Nice activities or outings you've done with the kids that have turned into an absolute shitshow

[Silverstoat]

Bought the Hedgehog biscuit kit from Asda for a nice Sunday afternoon activity with the kids. Instead of a cookie cutter it's a hedgehog drawn on the inside of the box that you're supposed to cut out and use as a stencil 🤨 cue meltdowns from both dc as its impossible to cut out details in wet biscuit dough. Ds dropped a big piece of dough that was immediately gobbled up by ddog, I breathed in the icing powder and almost had an asthma attack, and then to top it all off they tasted like shit.

Lapland uk a few years ago……. Ds was at first absolutely petrified (he was 2 and we had taken his siblings aged 8 and 10 as well).

He screamed through the first bit where they did a little story with some characters . He was terrified and wouldn’t walk so had to be carried. He kept randomly falling asleep then waking again and realising where he still was and screaming more.

Hated the gingerbread activity so much that the elves took us outside and tried to sing to him and offered him cookies which he took then threw back at them and screamed more.

He was shaking , crying or sleeping the whole day. Wouldn’t eat except a little chocolate bar i had with me from home he looked at any food we got there as if it was from another planet. It was an absolute nightmare. That night he kept waking I think he was having nightmares about it.

He was diagnosed with autism a year later I often wonder if it was just too overstimulating for him

I took my kids to a Santa grotto in the forest event when they were younger. Overpriced, under resourced rubbish event that I regretted from the start. Long drive in freezing weather, to see a depressed reindeer and elves that were blue with hypothermia. Hard sell of anything and everything from mince pies, hot chocolate and so on. Unfortunately the day before I had put flea treatment on our new kitten, and had some huge allergic reaction as I managed to get some on my face. I woke up the day of the Santa trip with skin having melted off my face all over and I looked like a radioactive mutant. I looked burned and swollen all over. I couldn't cancel the trip as it would have been disappointing for the kids so got in the queue to see Santa, and everyone stared at me. Peering and pointing. The family in front said I "scared" their children as I looked like Freddie Kruegar, and they left the queue. Their rudeness aside, we got to see Santa quicker after they left so every cloud has a silver lining. I was glad to get home and vowed never to do that ever again.

Oh God, so many!

One where I ended up holding ds over an open-top public bin in a park as he did diarrhoea into it

One where I had to roll up trousers and wade into a massive paddling pool, put 6yo dd, wet and in pants, over my shoulder and carry her away screaming while lots of elderly people in deck chairs laughed and pointed

One where we went to an animal park thing but both kids kept flipping out - cost £50 and we were there all of 20 mins before we abandoned it for a public playpark

One where baby ds wouldn't nap as usual at a national trust place and was screaming, toddler dd then started screaming too, I had to carry her while pushing pram up hill in heavy rain to get back to the car

Btw op I think cake and biscuit mixes are a bit of a scam

Chocolate crispy cakes (2 ingredient) or french yoghurt cake are easyish

Went to a well-known theme park during half-term with my 4yo. It was so overbooked that the queues for all the major rides were 1-2 hours. These were rides aimed at toddlers/young children. My DC got so bored in the queue that they started swinging on the rope barriers, which the other waiting children then copied, and initiated a game of tag around the queue. The parents eventually gave up trying to stop them. One staff member half-heartedly suggested that we should keep our children in order and, while normally I'd jump into action to prevent my offspring annoying others, I'm afraid instead I gave them an earful about how unacceptable it was to expect small children to wait 90 minutes for a 3 minute ride.

When we got to the front of the queue, DC didn't want to go on the ride anyway.

The day improved when we gave up on the rides and big ticket attractions and took refuge in the distinctly average softplay. We also bought DC several ice creams. I spent the time in the softplay one-handedly writing several negative online reviews about said theme park while holding a melting ice-cream with the other. I never usually bother reviewing stuff.

Most expensive soft play and ice cream trip ever. Since then, we've given major theme parks a swerve. Better for my bank balance and my sanity.

Not Knowsley?? E were there recently. 220 baboons!! Too many. And they're big!

Oh so many...
Most recently we decided to go to one of local lit carnivals; meant to be quieter than the more famous one on the circuit. Due to start at 7pm & finish at 9pm. DC are 9 & 5.
Planned to get there a few hours early to park up, get some food & a decent spot.
Arrive & car park is already full. Told to park on a grass verge. Find the start point & realise it's already filling up (nearly 2hrs before the carnival starts) so choose our spot. We had the good sense to take chairs, food, drink, layers, blankets etc.
Kids start getting cold & bored. We eat most of the food we'd brought. We buy expensive food from the vender near us to warm up.
Start time comes (7pm) ... & goes. Not unusual, but it's getting really cold.
A man starts walking down the road saying there has been a suspected gas leak in the town & the carnival will be delayed by at least an hour!
Kids want to go home - they're cold & bored & it's dark. We can't leave as our car is parked on a grass verge where the floats are lined up to start.
The carnival finally starts at 8.30pm. It doesn't end till 10.30pm. We finally get home after 11pm with two very overtired kids, all freezing cold though the floats were amazing, we'd probably not do it again for a few years.

Took ds1 for a weekend at a local theme park. It was a Christmas present from our families. Ds2 was 3 months old.
ds2 screamed the entire night in the hotel. Literally would not stop for anything, then wanted to bf the entire of the next day while zombielike DH took ds1 on rides and I sat on a freezing bench all day.

Took ds1 to the park with his friend. Ds2 was a toddler and wanted to be like the big boys and take his balance bike. He ended up screaming the place down and I had to corral the older boys home while carrying a big bag of picnic stuff, ds2 under my arm and a balance bike in the other hand.

The family in front said I "scared" their children as I looked like Freddie Kruegar, and they left the queue.

God, how horrible @scoobydoo1971 💐🥲

Yes @hellsBells246 Knowlsey. Jesus Christ never again, although only cost us £20 for a new window trim so we got out relatively unscathed 🤣🤣 kids were traumatised

I have had many such days with the darling children, but thankfully they've mostly blurred into fuzzy oblivion. Most recently, I had the bright idea of buying expensive ballet tickets for the whole family as DS was studying Romeo & Juliet at school.

I realised with 24h to go that it was a Matthew Bourne adaptation set in an old-fashioned lunatic asylum but uneasily reassured myself that it would be fine. Arrived at the theatre to find that the expensive seats were crap. I could see half the stage and the other half was the back of the man in front of me's head. DS powered through his huge bag of chocolate buttons and then fell asleep. The ballet was "interesting". We got to the part where the inmates have an orgy and I got glared at by DD. She told me off at the interval for taking her and her brother to such an "inappropriate" show. Paid £20 for poxy little ice creams and at the end, DH said that in future he would have a maximum time limit of 20 minutes for watching "people prancing around on a stage". Marvellous.

Left dh and dc with their new fishing rods and went for a walk round the tiny lake leaving them to bond. By the time I'd got back all 3 had got tangled together and they were all shouting at each other.

A district Cub outing to York including a trip to the Dungeons. They were terrified! I had to escort them out on twos with their eyes closed, leave them in the gift shop under the strict instruction not to move, and then go back for the next ones. I suspect some of them didn’t sleep for a week!
had to go to the railway museum to calm everyone’s nerves.

Christmas light shows in e.g Kew Gardens. Looks magical and the kids would love it in the run up to Christmas. I just can’t do it, it gives me an overwhelming sense of doom. Maybe one day, just not now, I can’t bear the inevitable disappointment.

Last year spent £40 taking my 2 toddlers to see Santa at a local garden centre. Eldest hurt her foot somehow falling over just before we set off, and refused to walk on it for the entire experience so I had to carry her while she sulked the whole time. Lovely walk round a little Christmas trail with elves, a sleigh with reindeer, log cabins etc, finally get to the big man himself. They both scream their heads off terrified of the poor Santa and refused to go anywhere near him! Genuinely thought I'd need to take eldest to A+E afterwards as she still wouldn't walk on her foot, turns out she just needed a nap as she had forgotten about it post sleep!
Have not arranged to do any such activities this year!

I booked tickets to a Christmas concert for children by a fancy symphony orchestra when my DC were around 3 & 6. It was literally aimed at their age group, I thought it would be all Christmasy and my offspring would be delighted and entranced, and we would be super middle class and culturally enriched. They bloody hated it. We gave up and left when they started playing hide and seek under their seats.

I have also wanted to do this and have booked something similar for next week, youngest is 10, I'm so looking forward to it but also have a sense of dread (really hoping they take my advice and wear a coat 🤣).

Remember going to a pantomime when my older two were under 5, it was horrendous!

I have a theory that the extent to which kids enjoy something is generally in inverse proportion to the amount the parents have paid. We have had some stellar days out (I mean, who hasn’t done the full body bind, striding across the shopping centre/car park/attraction with a tantrumming child tucked under both arms?).

The worst was definitely Alton Towers. We went on an inset day on what turned out to be their busiest day of the year. Zero attempt at traffic management so the final 1.5 miles took 2 hours. I have never seen anything like it. It was a three figure sum to get in and then ride times were 2 hours for the main area and in excess of one hour in CBeebies Land as fast passes are essentially obligatory. It was baking hot. DC1 (8), who loves rides and hates crowds (almost certainly ND) was devastated. I was fuming. Never again. And to add insult to injury, you have to pay to park - which I have never seen at any other attraction. Awful place. Surprised they didn’t ask for a kidney from each adult.

On the plus side, DC2 (3) and I had a lovely trip to Homebase and the supermarket yesterday, where he clapped in delight at the inflatable Santas and danced with excitement in the biscuit aisle. No extra costs incurred beyond a jelly I was talked into buying. My point about inverse costs stands.

I remember a trip to the zoo where all three of them moaned and complained the entire time until we came round a corner and saw a bouncy castle and then that's all they wanted to do for the rest of the afternoon!

A museum doing a craft activity for children but there wasn't enough of the craft stuff to go round and parents were keeping hold of things like scissors so their children got to do the activity and sod anyone else!

A swimming session with floats that was like people soup and we never got near a float. The one time I saw one become free and set off to try and get it some big bloke barged me out of the way.

Anything with "family fun" in the title was usually anything but!

Whoever said fireworks was spot on. We usually just walk round the block and go "ooh" at ones going off in the neighborhood. Not this year though, oh no, we were making memories.

Memories which will now include: several hundred people queueing for one portaloo, kids demanding hot dogs for an hour then on receipt of said £8 hot dog, declaring it disgusting and they didn't want it, husband (who hates crowds at the best of times) freaking out, DD1 cold and crying that she wanted to go home, despite wearing my coat and jumper, DD2 doing her best to run off into the crowd and/or cover herself in vile mud/spilled beer gloop. Fuck you Cricket Club fireworks.

OTOH, not as bad as my best mate who took her nieces camping on the hottest day of the year only for her inflatable tent to explode due to the expansion. 😁

Just remembered a holiday

Rented a cottage in a lake. Lake was crap, no beach.

There were loads of midges.

I was the only person not stung by wasps. Wasp nest under the patio,which the cottage owner told DH to deal with once it had gone dark 🤔

No WiFi

TV - didn't work. DVD player broke. Remote control broke.

It rained for three days. Nearest town had a library... That was it.

Cottage was off a dirt road, not suitable for kids with bikes.

Water pressure in the cottage broke, no water for a day.

Never ending nightmare really, glad to get home

Our one and only visit to Legoland Windsor many years ago was horrific. The weather was red hot and it was absolutely packed with people and swarms of biting insects of some kind. I was with 3 young children and a DH who tolerates both queues and heat very badly. You can probably imagine how the day panned out. I haven't been in a theme park since.

All of the above <cries>

The worst was definitely Alton Towers. We went on an inset day on what turned out to be their busiest day of the year. Zero attempt at traffic management so the final 1.5 miles took 2 hours. I have never seen anything like it. It was a three figure sum to get in and then ride times were 2 hours for the main area and in excess of one hour in CBeebies Land as fast passes are essentially obligatory. It was baking hot. DC1 (8), who loves rides and hates crowds (almost certainly ND) was devastated. I was fuming. Never again. And to add insult to injury, you have to pay to park - which I have never seen at any other attraction. Awful place. Surprised they didn’t ask for a kidney from each adult.

Theme parks (especially during peak times) are really, really crap with young children. I could rant for ages on this topic but I try to limit myself 😂. I'm not sure what is more offensive, the cost or the fact that the whole day out resembles a particularly bad airport experience. So much waiting around and so many queues. At least airports are air-conditioned, so maybe they're actually less tortuous. I think we had more fun on our delayed 8 hours Gatwick flight than during our theme park day... (continues rant in head).

When my DC is misbehaving, I threaten another theme park day...

My DS is an adult now, but all of the big trips we took were failures, up until he was 15 or so.

The early trips, Disney, Italy, etc - all failures. Waste of time and money.