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.

Took mine to the zoo paid £80 just for them to want to feed the ducks all day! 😒

I'm heartbroken for her. I'm hope she was ok.

Took ds to see the singing kettle many moons ago. Tickets were a xmas treat. We were both dressed up for a nice xmas day out. I still remember what he wore ( it was 20 yrs ago). It was in the royal concert hall in Glasgow, really high up seats. Ds was scared it was so high up. I got vertigo and we left after 5 minutes with my clinging to him and the stair railings like we were scaling everest. Ended up at the amusements in argyle St. Spent a fortune. Oh well.

Conkers.

Food so disgusting it was literally inedible. Everything was deep fried. I mean everything. Not drained. Foul. Ended up buying 4 overpriced apples and pre packed cakes and that was lunch.

It was raining and foggy so couldn't see anything as we chivvied the kids (4 and 2) round the lake. The fog was really cold if you know what I mean. Chilled us all to the bone!!!

Eventually they both demanded a nap (????) And fell asleep on our laps while we froze our tits off. They have NEVER fallen asleep on our laps.

It was bizarre and awful, the people who rate it I genuinely think must have visited it in a parallel universe.

Took DD1 to Edinburgh Zoo when she was 2 and she was more interested in playing with the dandelions than looking at the animals! The little children’s play park was the highlight of her day, couldn’t have cared less about any animals.

I always managed to avoid going to this with my DS as the ice skating never appealed to him. When he was 16, he and some mates went. Just this afternoon, he was clearing out a small drawer in his chest of drawers. I said “oh don’t remember this red coloured play money” - pile of about 10 red plastic tokens from the Parkers Piece North Pole attraction 😂

Some years ago when I was teaching infants, the Head decided the whole school (180 children) would go to the panto matinee in the next town ( about 40 mins away) .We all got on the coaches at 12.30 after lunch and got to the theatre about 1.15 for the 1.30 performance. Sat and waited. At 2 pm there was an announcement to say the main characters were held up in traffic and the show would start asap.2.30 came and went, multiple trips to the toilets , along with several other large school parties. Teachers decided to give out the interval snacks,just as the lights went down so lots of rummaging around in the dark for dropped sweets.
So instead of finishing at 3.15 it dragged on til about 4.15, by the time we all got back on the coaches it was rush hour. We were stuck in traffic with 4-7 year olds and no toilets.
We finally arrived back at school at 6 o.clock, with tired grumpy hungry children.
Panto trips were never spoken of again. This was in 1998 and I still have the shivers when I think about it.

Ice skating definitely. Also, expensive water park in Portugal where water was so freezing my 7 year old daughter started shivering and turning blue and told me it was her 'worst day ever!'. And they had stupid buckets that dumped freezing cold water on you when you least expected it, ie when I'd just persuaded my daughter to try out a slide. Made her hysterical

We took our 2 young dc to a Christmas light trail thinking they’d love it and it’d be magical😂🙄 I think it was just too dark and cold for them, they couldn’t have give a rats about the actual light displays on the trail. Just whinged the entire way round. We ended up power walking through it and straight back to the car. Lessons learned and we haven’t booked it again!

It should have been a lovely if rather cold outing. It turned into some sort of hazing.

@EdithStourton 😁😁😁

Eurodisney! The kids were like ‘where is moana and frozen’ cos the park was done in like 1990 but they have never seen any of the ancient movies referred to in the park (dumbo anyone?). Just wanted to go to the lego shop outside and back to the hotel where there was a pool. Never. Again.

Yes to the Christmas lights. Every year I forget what a shitshow it was the previous year and rebook. One year a fight over the buggy (3&6), one year basically both acting like I'm marching them to a death camp, one year so busy couldn't do any of the interactive things and paranoid about losing them. Too cold, food terrible and expensive, late night so grumpy the next day.

We're going to blenheim palace this year but just doing the house and funfair. Fingers crossed!

Stickman show for my then 3yo who loved the story at nursery and was excited and we got to the theatre, he refused to go in saying stick people were so scary. He was kicking and screaming so we left without watching.

Ours just played in the playground at euro Disney which was not as good as our local park. Sorry but Euro Disney is massively overrated. Never even mentioned when we talk about holidays past with now teens. Honestly don’t bother.

I am feeling better now about not having booked the Christmas lights 😂. It gives me a pang as I loved Christmas light shows pre-DC.

Although it pales beside some of the horrors described here, last year's was too late, too busy, too cold and DC1 unfortunately too big for the buggy/buggy board so we ended up taking turns giving piggy-backs round most of it. This year, we're just going to put some fairy lights up in the living-room.

Though I hope all of you of stouter heart enjoy it!

In place of standard Panto as DS hates them, I paid silly money for a local, independent theatres play of Fantastic Mr Fox, one of my DCs absolute favourite stories. I got us second row seats, front and centre and thought we were in for a real treat.

Within 5 minutes, the three farmers had come on stage and ripped apart some 'chickens' with fake innards flying everywhere and utterly traumatising my DD. I spent the rest of the first act in the freezing cold lobby of the theatre whilst DS stayed inside with friends. Tried again for the second act but nope, back outside within 3 minutes, to freeze again! Poor DD was so scared but I was gutted as it looked like loads of fun!

I took ds 4 to his first ever swimming session (leisure pool, shallow, slides, pirate ships, etc) a couple of weeks ago. 10 minutes in and we're all kicked out because someone has pooped in the pool 🤢 They moved us to the much bigger (and colder) pool where ds couldn't touch the ground. Left v soon after.

I did ask at reception and they said it happens monthly or so. Accidents happen of course, but I hate swimming at the best of times!

Oh actually we took the kids (4 and 1) to London for a few days this summer as our first family 'holiday.' Ds randomly begged to go to sleep at 11am at London zoo, and did so on the grass. Many amusing pics of geese and ducks pootling around him and dd (standard nap time) asleep in the grass. Turns out he had heatstroke, couldn't walk, stay awake, fever etc. He still tells us about the tiger that roared at him...

Legoland. Autistic toddler. Wasp phobic (now ex) husband. Didn't even stay an hour. Massive long journey, total waste of time. Fortunately the tickets were free.

Sadly, anything with 'National Trust' in the description :(

Chessington - dc got pooped on by bird bown the face. She wouldnt eat or drink rest of the day. Then other dc needed a wee 4 times on way home. Had to pull off motorway

Another one for fireworks night. We've been twice, it rained both times. The mud in the field this year was epic. We had mud splashed on our coats, handbag, DC's faces. 1 hour+ plus queue to get a crepe. DC moaning about the cold, tiredness and boredom of standing around in the dark waiting. The fireworks were awesome but not sure it was worth it in the end.

Also, the time we had the bright idea to go to Brighton on a very hot May bank holiday with 2yo DS. Half of England's population was there, the trains were jam packed, we were all very grumpy. Never again!

I love these threads, thanks for the laughs and quite reassuring to know it's not just my DC ruining days out.

I hate the inevitable disappointment of commercial Christmas 'experiences' like Hamleys, Winter Wonderland, Santa's grottos, Christmas markets with kids.
Light trails on the other hand have been successful. Cold yes, but enchanting enough to make up for it.

Whale watching this summer. We decided to have a 'staycation' this summer and spent a ridiculous amount of money on a whale watching trip. Kid 1 had what can only be described as a violent nose bleed about 20 mins in, kid 2 pretended to faint at the site of blood and thwacked his face on the side of a metal table. Whist I was dealing with that the Whales made an appearance and we all totally missed it. Dh picked us up to be met with 2 kids covered in blood in tears because they missed the Whales. On the bright side, kid 3 really enjoyed the overpriced KitKats, so all was not lost !.

Took autistic dd11 to a fancy Christmas light show a couple of years ago, she hated every second! It was outdoors so freezing cold, all the food and drink stalls were crammed and to top it off we went on the Ferris wheel and got stuck at the top for ages swinging !! Not v successful. In the photos my dd is puffy eyes from crying. Never again !