “that mom”. I don’t care. I’m not perfect and neither are they. No one is at Disney lol. It may be the happiest place on earth but it can bring out the worst in all of us.
 
There was me, running out of our dining package seating at Fantasmic because my three year old was FLIPPING OUT HYSTERICAL. We didn't even make it to the dragon part..it was like the first sparks.

There I was again, gathering him up to leave Mama Melrole because Chicken Parmesean was NOT Chicken Nuggets and for that one I got the real walk of shame (hysterical flailing kid and of course we were at the back of the restaurant...)

For the vast majority of the time, they are having so much fun they don't care. But yes. We have all been THAT family!
 
It was day 12 or so of a 17 day road trip which had already taken us most of the length of the lovely PCH. They day before, in DL, we had been the perfect family. Our adorable not-quite-4-year-old had posed for pictures, had her first ride without mommy and daddy in the same seat as her and, minor miracle, eaten her dinner.

But on this day we were visiting California Adventure, and she was DONE. It was hot, and we had been up early, and we were a bit late in having lunch, and DH left me to go ride Tower of Terror. And the Bug's Life area? It is LAME. And there was acting up in line for some stupid bug themed carnival ride. And then there was dragging out of the line, with copious tears and screaming. And no, I did not apologize to the other families (unless you count guiltily muttering "Excuse me" as I dragged my wailing child past them in the line). And then there was a long time period of more silent crying outside of the bathroom, and multiple trips into the bathroom to get more paper towels (to clear up the tears and snotty mess being created). And there were a lot of judging stares from parents entering and leaving the bathrooms with their perfectly happy children (because, obviously, what terrible thing could a parent do to make their kid cry at Disney?). And then, finally, DH was done with his ride, and I did not talk to anyone in the family again for a good several hours.

And then we cooled off a bit and had some food, and everything was okay again.
 
We have a meltdown every trip but its not the girls. Its their mother and the god daughters father. The girls are good as gold every trip but they cant have a vacation without a screaming meltdown and sadly they talk about how great the trips are.
 
We've had a few minor meltdowns over the years but we tended to limit park time when they were little because we knew it was coming.

Our last trip with kids was three years ago. Holy cow! Our youngest is autistic. He was 14 at the time and we also brought our 16 year old. Our youngest was experiencing massive undiagnosed anxiety that came to a head on that trip. It was horrible. He spent most of the trip insisting he was having a heart attack. Eventually either my husband or I would stay at the resort with him and the other parent would go to the parks with the 16 year old.

Now that his anxiety is under control we are doing a redo trip with just him in September. Really hoping it goes better. He'll be 18 by the time the trip happens are we are staying at the Poly so that at least we are close to MK since that seems to be his most overwhelming park. If he freaks he can head back to the resort but he seems like he's in a much better place so hopefully we won't be that family this trip.
 
In December of 2015, we, too, were THAT family (on several occasions) but this is the one that haunts me: DH and our boys were riding Everest. Dd (almost 4) and I walked down to see the monkeys because she wasn’t tall enough to ride it yet.

Set scene: So....she's grumpy in her stroller, we get to the monkeys, and something happened. A shift in planetary alinement or something because she just lost it-lost it like I've never seen before and haven't seen since. She was screaming to see the monkeys and there I stood, in front of the monkeys, l while she screamed. “I WANT TO SEE THE MONKEYS!” We WERE in front of the monkeys. 2 of them. I couldn’t do anything 🤷🏼‍♀️. People passing just starred. We could clearly SEE the monkeys. It lasted about 10 minutes, I took her to the bathroom, got her a cold towel, and watched her bawl. But it was a complete melt down I hope I never witness again.
 
my kids are teens now - the good news is that if we did have trips where they were not acting like Disney is the happiest place on earth, by now we just don't remember. We only seem to remember the good times. These memories will be replaced by great ones someday so don't fret (although I get the let down aspect when you spend lots of money on a vacation and it was not the way you envisioned it)
 
You are so not alone!!!!
As i was dragging my son out of A Disney store..
I hear childless people making comments about what i should or shouldn't do to him or what kind of parent i am. Not really sure if its the environment overstimulating them or seeing how much they can get away with in public... it takes everything I have not to make a empty threat of leaving.
 
As I was dragging my son out of A Disney store...
...it takes everything I have not to make a empty threat of leaving.

Yep. And the worst is when you know that's what they really wanted in the first place (as in, they didn't want to leave the house for errands to begin with). Do you haul them out, because they're making a scene, or do you not haul them out, because then they have the power?

Parenting is definitely not for the weak.
 
We took our 7 month old son and 2.5yo daughter to Toothsome. DD fell asleep a bit before we entered the restaurant and napped through the meal . . . all was well. STUPID ME decided to wake her up so she could enjoy the two massive milkshakes we ordered for dessert. I underestimated how exhausted she was and she LOST IT! Uncontrollable crying, screaming, kicking, you name it. I was so shocked because to this day, that was the one and only time she's ever thrown a tantrum. And of course she had to do it in a packed restaurant lol! My husband took her out of the restaurant, but the ice cream was melted by the time they came back in.

So, yeah, we've been THAT family and it sucks. But it's made me much more sympathetic and far less judgmental towards parents who are struggling with their kids in public.
 
We were that family on the flight back from a week at Disney. After eating differently for a week, my then almost 3 year old got constipated. Finally had to go right as we were buckling up on the plane about to taxi out. Started screaming hysterically "I have to poop" People around us are staring, rolling eyes, I could hear the men behind me talking loudly about not wanting to sit behind "this kid" Flight attendant comes over and asks if there is anything they can do because people all over the plane are complaining. I told her that my daughter really needed to poop and I guaranteed that if she let us get up to take her to the bathroom, all of this would be over. She talks to pilot. He agrees to delay to let my kid go to the bathroom to poop. And of course the bathroom was on the front of this plane, so EVERYONE was staring at me as I walked her out of the bathroom. I just looked at the entire flight and said "thank you!" and I bowed. Then I sat in my seat and she was quiet the rest of the flight. Now we make sure everyone is eating plenty of fruits and vegetables on our Disney trips.
 

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