People laughing at my disabled son

[Jennybeans401]

My ds has physical and mental disabilities. We are currently on holiday and I've been feeling upset today as several people have imitated/mocked him (not to his face but laughing in couples behind his back). They have also done this in front of me knowing I'm his mother.

It's made my family feel uncomfortable and I've been thinking should I speak to the hotel about it? We have worked hard to have a nice hiday and didn't expect the guests to be like this.

*holiday

That's so awful but I'm not sure what you expect the hotel to do about it. If it's other guests then the hotel has no control over their actions - would be different if it were staff members laughing.

I hope you still manage to enjoy your holiday.

been there, grown adults stopping and staring. ds was very good at calling them out at it. now he is an adult no one stares at her.

I would be speaking to the couples myself and asking what they find so amusing

Thank you, it seems so rude/ignorant of them. Also very blatantly done to upset me and dh.

Which country are you In OP?

Theres a v similar thread at the mo and I’m shocked at the amount of people thinking it’s OP for locals to gawp and stare at disabled people because apparently rely it’s not rude in their culture.

So sorry this is happening to you it is of course not acceptable.

Thars horrible. Where are you op?

How disgusting I'm sorry you're dealing with this. I don't think the hotel can do anything though.

The guests are mainly French and Germans, I can only tell they are doing it because my son has a particular way of walking and moving. It's so hurtful.

YANBU to think that's absolutely awful, but I don't know that the hotel will be able to do anything about it. Based on another thread, it does seem to be more acceptable in some cultures, which doesn't make it ok or any more tolerable for you and your family, but may go some way to explaining it.

It is hurtful ,my 12 year old son has severe autism and learning disabilities, he's non verbal but shouts a lot people can be very ignorant.

Call them out on it
Nasty fuckers
Sorry you're having to deal with this

I wouldn’t complain to the hotel. I might challenge these arseholes. I suspect most Europeans would understand “you are very rude”.

OP I would be fucking raging at this. The next time you see this call them out

They are c*nts.

If you are feeling brave I would challenge them when they are mocking/laughing at your son.

This is awful behaviour but I can't see what informing the staff would do?

You need to confront the behaviour as it happens.

This is really awful, I know exactly how you feel and couldn’t pass by without commenting. My 12 yr old son has Tourettes and we have just come back from a few days holiday in London. I know how it feels to have people staring when you are just trying to go about your day and have fun. My son has a severe neck jerking tic and I could feel people staring at him whilst we were away, although thankfully I did not see anyone laughing. I’m not sure what the hotel could do but I hope you are left alone and can enjoy the rest of your holiday. The people laughing are ignorant idiots. Hugs to you x

The sad thing is I knew it would be french people before you even answered, my cousins little boy is physically disabled and the amount of times he got mocked on holiday by them is outrageous. We stopped going to France as a result and I actively say something now if I see it in other countries.

Hard face, raised eyebrow, "was ist so amüsant?" or "was ist so lustig?" and then pretend you don't understand the joke so that they have to explain and re-explain.

Arseholes.

Arseholes. Wtf is wrong with them? I’m sorry you are experiencing this.

Thank you, I was very angry and now feeling teary and upset at it all. Its been hard for us to get here and we face daily challenges but we were having such a nice time before we noticed these people being so rude.

OP I just wanted to say I’m really, really sorry that you are having to experience such shitty, cruel behaviour I wish people were better.

I agree with TestingTestingWonTooFree that a loud, sharp “Stop that now!” would make it clear to the perpetrators that you are disgusted by their behaviour, even if they didn’t understand the exact words (though I would have thought that most of these people will have enough understanding of English to understand that). You can’t turn them in to decent human beings but it may at least embarrass them into stopping.

It's not for the hotel staff to instill basic, bare minimum decency, call the scum out, loudly. 'what the fuck are you doing?', stare at them, call them scum. It's the least they deserve.

How awful for you ☹️ people are so cruel. Well done for keeping your cool, think I would really struggle not to end up looking like a complete lunatic whilst tearing them a new one.

I gave them a hard stare which seemed to deter some of them. Two of the women though are openly very disrespectful.