Thursday, October 9, 2008

What is the fastest way to ruin someone's vacation?



The fastest way to ruin someone's vacation is to take your crying child. I don't think I've been anywhere on our vacation where there haven't been children screaming and crying. I just about lost it when there was a child screeching next to me on the Kennedy Space Center tour.

I know children cry. It's the parents that anger me, definitely not the children. When you have children you obtain certain responsibilities, like not being able to do the same things you did when you were childless. Taking a young child on a trip where they can't do anything and lugging them along in the heat is just selfish. It's understandable that parents are just trying to make family memories, but it's a waste of money when the kid won't remember any of it. Vacations are expensive for everyone. When your belly fruit is crying, it not only bothers you, but effects the experience of other paying customers. A tour at KSC is about $60. When I drop that kind of money, I crazily expect to hear the tour I just paid for. Much of what the guide had to say was obstructed by a screaming child, that was only quieted when the mother popped her boob out. I was then distracted and honestly made uncomfortable by the sound of a toddler breast feeding.

My parents waited to take my brother and I on vacation until we were about six. The first couple vacations I went on where sans Bryan. If you can afford to go on vacation you can afford a sitter.

I know I'm going to come off as sounding like a scrooge, but there are appoppriate places to take an infants and toddlers. Infants do not belong in loud places like sporting events and movie theaters. It's not good for their hearing, and it's a very disorienting experience for them. Toddlers to not belong in large amusement parks, and R rated movies. It's boring for them, often frightening, and they usually get cranky from walking and the heat. Bjorn and I have decided, that when we have kids, they won't be going on any vacations until they are at least 5, and staying far away from Disney, until we can take out a second mortgage to pay for tickets, food and merchandise.

2 comments:

Brian M. Knoblock said...

You don't even have to go on vacation for that - I get annoyed in restaurants when invariably a parent will come in by themselves with their child and have lunch. While talking with their friend. No wonder this kid cries. Their parent is too busy chatting with their friend and enjoying their lunch while this kid tries to find something to entertain itself with. And the parent is oblivious to the kid's screams. Then why did they bring the child in the first place!?

And, like saying "shhh.." to the kid's going to work. Right. He/she is less than two years old! They barely understand the difference between a cat and a dog, and they think a simple "shhh..." is going to work...

Grrrr.....

Sorry you guys missed the launch this week. Hubble had to go all wacky on us.

Allyson said...

You're not a scrooge. Well, I guess a lot of people would say I'm a scrooge, because I feel the same way you do. So I guess we can be scrooges together.

Seriously, if children cannot adapt to adult spaces, they don't belong there. Why does the world revolve around kids?