To think that if you can't control your children, you shouldn't come to hotels?

[HomeIsWhereTheGinIs]

DH and I are currently staying at a very nice boutique hotel in the countryside. It's been a hell of a busy year and so the idea was to treat ourselves to a couple of days somewhere luxurious and to do lots of reading and sleeping. However, we're staying at a place that's converted old outbuildings into suites, two suites to a building. And the family next door have the two noisiest children on the face of the planet.

Yesterday morning we were working up by the children shrieking to one another and then for their mother (it appeared she'd pushed them out into the communal stairwell to play). A phone complaint later to reception and the noise ceased (and they glared at us every time they passed us in the hotel). But damage done, we were already awake (and given that I am exhausted all the time from this pregnancy, it was awful not being able to go back to sleep). Yesterday evening, exactly the same thing. Screaming children sent to "play" on the stairs and landing outside our room where they screamed, ran around and then got into an actual fight (complete with shouted insults and wails for a parent). It happened again this morning at 7am (there goes our lie-in) and this time the call to reception had no effect.

I'm really cross that I haven't been able to have a lie-in because of their lazy parenting. I remember going to hotels with my family when I was small and my mother coming down on me very hard when I was too loud and in danger of disturbing the other guests. They're the only children at the hotel and their running and screaming in the library yesterday was attracting frowns from every other couple there. AIBU to hate the parents of the noisy brats for being so selfish and entitled? My feeling is that when you have kids, you don't get to just ignore behaviour that might be ruining an experience for other people.

Pixel makes the point about why I was so cross. How can you defend the indefensible? And yes, if you say that the OP will soon learn, that she should not say she will control her childrens behaviour when appropriate as it is not possible IS projection. And no Miss I wasnt being PA, I was stating that I believe you are projecting your own parenting issues onto someone else.

Just because they cant or wont control their childrens behaviour doesnt mean that a) I shouldnt expect them to and b) be pissed off that they are disturbing me.

Lets face it, a hotel weekend away is not cheap and the OP said this was a posh one. Who can afford that these days without it being a treat, as it was for the OP? Why should that be spoilt because someone thinks that their shag lie in is more important than anyone elses?

What always kills me about things like this is that you just know that these would be the people who would kick off in no small way if they had got a babysitter, gone alone and someone elses child was being noisy, probably less noisy than their own children!

Oh god yes! Bloody annoying. Parents wave at them too.

"No miss I wasn't being PA I was stating that you was projecting your own parenting issues onto someone else". So because I have disagreed with an OP who I have agreed with numerous times over that the Parents in question were unreasonable but went on to say her following comments were questionable. As did many other posters. Cold and Chinese to name a few. You have managed to deduce I must have parenting issues. Could you be any more insulting? But it wasnt a PA. Okay then.

No one in this thread is defending the Hotel. Sorry I worded that badly, by hotel people I meant the people in the hotel, as in the parents of the unruly children. My fault.

I agree with Bogey and Pixel.

I have managed to take my children to restaurants, hotels, theatre, concerts, etc without them acting up. I have had strangers come-up to me and comment on how well behaved they are.

It is lazy parenting to chuck children out into a corridor when other people are sleeping. If children are fighting, messing about, misbehaving at a particularly early hour in the morning, then the parents should do something, wether that be take them to breakfast, give them something to do or take them for a walk. They shouldn't just ignore them, walls are paper thin, some consideration should be given to the other guests in the hotel.

I bet all the people who are saying that they can't control their kids, keep them quiet etc would soon have something to say if they were all woken by a group of teens/twenty-somethings coming back from a night out!

Chinese?! Oops. Predictive text. Meant Chunder actually.

I could be more insulting but I wont as that was not my intention.

To clarify.

You implied that the OP was on a hiding to nothing by saying that she would not let her children behave that way. You said "arf!" thereby implying it was laughable. I disagree and suggested that if you think that a parent saying that they will not allow their children to behave in such a way as to seriously annoy and disturb other is laughable, then the issue is with you not her.

You seem to think that just because the OP has not had her first child that she knows nothing and "has it all to come" as my grandma would say. The MN line to anyone who has an issue with a childs behaviour without having a child themselves is "Oh just you wait!". I have had this said to me on here when the poster thought I was childless. Never posted to me again after I told her that I have 6, funny that.....

IamInvisible we all think the parents in question were lazy fuckwits who could have done more and not thrown them out into a communal corridor.

I did wonder what the "Chinese" meant, I thought I had missed a Tiger Parent comment :o

Miss

We could go on all night like this. Can we make friends and agree to disagree?

I could be more insulting please give it your best shot. Obviously deducing someone has parenting issues because they dared to disagree with the OP amongst MANY things that she said with attitude isn't fucking harsh enough.

Yanbu.
I can remember staying in a hotel owned and run by two brothers and their wives. They had about six young kids between them, who were up every morning at six am running and jumping along the corridor above the guest bedrooms. When we went down to breakfast other guests were complaining...and the owners were saying they were upset by all the complaints!!! I guess they didn't get many repeat customers!!

I'll take that as a no then :)

Hey op, things could have been worse. Let me tell you a story.

When we went to Disneyland Paris a few years back we were in a family room. There was an interconnecting door to another family room next door with a turnable lock on our side (the connecting room also had a door on their side which could be locked).

One morning, 3 year old ds woke up early and decided to explore. He noticed the interesting looking door, unlocked and opened it and to his delight found another door on the other side (I think he thought he was in Narnia). To his further delight he discovered that the second door had been left unlocked by the idiots people on the other side, so opened it and went in.

I was sound asleep. Dh however, came to just in time to see ds disappearing through said door, jumped out of bed and ran after him. Ds had gone right into the room (which was the main bedroom) to the window and just as dh reached him and grabbed him, a woman came into the room from the bathroom. All SHE saw was a 6ft 5in strange man standing in her bedroom in PJs, carrying a child who she mistook for her own 4 year old ds. She started screaming, her dh came running in from the bathroom and started shouting, our ds started screaming, as did her ds who was actually in his bed sound asleep and was woken by the noise.

By the time I woke and ran nextdoor, dh was frantically explaining and the woman was sitting on the end of the bed half hysterical and hyperventilating while the two kids were still screaming the place down from the fright they'd had.

Once all had calmed down they failed to see any funny side and called the hotel manager to try and get us evicted from the hotel (they failed and were told to keep their own door locked). After that I had to make sure I lodged a chair up against the door for the rest of the stay.

Anyway, the moral of the story being that kids can do a lot worse that make a bit of noise. At least they stayed on their side of the door in your situation. Small mercies and all that.

Dirty I shouldnt laugh but.... :o

I can totally see why the woman was in a state, I would be too! You do jump to conclusions, thats "fight or flight" in action. But afterwards it would have been a case of "kids eh?!" and we would probably have had a drink together in the bar that night!

DirtyDancing: couldn't help but laugh, it's like something out of fawlty towers! Shame they had no sense of humour once the shock wore off though, unsure as to why they'd want you evicted?

MinesAPintOfTea if that happens to us we will leave

You won't! Because you have paid money to use those facilities like any one else. Your children will not be perfect, I guarantee they WILL piss some off at some point.

children shoved out into the corridor to play while their parents get jiggy/sleep are noisy brats

The kids are doing what comes naturally, I don't think it is fair to label them brats just because their parents aren't bothering to check their behaviour. If anything the parents are the brats.

Dirty that's AWFUL!!!

Awesome story

Glad you find it amusing bogeyface. No I'm not about to make friends over something you said which had fuck all to do with anything and yes it was a PA. Plenty of people made the same comment. Do you all think they have parenting issues too? I could have deduced the same thing from your refusal to take your DCs to posh places. I didn't. Because I'm not a cunt but there you are.

differentnameforthis exactly. Its Bullshit when people say they will leave. No they won't. I've been in situations where DCs have had enough. Want to leave do kid things. Why? Because like you've said they've already paid for it. Reminds me of the lady that took her Ds to a softplay party. He was mean to all the other DCs including the Birthday Girl and all the other people who happened to be in the same vicinity as him at the time. His Mum kept saying "one more time and we will leave" he did it another 7 or 8 times and she still never left and carried through with the threat.

dirty that's funny. Oh I can imagine their faces! different I wouldnt bother on this thread. Any other thread on MN and you would get flamed for using the word brats/little shits etc. Apparently its okay here. Funniest thing about it is no one has disagreed with the OP about these parents in her OP.

Omg dirty

What a miserable cow trying to get you evicted!

In terms of all the 'I'll do x when I have my child/just wait until you have your own child' comments.

My advice? Don't plan. You don't know.

With ds2 I am praised for being a perfect parent. With ds1 I was praised for being a perfect parent until he became severely autistic & spent many years pretty feral. Now he's much better but people suck lemons when he breathes. Ds3 depends - a stubborn little nightmare with us, perfect Peter when we're not there.

Your child might embarrass you or they may shine glory your way. It will have a bit, but not everything to do with how you patent/react.

We stayed in a travelodge this summer. DH had the easy room (ds2 &3) I had ds1. He soon found that knocking on the wall made me slightly edgy so found this an amusing way to pass the time. Luckily I managed to look suitably bored by it that he did stop after a not unreasonable length of time. A baby on the other side woke him at 3am so he had a few experimental knocks on the wall again. Unfortunately the other side from the baby (or maybe fortunately as they would have thought we were knocking at him). He loves staying in hotels - my blood pressure can't cope with it too often. Oh and he turfed me out of the double so I had the kids bed (he is taller than me so fair enough I guess).

I think reasonable people try to limit their children's impact on others - but no parent gets it right 100% of the time. Of course the kids should not have been in the corridor but hopefully parents have learned.

saintltjimjams that's exactly what EVERYONE else has said and it was in reply to the OPs supernanny comment of "we'll act to curb tantrums". Along with the other comments that I'm not going to bother to mention for the 50th time as apparently they were first 'misunderstood' but now they are just 'misquoted' . None of which were either they were taken literally because they were meant that way. That's when she got the flack and the just you wait comments and not just off me neither.

When my DD was over excited and / or over tired, she would scream hysterically in the middle of the night for 10 - 15 minutes and eventually wake up and stop.
It happenened on a campsite a couple of times.

We could have avoided disturbing others by never going camping.

We choose to go camping - couldn't afford any other holiday.