Share your stories of being *That* family

We were always lucky that both of our sons were pretty well behaved at Disney (It seems to bring out the best in my kids). We would always try to plan early sit down lunches and dinners to allow for breaks from the lines and walking. On previous trips we would also have a plan in advance for places to scoot our youngest off to in case of a meltdown (though I don't recall ever having to use said plan).
 
We have adult "children". When it comes to Photopass we are "that" family. We have the photographer take tons of pics, magic shots, etc. Sorry. I like to get my $$$ out of memory maker!
I'm giggling bc I thought I was the only one guilty of this. I like to go through about 79,000 memory maker pics at Ariel's Grotto oh wait, character breakfast, lets take a million more at Crystal Palace and my children are ok with it, did I mention they are 17, 20, and 25 but dashingly patient as I have the photographer take tons of pics of us.
 
We were that family on the flight back from a week at Disney. After eating differently for a week, my then almost 3 year old got constipated. Finally had to go right as we were buckling up on the plane about to taxi out. Started screaming hysterically "I have to poop" People around us are staring, rolling eyes, I could hear the men behind me talking loudly about not wanting to sit behind "this kid" Flight attendant comes over and asks if there is anything they can do because people all over the plane are complaining. I told her that my daughter really needed to poop and I guaranteed that if she let us get up to take her to the bathroom, all of this would be over. She talks to pilot. He agrees to delay to let my kid go to the bathroom to poop. And of course the bathroom was on the front of this plane, so EVERYONE was staring at me as I walked her out of the bathroom. I just looked at the entire flight and said "thank you!" and I bowed. Then I sat in my seat and she was quiet the rest of the flight. Now we make sure everyone is eating plenty of fruits and vegetables on our Disney trips.

Oh. my. gosh. You win. Seriously, delaying the whole plane for it? I can only imagine and having that type of pooper myself I can envision all-too-well how this scene played out. I mean, hilarious in retrospect, but in the moment? I can only imagine.
 
I'm giggling bc I thought I was the only one guilty of this. I like to go through about 79,000 memory maker pics at Ariel's Grotto oh wait, character breakfast, lets take a million more at Crystal Palace and my children are ok with it, did I mention they are 17, 20, and 25 but dashingly patient as I have the photographer take tons of pics of us.

My kindred spirit! Love all the photos, helps to re-live the trip :)
 
I find a good cure can be for each parent to take one kid and do different parks/rides separately for a few hours. Works wonders for everyone. DH/DW aren't having to second guess each other, and the kids aren't vying for attention. Plus if they're different ages, it allows each one to do what's more fun for them.

DW and I have done this on every trip and it works wonders. Especially since she and my oldest DD are early wakers -- they'll go to MK and do stuff for a couple hours and me and youngest DD will hang out, get breakfast, and meet up with them around lunch time after we do a couple of rides. Kids seem to enjoy it as well b/c they get more 1 on 1 time. We'll then switch off kids another day.

If in-laws are coming, you can do different versions of splitting up. We'll often send the kids with grandparents to watch a show, while DW and I go ride some bigger rides. For example, at DAK -- let the kids and GPs watch Nemo while you ride Everest 2 or 3 times via FP or single rider. This is really good if your kids aren't yet tall (or brave) enough to ride EE.

This does work! We have two kids and I took my daughter to Pirates and my wife took my son to the WDW speedway. We kept in touch via texts. I ended up taking her to Haunted Mansion too. She was super happy to do these rides that her younger brother does not like and she wanted nothing to do with herky jerky racecars.
 


Yes we had one of those trips in 2015. My kids were DS15 and DD9.

It was DS15 CONSTANT complaining from the moment we landed. My son questioned and complained about everything. Every.Single.Thing. If I said turn left he asked why couldn't we turn right. If I said we were leaving the room at 8 am he asked why couldn't we leave at 8:03 am (I'm not exaggerating here). If I said we were going to AK he asked why couldn't we go to DHS. If I said we were eating at Ohana he asked why couldn't we eat there tomorrow and eat at X place today. If I said we had a FP for Splash at 11 am he asked why can't we make it for 10:45. If we went to the pool he asked why couldn't we go to a park. He complained about pool time because "it was making his hair look crazy." This was driving me insane. I don't tolerate complaining at home. I nip it in the butt quickly since it's one of my pet peeves but my son was making up for years of this. He was miserable the entire first 3 days of our trip.

The meltdown came when we were in MK for PM EMH. It was raining but the rain was going to stop in about an hour. The fireworks were still set to go off. Well my son complains about the rain so we get him a poncho. Then he complains about the poncho because it's messing up his hair. I told him he can go back to the room (Poly) and chill there. Nope. He had to be with us. Then he's complaining about walking because there are puddles that are messing up his sneakers. I had a FP for 7DMT but it was down due to the rain but he HAD to ride it. I told him we would ride it when it came back up because they converted it to an anytime so let's go ride other rides. Nope. He wanted to wait there until it opened. I told him he could wait there and he just kept on complaining. I think that's the moment I lost it. I said we are done here and we are leaving back to the room. As we are heading to the monorail he is STILL complaining. Talking under his breath, making comments about this or that. We are waiting for the next monorail and it's packed due to the rain so people everywhere. I texted his dad and told his dad what was going on and that I was going to send him home as an unassisted minor. He told me to send him home if he wasn't being appreciative. While I'm doing this my son is still making little comments. I turn to him and got really close to his face and said "This is it. You have ruined enough of this trip for us. I am sending you home unassisted minor and your dad will pick you up at the airport tomorrow. I am DONE." His eyes got huge and went to the room. I left both kids in the room and told them they better not text me unless someone is dying, dead, on fire or bleeding and I hit up Tambu Lounge with my SO (who was having his first WDW trip). My SO told me to sleep on it and book the flight in the morning. After a few drinks I went back to the room and slept it off and my son woke up a different kid! He was on the straight and narrow and didn't complain the rest of the trip. Luckily it was a 10 day trip because those first 3 days were awful.

Since then I haven't done anymore WDW family trips. My son has gone alone with his senior class. I took DD alone. My SO wants to go just us two but I don't know if anymore WDW family trips are in our future. I am that traumatized from it all! lol
 
My son has adhd and struggles when overstimulated (hello, Disney world!). Usually we still have a great time but one trip we were so “that” family on a bus ride back to our hotel from AK. My son was being awful and I couldn’t get him to calm down and then I got embarrassed and overwhelmed and started crying (and dying inside and making all of those weird faces and noises you make when you’re trying really hard not to cry and failing, lol). At the end of the ride a random mom came up to me and said “you’re doing great. Can I give you a hug?” and it was the most beautiful thing. So... you’re doing great and we’ve all been there and I’m sending you a virtual hug!
 
We went with my lovely niece and her children (6 and 9) and they were heavenly, adorable, perfectly perfect in every way. UNTIL....we pushed our luck just that little bit too far on the last night and tried to stay for extra magic hours. Big mistake. The little one bit me while we ere having our photos taken in front of the castle. (We have the photo to prove it) The older one screamed "But I don't want to see Tinkerbell" so loudly that people commented and then they fell asleep on the monorail and we had to carry them back to the car. Not easy, cos the 9 year old was my height. (5'1")
 
Yes we had one of those trips in 2015. My kids were DS15 and DD9.

It was DS15 CONSTANT complaining from the moment we landed. My son questioned and complained about everything. Every.Single.Thing. If I said turn left he asked why couldn't we turn right. If I said we were leaving the room at 8 am he asked why couldn't we leave at 8:03 am (I'm not exaggerating here). If I said we were going to AK he asked why couldn't we go to DHS. If I said we were eating at Ohana he asked why couldn't we eat there tomorrow and eat at X place today. If I said we had a FP for Splash at 11 am he asked why can't we make it for 10:45. If we went to the pool he asked why couldn't we go to a park. He complained about pool time because "it was making his hair look crazy." This was driving me insane. I don't tolerate complaining at home. I nip it in the butt quickly since it's one of my pet peeves but my son was making up for years of this. He was miserable the entire first 3 days of our trip.

The meltdown came when we were in MK for PM EMH. It was raining but the rain was going to stop in about an hour. The fireworks were still set to go off. Well my son complains about the rain so we get him a poncho. Then he complains about the poncho because it's messing up his hair. I told him he can go back to the room (Poly) and chill there. Nope. He had to be with us. Then he's complaining about walking because there are puddles that are messing up his sneakers. I had a FP for 7DMT but it was down due to the rain but he HAD to ride it. I told him we would ride it when it came back up because they converted it to an anytime so let's go ride other rides. Nope. He wanted to wait there until it opened. I told him he could wait there and he just kept on complaining. I think that's the moment I lost it. I said we are done here and we are leaving back to the room. As we are heading to the monorail he is STILL complaining. Talking under his breath, making comments about this or that. We are waiting for the next monorail and it's packed due to the rain so people everywhere. I texted his dad and told his dad what was going on and that I was going to send him home as an unassisted minor. He told me to send him home if he wasn't being appreciative. While I'm doing this my son is still making little comments. I turn to him and got really close to his face and said "This is it. You have ruined enough of this trip for us. I am sending you home unassisted minor and your dad will pick you up at the airport tomorrow. I am DONE." His eyes got huge and went to the room. I left both kids in the room and told them they better not text me unless someone is dying, dead, on fire or bleeding and I hit up Tambu Lounge with my SO (who was having his first WDW trip). My SO told me to sleep on it and book the flight in the morning. After a few drinks I went back to the room and slept it off and my son woke up a different kid! He was on the straight and narrow and didn't complain the rest of the trip. Luckily it was a 10 day trip because those first 3 days were awful.

Since then I haven't done anymore WDW family trips. My son has gone alone with his senior class. I took DD alone. My SO wants to go just us two but I don't know if anymore WDW family trips are in our future. I am that traumatized from it all! lol

holy cow -- my blood pressure was going up just reading this and trying to figure out how I'd react. It's one thing for a 3 year old to throw a hissy fit -- but a 15 year old -- I would have probably lost all patience before you did.

Reminds me of Aunt Edna scene from Vacation.

927db223-55f2-4148-a155-73a0a829ce9e_screenshot.jpg
 
holy cow -- my blood pressure was going up just reading this and trying to figure out how I'd react. It's one thing for a 3 year old to throw a hissy fit -- but a 15 year old -- I would have probably lost all patience before you did.

Reminds me of Aunt Edna scene from Vacation.

927db223-55f2-4148-a155-73a0a829ce9e_screenshot.jpg

I have a lot of patience But it took a lot!!!

I want to say he was going through that mopey, everything sucks, teenage phase. Just blah about everything. Thing is he was the most excited about the whole trip. My son also has ADHD (not so much hyper anymore but still has attention issues) and he doesnt like the meds so he doesn’t use them. He can become fixated on things and can’t ‘let it go’ until he’s done it. So if he has the idea of doing Ohana for dinner he will be stuck on that until he’s eaten there. He will talk about it non stop. He will complain when we eat other places. Everyone else would be “oh great. We have an adr for tomorrow!” Not him. Lol.

He is now 20 and looks back and says he acted like a punk. Lol. He says he doesn’t even know why he did that. He doesn’t act that way anymore.

I am planning on maybe taking him on a mother son trip for his 21st birthday to do SWGE. I think it would be a different trip just us two where we could focus on things he is really into. It’s hard when there’s 4 people with their likes and dislikes.
 
I have a lot of patience But it took a lot!!!

I want to say he was going through that mopey, everything sucks, teenage phase. Just blah about everything. Thing is he was the most excited about the whole trip. My son also has ADHD (not so much hyper anymore but still has attention issues) and he doesnt like the meds so he doesn’t use them. He can become fixated on things and can’t ‘let it go’ until he’s done it. So if he has the idea of doing Ohana for dinner he will be stuck on that until he’s eaten there. He will talk about it non stop. He will complain when we eat other places. Everyone else would be “oh great. We have an adr for tomorrow!” Not him. Lol.

He is now 20 and looks back and says he acted like a punk. Lol. He says he doesn’t even know why he did that. He doesn’t act that way anymore.

I am planning on maybe taking him on a mother son trip for his 21st birthday to do SWGE. I think it would be a different trip just us two where we could focus on things he is really into. It’s hard when there’s 4 people with their likes and dislikes.

one on one trips are definitely a different dynamic! I've now done two trips where I took each daughter separately for their (almost) 5th birthdays. You can read about my first one with the oldest daughter by clicking the link in my signature! I plan on starting the next TR fairly soon -- just took the youngest this past January. I'll just say that my oldest is easier to travel with. hahaha
 
one on one trips are definitely a different dynamic! I've now done two trips where I took each daughter separately for their (almost) 5th birthdays. You can read about my first one with the oldest daughter by clicking the link in my signature! I plan on starting the next TR fairly soon -- just took the youngest this past January. I'll just say that my oldest is easier to travel with. hahaha

I took DD on a mother daughter trip in November 2018 (she was 12) and it was amazing. DS went on his senior trip in March of that year (so I jumped at the chance of going back) so it worked out. So I feel like I kinda owe him a solo trip and I know it'll be awesome! My SO wants to go with just us two one day too. He liked Disney but I think my kids drained him. lol
 
My kids were 4, 4, 6, 9 and 11, they didn’t bucket at all during the 10 day vacation, until the ride from the airport home. However, I had a not good moment when ds4 refused to ride test track. He is fearless, I knew he’d love it, but no. I told him if he wasn’t going to ride, we were going back to the beach club. So we walked back to the beach club. I had planned the perfect vacation for months, how dare he said no😂.

Anyway, I eventually realized I was crazy, and when both 4 year old started crying at the MK fireworks and wanted to leave, I said no problem, and the 3 of us headed to the buses.
I think it's great when parents can admit that they're the ones being unreasonable. I love your "I realized I was crazy" thought. I've had a few of those moments myself.

Most recently this past July trip I totally lost my crap on my poor son (17 at the time, but the issue really wasn't even with him, it was just the last straw and he was the only one there at the time) at Disney Springs...like probably the most insane I've ever been...as an adult. It was so embarrassing and I so wish I could go back and redo it, but at least I can apologize and not pretend nothing happened or that I wasn't in the wrong.

I know there were ppl. looking at me like I was insane...because well I was. It was just a mix of it being the last day, planning arpund 12 different ppls wants/needs, stressing about getting back in time etc.; but I certainly hope I NEVER behave anywhere near that way again.
 
Yes we had one of those trips in 2015. My kids were DS15 and DD9.

It was DS15 CONSTANT complaining from the moment we landed. My son questioned and complained about everything. Every.Single.Thing. If I said turn left he asked why couldn't we turn right. If I said we were leaving the room at 8 am he asked why couldn't we leave at 8:03 am (I'm not exaggerating here). If I said we were going to AK he asked why couldn't we go to DHS. If I said we were eating at Ohana he asked why couldn't we eat there tomorrow and eat at X place today. If I said we had a FP for Splash at 11 am he asked why can't we make it for 10:45. If we went to the pool he asked why couldn't we go to a park. He complained about pool time because "it was making his hair look crazy." This was driving me insane. I don't tolerate complaining at home. I nip it in the butt quickly since it's one of my pet peeves but my son was making up for years of this. He was miserable the entire first 3 days of our trip.

The meltdown came when we were in MK for PM EMH. It was raining but the rain was going to stop in about an hour. The fireworks were still set to go off. Well my son complains about the rain so we get him a poncho. Then he complains about the poncho because it's messing up his hair. I told him he can go back to the room (Poly) and chill there. Nope. He had to be with us. Then he's complaining about walking because there are puddles that are messing up his sneakers. I had a FP for 7DMT but it was down due to the rain but he HAD to ride it. I told him we would ride it when it came back up because they converted it to an anytime so let's go ride other rides. Nope. He wanted to wait there until it opened. I told him he could wait there and he just kept on complaining. I think that's the moment I lost it. I said we are done here and we are leaving back to the room. As we are heading to the monorail he is STILL complaining. Talking under his breath, making comments about this or that. We are waiting for the next monorail and it's packed due to the rain so people everywhere. I texted his dad and told his dad what was going on and that I was going to send him home as an unassisted minor. He told me to send him home if he wasn't being appreciative. While I'm doing this my son is still making little comments. I turn to him and got really close to his face and said "This is it. You have ruined enough of this trip for us. I am sending you home unassisted minor and your dad will pick you up at the airport tomorrow. I am DONE." His eyes got huge and went to the room. I left both kids in the room and told them they better not text me unless someone is dying, dead, on fire or bleeding and I hit up Tambu Lounge with my SO (who was having his first WDW trip). My SO told me to sleep on it and book the flight in the morning. After a few drinks I went back to the room and slept it off and my son woke up a different kid! He was on the straight and narrow and didn't complain the rest of the trip. Luckily it was a 10 day trip because those first 3 days were awful.

Since then I haven't done anymore WDW family trips. My son has gone alone with his senior class. I took DD alone. My SO wants to go just us two but I don't know if anymore WDW family trips are in our future. I am that traumatized from it all! lol
This has me worried about our future with my now 12 year old daughter. She adores Disney, but even this last trip in November I began to see the changes.

Yes, my DD, Splash Mtn is fairly empty- but there is a big reason, it is fairly cold out! This is met with giant eye rolls and a hung head. She replies, SO??

She obsessed about it constantly. Just couldn't let it go that we were taking a pass on Splash, even with low lines. We got to go on other rides, but all the week she just could not just "walk away" in her head. My wife finally snapped about it about 4 days in and those two bickered back and forth. She claimed she was needing a break anyway, so DD could stay with her in the room all day. Daddy and DS would go together to WDW for the day, alone. I added to the Family Theater by telling my son to get his shoes on and grab his things. We're leaving!

It sort of set her straight to think she would miss even one day. But yet she still mumbled about it for our remaining days. I do see smiles in pics later, so she was better. But I can see your 15yo's story maybe becoming our future too... ugh.
 
We were that family on the flight back from a week at Disney. After eating differently for a week, my then almost 3 year old got constipated. Finally had to go right as we were buckling up on the plane about to taxi out. Started screaming hysterically "I have to poop" People around us are staring, rolling eyes, I could hear the men behind me talking loudly about not wanting to sit behind "this kid" Flight attendant comes over and asks if there is anything they can do because people all over the plane are complaining. I told her that my daughter really needed to poop and I guaranteed that if she let us get up to take her to the bathroom, all of this would be over. She talks to pilot. He agrees to delay to let my kid go to the bathroom to poop. And of course the bathroom was on the front of this plane, so EVERYONE was staring at me as I walked her out of the bathroom. I just looked at the entire flight and said "thank you!" and I bowed. Then I sat in my seat and she was quiet the rest of the flight. Now we make sure everyone is eating plenty of fruits and vegetables on our Disney trips.

Oh. my. gosh. You win. Seriously, delaying the whole plane for it? I can only imagine and having that type of pooper myself I can envision all-too-well how this scene played out. I mean, hilarious in retrospect, but in the moment? I can only imagine.

AGREED! Not a "that family" moment, but I was on a smaller RJ airplane one time with a kid in the bathroom as we neared Telluride. The pilot is telling everyone to fasten seatbelts, kid is still in the bathroom. The flight attendant is putting on her winter jacket and getting pretty anxious - kid finally emerges from the bathroom and we head back to our seats. Turns out this was no joke - it got violent as we went over the mountain and the pilot was going to go circle around if I couldn't get my kid out of the bathroom. But rdaky really DID hold up a whole plane! Not THAT is a story! ...to be re-told during a wedding toast years down the road if it were me 😝
 
These stories have been amazing to read. We all have those moments! Our moments were great examples of thinking you were prepared, but life not quite being on board. My strongest memory of being "that family" came on our first trip with our 14 month old twins. We had dinner at Coral Reef, which we picked because of the huge aquarium. We live in Maine, so the seafood aspect literally had no appeal to us, we really thought it would be a place that would keep some attention. Cue dinner... We were seated about as far away from any visibility of the fish that a family could possibly be. It was the most expensive meal we didn't eat, because he had to leave before the food even came out.

I have no regrets leaving; it wasn't fair to the kids who were clearly hungry and tired, and it wouldn't have been fair to the other customers. When the kids went to see the aquarium they were entranced, but there isn't great general viewing space there, so standing over someone's shoulder while they ate just wasn't an option.

I definitely think that the emotional and financial commitment it takes to go to Disney adds to the feelings of frustration when big emotions hit. I figure we live and learn, and we are avoiding Coral Reef with our now three year olds.
 
Mine is probably titled "Disney will send another bus."

We were leaving Animal Kingdom way too late for nap one day - it was probably 2 or 3pm. I get to the bus stop, and the line just goes on forever - trailing out past the adjacent stop in the sun. None of the other stops have significant lines. So my mom goes around to see if she can ask what's going on. It turns out, someone decided that winding through the corral was too inconvenient, so they just lined up along it. And then the line grew from there. No one's willing to move into the corral, because they're all hot and tired and moving is work.

So I walk around and into the corral. My kid's a zombie in the stroller and I don't see any reason for him to have sun in his eyes while he tries to stay awake. Plus I'm hot, starting to sunburn and tired, and there's a shady, technically correct place to wait!

It's probably the only time in ~10 years visiting Disney that the dirty looks have been enough to penetrate my vacation-buzz. People are gearing up for a fight, because they were there first! So I make a point to loudly say that I'm not trying to cut in line, but this is where the line belongs, and I don't want to stand in the sun. I don't even care if I get on the next bus, I just wanted to lean against the railing and be in the shade while I waited. This pacifies no one, and guys who are a foot taller and 50 lb heavier than me are puffing up like they're going to start shoving my sorta-frail 70-year-old parents. Then random people from further forward in the line decide to chime in with their points of view.

I'm trying to figure out how to de-escalate, but don't want to go back to stand in the sun either when along comes a bus. My mom wedges herself into the moving line, but I just stand there, because I've already decided that nothing is worth a physical altercation at Disney and I don't -really- want to be on a bus with a bunch of people who are mad at me. The bus is standing room only, and the family at the front of the bus refuses to move back so that my mom can get on. They're standing right at the yellow line and glaring at her, so she eventually backs down, then comes back to join us where we've merged in at the end of a line that now winds through the corral.

Not 5 minutes later, along comes another bus. There's maybe 15 people on the bus, so instead of standing room only with grumpy people, we got plenty of air conditioning and seats. This is good, because the toddler fell asleep face-first in his snack tray, so I have a snoring almost-3year old over my shoulder for the ride.
 
My sixty-year-old mother had meltdowns in Magic Kingdom. We think she got overstimulated and needed a nap.
The kids were fine.

Our most recent trip was with my parents. My mom was grumpy all evening and threw an actual toddler-like tantrum in the line for Slinky Dog. She was on an ECV, screaming and running over our feet trying to get out of the line. It was so ridiculous that it was very funny after the fact. Almost a year later, my husband and kids still bring it up and joke about it.

In all our years of vacationing (kids are ages 13-21), I don't think they have ever really complained, thrown a fit, or fought with each other. Unfortunately, the same can definitely not be said about me. :rolleyes: I can't even count how many times I've been hangry or cried out of frustration.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Latest posts


Top