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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to not like the fair?

40 replies

FrillyMilly · 06/10/2011 12:12

I don't have any phobia of rides. I love big theme parks like Alton Towers. However I hate the fairgrounds that turn up twice a year and are put up in a matter of hours. I don't trust that they are safe and I don't really want Dd to go to them. Shes only 3 so hasn't really been an issue yet but I'm sure people in RL think I'm being a bit PFB when I share my dislike of them. She has been on a little ride once with her cousin and I felt uneasy the whole time. I was glad she didn't enjoy it so it was stopped and she was let off. When I was at school an older child died on the fair at our town and my mum doesn't particularly like them so I have probably got it from that. Im not sure how am I going I feel when she's a teen and all her friends are going but whilst shes little I would rather keep her away.

So is it justified or am I being PFB?

OP posts:

Chundle · 06/10/2011 12:16

Prob are being a bit PFB! I be if youlooked at the stats you would see that their are far more accidents and near misses at places like Alton towers, Disney etc than at small fairgrounds...
When I was in America on hols there was a fatal accident at one of ther big theme parks

DawnOfTheDeementedDead · 06/10/2011 12:16

I don't think YABU.

I'm not keen on them either - but mainly because they charge £2.50 a ride here, and i have four DC and limited funds. It's an expensieve do bloody robdogs

Ragwort · 06/10/2011 12:19

Well just don't go - its hardly a problem is it? I've never taken my DS to a fair and he is 10 now - I don't think he feels deprived, it's never been an issue to have to avoid them - totally agree tht they are a rip off.

Vallhala · 06/10/2011 12:20

YABU. Look at the statistics. There are far more accidents in the AT type fixed fairs than at those run by Showmen, professionals in their art who have been working fairs all their lives, and their mothers, fathers and grandparents before them.

Travelling fairs are inspected each time they put down by H&S and by nature of the trade are erected from scratch very regularly, so giving the best chance of any faults being found.

Vallhala · 06/10/2011 12:23

As a parent of course I'd agree that travelling fairs are expensive. As someone who knows a bit about the cost of their insurances alone, much less the hundreds of thousands cost of equipment, of trucks, of wages for their casuals, fuel for transportation and running the fairs, price of pitches, cost of maintainance of equipment and how the weather and other factors - like an accident at Alton Towers - can affect trade, plus how seasonal it is, I reckon you're getting a bargain!

aldiwhore · 06/10/2011 12:26

I hate travelling fairs.

YANBU.

My kids haven't missed out.

Bramshott · 06/10/2011 12:26

I think they are fairly well regulated with H & S certificates for the rides aren't they? We took the DDs for pretty much the first time on Sat and DH and DD1 went on a frankly terrifying thing that threw them upside down etc . I had to remonstrate firmly with myself not to project my own issues onto DD!

TopazMortmain · 06/10/2011 12:28

YANBU they are creepy (clowns, freaky noises, horror movie set vibes)

Vallhala · 06/10/2011 12:31

"I think they are fairly well regulated with H & S certificates for the rides aren't they?"

very much so, Bramshott. If the H&S man isn't happy the ride doesn't go up.

Scholes34 · 06/10/2011 12:43

YANBU. We do Alton Towers, we do Wicksteed, we do rides at the seaside. We don't do the fairs that come to town. Too expensive and the DCs now know not to ask . . . though now they're getting older they do want to go on their own with their friends.

jenfraggle · 06/10/2011 12:59

I wouldn't take any DC to one as I wish they would be banned. They are a bunch of thieves and it's rather telling that the police have to do extra patrols around local businesses while they are in town as the crime rates go up. Where I used to work the police would notify us that they were coming to town and even though they patrolled the area we would still come in the next morning to find that someone had attempted to break in. It happened every single time the fair was in town so it was hardly a coincidence.

Vallhala · 06/10/2011 13:11

"They are a bunch of thieves"

Please learn about the difference between Showmen and casuals, travelling salesmen (such as the stallholders at places like Cambridge's Midsummer Fair) and soforth.

No Showman is going to risk his licenses and membership of his Guild by breaking into a damn house.

isthisweird · 06/10/2011 13:25

Really hoping this thread doesn't turn into a gypsy bashing thread.

Original poster

FrillyMilly · 06/10/2011 13:31

I've never looked at the stats for fair or theme parks I'm just going off my own experience. I find it easier to trust something that costs millions of pounds and is permanently there. I'm sure somewhere like Alton towers gets a lot more people than the local fair so I don't know how I could compare them really. I don't know if I would also get freaked out if DD went to a big theme park as it's never come up.

OP posts:

SickleBOO · 06/10/2011 13:32

Not so keen myself - v expensive, even with 'wristband' offers.
Plus, I'm scarred for life as when I was younger a travelling fair set up over the road from out house and played Kelly Marie's 'Feels Like I'm In Love' pretty much constantly and at top decibel .

jenfraggle · 06/10/2011 13:34

I can only speak from my own experience. Diesel was taken from vehicles, windows would be broken, locks tampered with. Only happened when the fair was in town and the police themselves would tell us that their workload would increase because of it. I seriously doubt that locals would wait for the fair to be in town and do it to make it look like the fair folk.

Vallhala · 06/10/2011 13:36

isthisweird, Showmen aren't gypsies. :)

Frilly - you wanna see the cost of the Showmen's gear - have a wander around the back of the next fair in your area... the HGVs, the generators, the rides themselves... then add on insurance for equipment, for vehicles, public liability insurance and all the other stuff plus more which I detailed above. A true Showman's fair is no two bob fly by night outfit but a hugely costly family business built up over decades and more often centuries.

Vallhala · 06/10/2011 13:41

jenfraggle, I wasn't saying the locals would.

I'm saying that there is a HUGE difference between Showmen and itinerant casuals and between Showmen and travelling stallholders of other kinds.

It will NOT have been the Fair owners - the Showmen breaking into your town's properties. I'd be taking a hard look at the casuals and, more likely, to certain sectors of the travelling stallholder community and so would the Showmen if many will speak of it. To this end some of the families I know won't take part in fairs which incorporate other sectors of the travelling community and too many "unknowns and flatties" because of events such as those you describe as the Showmen don't want their good names besmirched in the local community.

Trills · 06/10/2011 13:44

YANBU to not take your DD to a place/event that you hate. Why would you?

YAB a bit U if you say that her father/grandparents/whatever must not take her to something that she might enjoy.

isthisweird · 06/10/2011 13:44

Vallhala, so?

Vallhala · 06/10/2011 13:47

Yeah, good point, isthisweird. :)

Georgimama · 06/10/2011 13:47

What Trills said. My SIL wouldn't let us take DN to the fair last month because she doesn't like it. I feel he missed out.

duckdodgers · 06/10/2011 13:51

I loved the travelling fair that comes to our town every August, I used to go when I was a child, lots of great memories then. Also as a teenager goping with friends, boyfriends etc, great fun!

It was a big deal when "the shows" came to town. Over the years it has got smaller and this year was the worst yet sadly, hardly anything there. Sign of the times I guess. Didnt even take my boys.

Original poster

FrillyMilly · 06/10/2011 13:56

I've said grandparents can take her with her cousin (don't want her on rides alone) but just don't tell me til afterwards. I think I would just freak out worrying the whole time they were gone.

OP posts:

RhinoKey · 06/10/2011 13:57

I dont mind going to a theme park, but I hate fairs. I have an irrational phobia that as the rides are only in a field that they are not very stable.

We have the biggest fair in the UK coming to us soon. I hate it and it costs an arm and a leg.

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