Thursday 13: The Vacation Gripe one

Thirteen Things That Ticked Me Off on Vacation!
Disclaimer: If you happen to see yourself doing any of the offending acts listed below, remember... I only take vacation once per year and the chances of YOU actually bumping into me and doing this are really really small. And I've been slammed for my opinions before...remember these are My Opinions. If you don't like them...click on another blog

1…. I've mentioned this one before and other parents have tried to argue with me about it, but you're not going to convince me otherwise... If a venue says that "Children age X and under are Free" this is because those children WILL NOT HAVE ANY FUN THERE and will most likely not remember ever being there at all... DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY taking them there and paying your admission...even though you are saving money on their admission you are just going to bore your child and annoy others with your whiney child. Yes I've heard of Leggo Land and how kids of all ages have fun there...but will they remember going? I think not.

2…. If you insist on bringing your child even though I've warned you not to and your child starts throwing a fit during a tour because they are bored out of their mind... TAKE THEM OUT of the tour! I realize that your are upset because you paid to see the tour too and your child is making it hard for you to hear the speaker... but your child is also making it impossible for everyone else in the room to hear the speaker as well.

3…. When you've been asked to TURN YOUR CELL PHONE OFF OR TO VIBRATE... DO IT! You are not so important that you have to be reachable during a vacation. Your cell phone comes with voice mail, you can call them back...and you're likely to get me mad enough that I will come and destroy your phone!

4…. Please control your children while on a tour. It is extreemly RUDE for your children to cut in front of the rest of us to go see something when we have been waiting our turn. I realize that your "Home Educated" children have not been taught to wait in a line... but get this, my child is Home Educated too and she knows better because I taught her and you can too. (In case you're wondering, yeah, this is directed toward one particular family who were wearing Home Educator badges.)

5…. Change your baby's diaper in the bathroom. Do you know how GROSS it is to watch your baby's stinky poopy butt out in public for the entire world to see and smell? What really chapps me about this is that we are trying to convince the public that breastfeeding should NOT be done in bathrooms and here you are doing something that should be done in bathrooms in the public. GAH!

6…. This is directed to one lady in particular at Busch Gardens... If your child wants to get out of the stroller at lunch after being confined to the stroller since she got out of the car seat...there is a reason. How would YOU like it to have to spend your entire vacation strapped into a stroller??? Let the kid out for Pete's sake instead of leaving her in there to scream and disturb all the others trying to enjoy their lunch.

7…. This is directed toward all the venues that we visited with climate control systems... Just because you have the ability to cool your rooms to 50 degrees does not mean that you should...especially NOT in September. You could save a ton of money by keeping your climate control systems at a temperature that does not freeze the brains of your guests.

8…. And why for goodness sake did someone think it was a good idea to rebuild the buildings in Colonial Williamsburg and install climate control systems??? After spending the day in Busch Gardens and freezing our bottoms off we were looking forward to spending a day in the 18th century where there was no A/C and here you have every building fitted with A/C. What's up with that? It was very comfortable outside, there was no need to have the A/C on.

9…. People, you are not the only person on the planet trying to get a good picture! Please do not walk into someone else's shot! And if you do, perhaps by accident, get out of the shot as soon as you've taken yours so that others can take their shot!

10…. Southwest Airlines...your seating system SUCKS! It's time to rethink that. A much more efficient way of loading a plane is to have the passengers begin at the rear of the plane and fill it toward the front. Your current system has everyone trying to get at the front seats and jamming up the eisle because they're trying to shove their carryons into the overhead storage. If they were in the back of the plane then no one would be trying to get past them. Oh and it would be most helpful if you announced before bording that this plane is sold out...so do not try to keep the seat next to you Empty or put all your bags in the seat next to you, especially since you have to store them anyway.

11…. To Southwest again... You may think that your little ad-libbing of the speaches on the plane are cute, but phrases like "Let's Pretend to listen to the saftey brief" and "We do not serve "Um, Huh?, or Blank Faces" are not appreciated by tired and already ticked off passengers.

12…. To the APVA volunteer in the Jamestown Church... If you are so upset with how little our children are learning about our past in public schools, Do something about it instead of just putting the kids down. It is not their fault that they don't know...it's the lack of funding for public schools. And realize that our children today have to learn much more about US History than you did because a lot more has happened in our world since you went to school way back in the 1950s or earlier. Many of us had questions about the building that we were in, but were unable to ask them because you went off on your tirade.

13…. Parents get to know your children and learn their limitations. You can not expect that a 3 year old will behave like a little adult and sit still on the plane. You can not expect a 2 year old to sit on a bench while waiting for our tour to begin when there are so many cool things to explore under the bench. A child's job is to explore and learn about their world.


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