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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

It's an annoying children in hotel one

311 replies

zeezeek · 28/12/2016 23:23

Am at a series of fairly important meetings which are being held in a hotel. It's got a reputation as being a place where conferences are held and business people stay, rather than a holiday type of that makes sense? Anyway, we are in a suite of meeting rooms that are kind of on one side of the hotel, so not anywhere where people not involved in the meetings are likely to be.

However, all day today - from the start at 10am and to the finish at 5 pm we have been disturbed and interrupted by what seems like a family/friend group of children all about 6-7 years old. They have tried to get into the room, actually did on a couple of times before being booted out and we were then subject to various shouting from the parents, called entitled child haters, that sort of thing.

When they weren't physically interrupting the meeting they were running around the corridor outside and shouting an screaming at each other, whilst their parents sat in the bar and shouted at anyone who dared complain. The hotel management have done their best to control them and have warned them that they will be asked to leave if it happens tomorrow.

Couldn't even escape the little brats this evening as they were dining in the same room, at the same time as us and spent the entire time running around the restaurant.

I know children can be lively and rowdy, but ffs it's a hotel, not their home and surely it's not unreasonable to expect them to fucking behave and not interrupt people trying to have a serious meeting? We didn't manage to get through half of what we wanted today because of this.

OP posts:
supermoon100 · 01/01/2017 11:31

Why cant these 'really important' business meetings just be delayed for a few days so families can enjoy the festive period. Industry is hardly going to fall apart!

MiladyThesaurus · 01/01/2017 11:33

Because the world doesn't stop so 'families can enjoy Christmas' for 2 weeks.

NewNNfor2017 · 01/01/2017 11:46

Industry is hardly going to fall apart!

This wasn't an 'industry' meeting - and like many, it was held at a time when the individuals involved had fewer work commitments.

All over the country at weekends and bank holidays, groups of people give up their time to meet to hold formal meetings to ensure that charity work, sports clubs, refereeing, dog shows and (like the OP) academic projects continue to function legally, and successfully.

The narrow mindedness on MN is breathtaking sometimes Hmm

HappenstanceMarmite · 01/01/2017 12:01

This thread is so very Mumsnet!

Not really - I don't think anyone's suggested all the rampaging children have SN yet?? 😉

It will happen. Someone has already suggested that the children may be "underprivileged" and from a poor family who saved up all year for this Christmas treat 🙄

JolieColombe · 01/01/2017 12:08

I think the festive period bit is a red herring - I wouldn't be happy to have children repeatedly running into a conference room and interrupting a meeting at any time of the year - they haven't booked that room, they don't get to enter it, simple. Same as all the other private rooms in the hotel. Nor would I relish being called a fucking cunt by their parents over breakfast for objecting to this behaviour. Funny how the few posters falling over themselves to excuse the children are ignoring this little gem Hmm

YouTheCat · 01/01/2017 12:13

Maybe these people are the same type that let their progeny run riot and expect the rest of the world to coo over them?

Megatherium · 01/01/2017 12:20

supermoon, haven't you read OP's posts? It's a meeting amongst academics about a project that has to be sorted by the end of January. They can't delay the meeting till after the break as you suggest, because the new term will have started and people won't be able to get away.

FrancisCrawford · 01/01/2017 12:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

zeezeek · 01/01/2017 12:28

What's with this sneering attitude towards any meeting that's described as important? It's a multi million pound project that is in danger of not delivering. That's pretty damn important to most people.

OP posts:
ilovesooty · 01/01/2017 12:30

zeezeek of course if you weren't a parent you wouldn't be allowed to comment. Grin

Megatherium · 01/01/2017 12:31

It doesn't really matter whether they were justified in holding the meeting at this time of year anyway - it still doesn't make it acceptable for the family to be so thoroughly inconsiderate and rude, or for the hotel to ignore it. Suppose, for instance, the other guests included someone who was seriously ill but taking the chance to meet up with their family? Would the fact that it's the Christmas break make it OK for these children to be running riot around the dining room and calling the ill person a fucking cunt?

ilovesooty · 01/01/2017 12:34

The behaviour of the family would be unacceptable at any time of the year but I can't believe there are people who think that business meetings shouldn't take place because families are enjoying the festive season.

zeezeek · 01/01/2017 12:38

I love sooty of course, I forgot that point!

I really don't think they were underprivileged and saved up all year to stay there - think designer sportswear and jeans? Im also pretty sure I spotted a couple of the women in Boden tops shock, horror, does Johnny know who he's selling to

OP posts:
DownAmongtheElves · 01/01/2017 13:08

The narrow mindedness on MN is breathtaking sometimes

I suppose it's cutting down tall poppies by those who haven't attended a serious business meeting in their life, or don't know how to manage projects with public money.

boo2410 · 01/01/2017 13:14

Oh my God this thread gets better and better, even though zeekzeeks event has been and gone. The precious kids and their gormless parents need a good kick up the jacksy, and yes I am a parent who would kill my son, or at the very least give him a bollocking if he behaved like that. 😀😀

DownAmongtheElves · 01/01/2017 13:16

What's with this sneering attitude towards any meeting that's described as important?

Zeezeek how dare you say in public that what you do is important. Honestly, the self-importance of people

BadKnee · 01/01/2017 13:23

I was once running a VERY IMPORTANT Grin training course between Christmas and New Year. It was the prefect time for many of the reasons already mentioned. We went to the restaurant for lunch and when we came back the kids who had been staying in the hotel had drawn all over the flip charts with the marker pens, thrown a lot of the placenames and stuff on the floor, eaten or taken all the sweets in the bowls, nicked all the pens and highlighters, and also our training DVDs, (obvs thinking they were films!) .

Management were ineffectual- not wanting to accuse anyone of theft. They lost the business - and it was a large corporate contract. Just not on. (I did see the funny side - I had to to some extent in order to rescue the training and nothing major was taken or damaged, - but really that sort of behaviour is not on)

DownAmongtheElves · 01/01/2017 13:55

oooo BadKnee how dare you imagine that something you're doing in an hotel is IMPORTANT Grin After all these were children vomit

SuperFlyHigh · 01/01/2017 14:07

DownAmongtheElves I always feel in these circumstances the phrase of one MNetter which was ruining or spoiling a child's joy is quite apt...

Of course that was a plane thread if I recall.

PaulDacresConscience · 01/01/2017 14:12

Why cant these 'really important' business meetings just be delayed for a few days so families can enjoy the festive period. Industry is hardly going to fall apart!

The budget for my department is for all costs, including salaries. If I hadn't got my budget changes in, agreed and approved by deadline (yesterday) then nobody in my department would be getting a payrise, or a bonus, or any funding for professional training or qualifications that we would normally offer sponsorship for, or new IT equipment - or new equipment full stop. There would also be no recruitment against vacant positions either.

I am also Confused at your interpretation of 'enjoy the festive period'. Last time I checked, enjoyment did not trump a social obligation to behave appropriately - which does not include deliberately interrupting people, swearing at them and generally behaving as if the hotel was their personal playground for them alone. However OP's meeting was booked at a hotel which is geared towards corporate functions. It is not a destination hotel, nor advertised as family-friendly or with family amenities nearby, so why aren't you criticising the family for not finding a more appropriate place to stay?

BadKnee · 01/01/2017 14:29

Why cant these 'really important' business meetings just be delayed for a few days so families can enjoy the festive period. Industry is hardly going to fall apart!

I also find the "bubble" that some people live in mind-boggling.

"Festive Period"??? Ha Ha - tell that to the retail workers currently selling tons of stuff to shoppers in high streets and shopping centres everywhere.

Tell it to the tourists who have no concept of Christmas who have come to London and elsewhere purely to grab a bargain while those to whom the holiday is special are spending time with family.

Tell it to the Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Atheists or anyone else to whom it means nothing and who just want to get on with things.

And I am sure you all want electricity, water, food, traffic lights to work, restaurants, hospitals, carers, air traffic controllers, paramedics, taxis, station staff etc etc over the "Festive Period" - (Or are they all run by Elves from 15th December til 6th January??)

I suspect that the only people who really do have a two week "Festive Period" are:

  • Some public Sector workers, (admin, offices)
  • Anyone in education *Some staff in the big corporates
  • All those on Benefits who have no work anyway
MiladyThesaurus · 01/01/2017 14:53

I technically have the whole 2 weeks off but you wouldn't know that from looking at the many emails I've received from students during these two weeks. No less than 3 of them emailed me on Christmas Day to ask something stupid about referencing. I laughed and was delighted that I had my out of office reply on. One of them responded to the out of office reply complaining that I wasn't available to answer her questions (on Christmas Day).

DownAmongtheElves · 01/01/2017 15:01

Delete, delete Milady I bluddy love leaving passive-aggressive Fuck Off Out of Office automatic replies. Doesn't mean I'm not working ...

zeezeek · 01/01/2017 15:03

I am one of those people who have the whole 2 weeks off and we all go over to Sweden for the entire holiday to see DHs other children and the rest of the family. However, this meeting was so important I actually flew back for it - so the to find that it was interrupted by other people's poor parenting and abuse from both adults and children, on top of the total ineffectual management in the hotel even more irritating than I would have if I'd just driven the 150 miles up the road that I normally do to get to this venue.

OP posts:
zeezeek · 01/01/2017 15:04

Down - sometimes I leave mine on for a couple of days after I've returned so I can screen my emails Grin

OP posts:
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