AIBU to be disgusted by parents and children at holiday parks?

[ToffeePennie]

I am so disgusted by Utterly gross behaviour of young children and their parents on holiday parks.
We’ve been at our favourite campsite since Friday night and so far I’ve been punched and smacked by numerous little kids, this is clearly kids trying to push past in queues or when waiting for entertainment etc to start and it’s not eagerness, it’s a massive case of “I’m entitled to be first!”
We were sat towards some stairs at a table and chairs, clearly the “space” is designated for the table. Sadly, dozens of kids have climbed the stairs, stuffed themselves in a tiny gap and literally kicked/punched my kids to try and get up/down the stairs. I ended up moving my seat to cover the gap and got kicked repeatedly by small children trying to squeeze into a gap that wasn’t there.
A man then saw his daughter pick up a lolly off the floor and put it in her mouth. Instead of throwing it in the bin 2 paces behind him, he threw it back onto the floor. When I told him, he said “well you throw it away then” how vile and disgusting this man is I cannot tell you. I literally wanted to punch him. (I did put the gross lolly in the bin, because the staff shouldn’t have to clean that up)
why can parents not keep an eye on their kids, apologise when they hurt someone, check they know where their kids are and ensure they aren’t engaging in gross behaviours? I have noticed it’s gotten so much worse since Covid, it seems people are stuck in their own bubble and don’t care about anyone or anything else.
It’s so vile the amount of selfish and entitled behaviour I have seen makes me so sad.

The problem today is that when you tell off other people’s children the parents end up shouting at you for doing so or they come back with something like “he’s autistic or has adhd” for reference my son has both asd and adhd and we still taught him manners and good behaviour. Meltdowns happen, overwhelm happens, but poor behaviour and bad manners is a choice.

Parents should be prosecuted for their kids criminal behaviour and forced to take some responsibility for them. Maybe then, they’d actually parent them before they turn into uncontrollable feral teenagers and useless young adults.

🙄🙄🙄🙄

Standards of behaviour have plummeted. On holiday in Spain recently, playing with my 18 month old in the dedicated toddler splash pool. Older children pushing and shoving, showing no regard for the little ones. Took toddler down the slide and a 7/8 year old child literally kicked me in the back to try and get me to get out of the way whilst waiting for the slide. Similar in soft play centers in the UK - big children actively choosing to play in the toddler zone and treating the toddlers like collateral. It’s disgraceful and a total
failure of parenting.

Couldn’t agree more! I feel sad on behalf of my son when he gets pushed to the sides. I’ve told many kids off in the last 5 years, couldn’t care less what people think of me, someone has to parent them.

It's truly sad the way people are today,they just don't give a stuff about anybody else and it's only getting worse.I can only speak as I see of us British people but when you see the Japanese fans cleaning up their mess and making sure they left the stadium clean and tidy after the England v Japan game the other night really puts it into perspective of how respectful and considerate they are compared to us as a nation.

People are indeed foul. I need to move into a town as I am getting old but I simply can't face dealing with people.

I have pheasants and buzzards and foxes and owls and they all behave perfectly. I can no longer bear people. I need a gumshield and boat fenders to go to the supermarket. Modern UK is bloody awful.

We were in the supermarket recently and noticed a small child standing up in a shopping trolley.

The mum was browsing the shelves and therefore oblivious to the child who was leaning dangerously over the side of the trolley trying to reach another shelf. As we walked past the child lost its balance and fell out of the trolley.

My OH grabbed the child before it hit the floor. Naturally, the child cried out and mum went ballistic claiming my OH had tried to snatch her kid! What he had actually done was prevent the child hitting the floor and possibly sustaining a serious head injury!

It was witnessed by other shoppers who swiftly put mum in her place. Store manager was involved and bollocked mum for allowing child to stand up in the trolley.

Moral to this……control your children and keep them safe.

Well done your OH!

Haven holidays was like this 18 years ago with the added woman getting into the ball pit with a cigarette and burning my arm whilst yelling at me moment
We would never go on a caravan holiday again. I’ve never known anything like it.
Oh, and all the dads staring at my tits that was a highlight

Can’t stand this
Mine are older
I avoid places like this like the plague

Disturbing that you wanted to punch someone, for littering.

You fit right in really.

I have travelled a lot in Asia. Almost uniformly, the children I see are well behaved and closely supervised by their parents. I don't think gentle parenting has taken off there.

@ElvisGrace we loved our Haven holidays for years BUT we only ever used the caravan as a base and avoided the entertainment if that made me a snob then so be it - I’ll take it! For the exact reasons you refer to. I remember once we went to see the wrestling event as my son had asked and loads were sitting eating chips and food was thrown- it was like something gone wrong off peter Kay’s phoenix nights - never again

That said it still worked out cheaper than elsewhere as we could walk to the beach and was a annual staples for many years when they were little

I’d rather have a Hotel. I’m sorry I just would.
We also had the incident where my three-year-old messed around with the calor gas heater and nearly killed us all in our sleep
Never again

I was in local cinema, couple and two kids let a very small child run up and down the middle aisle. Inevitable happened with popcorn everywhere. They made no attempt to clear or go and ask for a dust pan. My side eye resulted in abuse. So I might have suggested the mess was preventable.They exited after the film giving me daggers. It served as a teaching moment to demonstrate to ours how not to behave. Felt sorry for their kids, no chance of having decent manners with those parents. God knows what the popcorn cost to decorate the cinema floor.

So apart from one person shouting at staff and one discarded vodka bottle this was just you being snobby about people who dress differently to you and people's teeth.

Nice.

My DF used to say right back in the 1980s that people should have to have a license to have children because there were too many idiots who fail to parent at all.

Maybe he had the gift of sight for how parenting would turn out in the 21st century!

About 10 years ago, my DH suggested taking our DC to Butlins in the school holidays. I refused.

We do not holiday with the “Brits abroad” mob. If we do AI, it’s in a resort that has lots of European tourists rather than Brits.

I grew up in a very working class family on a council estate. A caravan holiday would have been the highlight of the year for us kids. We would have been appreciative and well mannered.

The old ways of the working classes have disappeared. Yes, we were left to our own devices a lot and got up to mischief. But we knew that if we got caught, we’d be in trouble. We also didn’t give adults cheek as it would be reported to our parents.

Kids have always had the potential to go a bit feral. But the lack of consequences is the problem. And that too many parents behave just as badly as their children. Idiots dragging up idiots.

Your children are being taught in classes with unparented peers. Their teachers are being gaslit into believing that it's their fault. Holiday parks are the least of your worries.

Ugh, OP - I get what you're saying.

Horrible, selfish anti-social people have always been there - throughout history. It's nothing new. But what is new over the last (40? ) years is the culture of non-judgmentalism we've had in this country - what used to be called 'the permissive society'. In the past there would have been condemnation for this kind of behaviour.

I started my teaching career in the late 80s and it was absolutely frowned on the judge anyone for anything. I have never understood this approach - what we're judging people on is usually something 99.9% of the population would agree with!

Schools and government became (for some reason I can't understand) totally unwilling to criticise parents for anything. I remember many training days and initiatives where teachers were told 'schools are failing children and families'. Er, no - schools and teachers are often the ONLY people who are not failing children and families. But you cannot, just cannot, judge or criticise parents.

Millions of examples, but my headteacher was once terrified of the consequences because I had politely asked a parent to listen to 2 pages of reading in the evening with their child (ie 2 sentences - the child was very young). The parent just would not be bothered, but it was seen as highly judgmental and intrusive and the head was ready to fawn at the parent if she took offence.

I got out of teaching, not because of the behaviour of children but because of the entitled attitude of parents and the ridiculous idea that schools - and anyone really- must never criticise parenting.

We've had 3 generations of crappy parenting since the early days and it's almost irreversible, I should think.

PPs nailed it; everyone seems to have main character syndrome and lacks any self awareness.
On a flight last year, there was a multi generational family of about 15, all clad in football tops; adults all drunk and the feral kids climbing over the tops of the seats, anything the cabin crew said was ignored. They shouldn’t have been allowed on the flight.
Now my kids are up, I avoid any hotel/resort marketed at families.

Op is describing anger at being jostled as well as being given a mouthful for challenging someone on littering, a normal emotion. She had the self-control not to act on it. It's possible to say such things without literally meaning them.

Oh they don’t even get that much for murder. I read a case a while back where an under 25 year old raped, murdered and set on fire a woman (the latter whilst she was still alive) and got a lesser sentence as he was under 25. I accept for some crimes the under developed cortex maybe a factor but even very young kids should know how wrong it is to murder someone!

This was my experience too - and I am 41. Bullied a lot through secondary, and mostly got told "children who bully do often have hard home lives." And? And that makes that get to make my life horrible???