Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to never ever want to go to a theme park again!!!!!!!

86 replies

MiserableMotherFlunker · 15/04/2009 22:09

Went to Chessington today and of course it was heaving with people, about an hour's queue for each ride. Had to leave a ride queue to take DS to the loo (leaving DD & DS there) and telling the people behind that I would be back. When I returned I said to people that I had left the queue to take DS to the loo and was not pushing in so they were aware of what I was doing.

Anyway this prat in front of me would not move and blocked the walkway so I could not get through on purpose, so I tapped his shoulder and told him I was returning to my place. He turned around with a snarl and said that I should not be so rude and he did not like my tone of voice . I said I was not being rude and had said excuse me. He then told me I was old and ugly and should get to the back of the queue so I basically told him tough and he should look in the mirror himself (early 20s bad case of acne, I am 37 btw and was slightly pissed off to be told I was old). DH came to meet me from the ride (he had been on another ride with DN) and I told him what had happened and DS had heard everything as he was with me and he was furious so went to where this guy was standing and gave him a bit of a mouthful about it (why were you calling my wife names, etc without swearing - the ride staff threatened to call security because it got a bit heated and DH is quite big but the guy looked suitably chastened and DH left it). I spent the rest of the day looking over my shoulder in case this guy came looking for us with a posse (he was with his girlfriend/wife and son of about 3). Am just so furious this guy was looking for trouble when he was with his own child. I did nothing wrong as anyone who has a child that needs to loo in an hour long queue would know.

It totally ruined my very expensive day and I have vowed never go to a park again while there are so many rude ignorant people about (and will be buying a good anti ageing cream - paranoid emoticon).

OP posts:
pointydog · 15/04/2009 22:57

I hated Honey.. Shrunk. It was total rubbish. I fell asleep, that was the high point

Thunderduck · 15/04/2009 22:58

You fell asleep? Even when''the mice'' were running around your ankles?

I didn't like it, mostly because it was such an unpleasant sensation when the mice were running around.

pointydog · 15/04/2009 23:03

yeah, just felt like an annoying breeze to me

pointydog · 15/04/2009 23:03

I think I had a dodgy seat. Couldn't get my ear phones to work and so had to rely on my french

Thunderduck · 15/04/2009 23:04

Perhaps it does depend where you're sitting. It really did feel like mice running up my legs. It was horrible.

Thunderduck · 15/04/2009 23:05

They had viewings in French, German and English when I was there.

edam · 15/04/2009 23:05

Theme parks are horrid. But miserable's dh sounds bloody aggressive - she admits the ride staff threatened to call security.

Grumpy man was not very friendly but theme parks are practically designed to put people in a bad mood. All that queuing in the blazing sun/pissing rain, noise, smell, crowds... I can think of better ways of being parted from my money.

Doodle2U · 15/04/2009 23:06

An ADULT would make a CHILD who has ALREADY queued for Gawd knows how long, go back to the end of the queue?

My flabber is not that gasted by the tosser in the OP's tale but I am totally stunned that the (normally) reasonable Mumsnet brigade think sending a child back to the end of the line because of a quick loo trip is tickety-boo. I feel quite sad that any of you would treat a child so shoddily.

MintyyAeroEgg · 15/04/2009 23:12

Exactly, Doodle. It is beyond bizarre.

Sorrento · 15/04/2009 23:12

That always makes me laugh, no wonder children today think the world revolves around them, why on earth would it make a difference how many years old the person who needed the loo is ? Your average 6 year old no doubt has far greater bladder control than most of us mums.
Tis a harsh but fair lesson, if one looks at the que and see's it is a long one, do you need the toilet would be a question the parent needs to ask and the child needs to consider.

pointydog · 15/04/2009 23:16

edam, let's all go to disney, you;'d .love it

Doodle2U · 15/04/2009 23:17

Well in my world Sorrento, there is no way I could treat a child like that.

I fail to see what lesson other than out and out selfishness and meaness could come from such a stratergy.

Doodle2U · 15/04/2009 23:18

strategy - sorry.

BexieID · 15/04/2009 23:20

YANBU

Which ride was it?

Doodle2U · 15/04/2009 23:21

meanness - sorry again. Spelling gone to pot.

Sorrento · 15/04/2009 23:21

But why should other people be put out by your needs if it doesn't suit them ?

As I said I would no doubt have let them back into the que but it shouldn't be assumed that everyone gives a shit if you need to leave the que for whatever reason. I have seen people do as the OP did to get a hot dog, why should I care if you fancy a snack, wait til after the ride like everyone else.
Or in this case if the que looks long you take your kids to the toilet first.

Doodle2U · 15/04/2009 23:27

Other people are not being 'put out' though, are they?

They're no further down the queue than if the child and parent had never left it.

You can ask a child if they want the loo before you queue and at the precise moment in time, they don't. You can take a child to the loo whether they like it or not before you queue but after 30 minutes of queing, the child needs to go again or a number two might come upon them! Who knows, who cares?

The point is, as adults, I feel it is totall wrong to treat a child like this and I couldn't and won't do it.

Gawd, we live in a self-absorbed, selfish society now-a-days, eh? We cannot even find it within ourselves, to let a child go for a wee, making absolutely no difference to ourselves, and for what? A childrens bloody theme park ride.

edam · 15/04/2009 23:32

pointy - I've been and I did, despite hating theme parks and organised 'fun' on principle.

Stitch out of Lilo and Stitch tried to pull me. Told me I could do MUCH better than dh!

(Think it helped that I went to Disneyland Paris - Parisien attitudes to customer service may be pants but they are familiar, comfortable pants, IYKWIM. Even if they have gone a little grey in the wash)

MintyyAeroEgg · 15/04/2009 23:37

I would even let your children back into the queue Sorrento, should they ever let you down and suddenly need a wee despite you being an uber Mother who is always fully aware of their toileting needs at every minute of the day. That's queue spelled q u e and another u e on the end.

pointydog · 15/04/2009 23:38

oh good edam. you;re a good sort

Sorrento · 15/04/2009 23:39

Gosh I think I only said that I would let them back in three times, but you should assume it is your right to go back to your place

Sorrento · 15/04/2009 23:39

shouldn't assume, grrr typing to fast

luckylady74 · 15/04/2009 23:42

But Sorrento wouldn't the world be a much nicer place if everyone realised that they'd lose nothing by being polite (not even their advancement up the queue) and you could go to the loo/grab a hotdog(irrespective of age) without it upsetting anyone?

I have seen real queue jumpers heckled and rightly removed from the line, but this is about being civilised.
It actually teaches children to be polite to other people rather than making them think they're the centre of the world.
No need to grimly hang on to imaginery rules.

hmc · 15/04/2009 23:48

It's because of attitudes like Herbietea's that I let my then 3 year old ds pee over a balcony into a plant pot when near the front of the 1 hour queue at the Haunted House queue at DLP No way was I going to rejoin the queue at the back simply because my small child had to answer a call of nature

Totally on your side MMF

Perhaps all theme parks should perform catheterisation on small children if people are going to be so dogmatically inflexible

edam · 15/04/2009 23:51

why, thank you, Pointy, I think!