From John Quinteros on July 26, 2007 at 2:08 PM
Damn parents! See that's the problem with stupid people...they breed way too fast!

From John Smith on July 27, 2007 at 7:04 AM
Bool sheet, now THAT is funny!

From Bradley Robertson on July 27, 2007 at 7:53 AM
While I understand your point about these children not being old enough to have the higher level reasoning to understand their parents sarcasm (at least in the first case). None of them seemed vindictive and they were all things my parents probably would have said to me.

From Brian Emery on July 27, 2007 at 7:53 AM
These are very minor incidents. I am no angel and I am sure I have made many mistakes raising my daughter and I will give credit to the parents for taking their children on vacation. Many kids never get to Orlando.

From Robert Niles on July 27, 2007 at 9:46 AM
I need the little Slashdot icon here: "It's funny. Laugh."

From Christina Horwitz on July 27, 2007 at 1:23 PM
These are great!!!! Kids say and do the darndest things...god only knows...I have a 4 year old to prove it : )

From Greg Shilton on July 27, 2007 at 1:29 PM
Mom:"Hey look, it's Mickey! Too bad he's not real and it's actually some stinky guy inside him."

Kid: "What? WAAAHHH!!!"

From Joshua Counsil on July 27, 2007 at 2:26 PM
Number one was classic.

I'd love to have an entire section on this site as to the hilarity observed while at theme parks. One of my favourite things to do is to grab a drink (don't worry, Robert - not from a cart vendor) and sit and watch what people do and how they react to things.

I have some amazing quotes I've laughed about over the years from tourists. I think my favourite would be the following:

After we rode a simple log flume ride (lift hill and drop), someone behind us said, "The best bart was when you dropped and got wet!"

... Well, maybe you had to be there, but I wet myself laughing.

From James Thrombley on July 27, 2007 at 8:23 PM
The part about forgetting the autograph book sounded pretty vindictive.."I know you want to see the characters honey, but YOU forgot the autograph book, so sorry charlie. Not not on this trip!"

From Rena P. on July 28, 2007 at 9:07 PM
There's been a few times at Disney that I've heard some parents be so rude to their kids, for some reason its usually the little ones, sometimes teens but rarely. One that I remember was when this kid had that vanilla/chocolate Mickey head ice cream--and like a lot of kids, including adults--the poor kid drops a part of it on the floor. The mom gets pissed and pretty much says what the hell did he do and said that he wasn't going to get another one cuz he "dropped Mickey--Mickey's gone!" and how he's never gonna see Mickey again...of course the kid then bursts out in tears and starts screaming "Mickey! Mickey!" as his mom drags him away.

From Jack Williams on July 29, 2007 at 11:23 AM
Thank you Robert Niles, for giving these examples of bad parenting at theme parks. Can you believe what can come out of a parents mouth? That guy was right: stupid people do breed too fast!

From Scottland Jacobson on July 29, 2007 at 2:51 PM
So you totally made me laugh on that last one. It's like "Meet the Fockers" all over again!

From Dustin Kern on July 29, 2007 at 10:05 PM
Nice one, makes me wonder of all those kind of stories that I've seen of those, or been the person to make a total fool of myself.

P.S. - Nice to see that you were in the C'ville Hook this week. I was reading the article at work and nice to see you talking to the small local free papers.

From Anthony Murphy on July 30, 2007 at 6:16 AM
I have seen something like every one of those at Disney World. I am starting to believe parents are getting dumber. I just came back from Disneyland Paris and it was even worse

From Robert Niles on July 31, 2007 at 9:14 AM
Just to be clear, none of the these are examples of "bad" parenting.

Bad parenting is skipping out on your kids, leaving them to be raised by someone else.

Bad parenting is drinking and driving with your kids in the car.

Bad parenting is letting kids watch TV or play video games, even though they haven't finished their homework and are falling behind in school.

Bad parenting is feeding your kids fast food, junk food and soft drinks, when they are already overweight.

Bad parenting is raising your kids with racist, sexist and bigoted attitudes toward other classes of people, rather than teaching them to view others as individuals.

What we've got here are three silly examples of bone-headed parenting moments. If you're not the parent or kid involved, they're actually pretty funny. Vacations can be stressful. And stress can make people do stupid things. I hope folks use these silly examples as a reminder to chill out on their theme park vacations... and to try to avoid the bone-headed moments that these parents had.

From Anthony Murphy on July 31, 2007 at 4:07 PM
Oh yeah, understood!

Its just stupid parents!