AIBU to hold place in line for the kids?

The difference could be a 20-30 minute longer wait! If 4 people are ahead of me in the queue and each one is a parent holding space for 2-3 kids then of course it makes a difference. On this occasion it was one parent doing that, because most people know it’s unreasonable.

OP i thought you were going to say your kids were waiting nearby in the shade, in which case id say fine and the polite thing to do would be to flag to the person behind you you were holding space for a few more and point to where they were.

Yeah, that's a dick move. Would get you chucked out of some parks.

Yeah most theme parks don’t allow this. Why should your kids get to keep enjoying themselves while others wait patiently? I do think a loo break is different though!

Because it’s unfair? One person should not hold the place of multiple other people. It’s teaching children laziness, impatience and entitlement. It happened to me recently in the indoor fair in Liverpool. It’s a ticketed event and you only get a couple of hours. We weren’t going to bother queuing for the bungees as the wait times ridiculous. So when we (thought) we saw we’d be able to go on for our last ride we started queuing, only for the woman in front of us to lift a load of children over the barrier when it should have been our turn. Given it being the last ride, a nice day ended up a bit sour with us leaving pissed off

Because instead of being behind one person they are suddenly behind three which can add on time to their already lengthy wait.

If two random people have just suddenly queue jumped would you find that ok?

IMO one person should queue for each child. Those rides take bloody ages to go on. I was livid when this happened to me a few months ago, there was a random adult in the queue who I thought must have been with a child already in the queue. Then just as I thought it was our turn she let 3 children on ahead of her which stretched our wait time to an extra almost 20 minutes. I wouldn’t have got in the queue at all if I’d have known spaces were being saved for a whole gang of other children. And I did have something to say to her about it. Yabu

Yeah that’s a bit crap other people may have got in the queue behind you thinking it would be less of a wait. Teaching your kids to wait and be patient is a life skill. Lazy parenting IMO

Why? What difference does it make to the other people in the queue?

Big signs alton towers classify it as queue jumping.

This!
A quick loo trip is one thing. What you did is teaching kids to be spoilt and not suffer any boredom or discomfort.

Oh god yes, all of you are meant to wait!!! Think if you were in a long queue eg for a rollercoaster and kids pushed through because mum was waiting at the top!

While on other rides...yes.
Popping to the toilet or similar would be different