Over the past few months readers have written in to add their opinions to our discussions. Today we catch up with some of them.
Judy P. wrote in response to our Kids and Character Fears Panel (link):
Our family has the answer for all those young’ins who fear the Disney characters: DON’T FORCE THE ISSUE! There is no solution for this except the passage of time, they will become older and less frightened. I know the pain—our little ones plan for a year on how they will hug Mickey, dance with the Fairies, and even fight Darth Vader himself! However, when the time comes, parents feel their little one’s courage evaporate. They ask you to hold them, bury their head in your neck, cry, run away, scream, you get the picture. If you snap that picture, it will be of a tear-stained little face, one of shock/horror, or the back of them running for their life. Look at it this way: those characters are real. They are unexpectedly large. They have no soothing or friendly voice (some of them) and, when they do speak, like the lovely princesses or Fairies, it really doesn’t help that much. The best advice I could give is stay far away from the characters at first. Let your little one watch other children approach. Maybe the last few days of your vacation will inspire a better level of comfort. Also, there is the photo meet and greet with the whole family, usually with Mom holding the scared one. At least you get a picture. I am sure the Disney characters could tell you many stories of how frightened children were forced to meet their idols. It can’t be pleasant, Yet, some children warmly greet the characters without a moment of hesitation! Is it pixie dust? I could use some!
Some readers still find this breastfeeding article from several years ago (link) and the Panel discussed breastfeeding in the parks (link), as well.
Joy J wrote:
Thanks so much for your article. It really brought tears of joy to my eye. We enjoy going to Disneyland, Disney World and on the Disney Cruise Line as often as possible, trying to hit each one at least once a year. My kids are older now, 17, 13 and 10, but I fondly recall nursing each one through attractions at the Disney parks: Pirates of the Caribbean, “it’s a small world,” the Haunted Mansion, the Child Care center at Disneyland, the People Mover, all the shows at Animal Kingdom and the former Disney MGM Studios, Living with the Land, Journey Into Imagination and others at Epcot. It was so easy traveling with nursing babies, just add a couple diapers to your backpack or purse and go into the parks.
Stephany recently wrote:
I just wanted to drop you a little note and tell you thank you for your post on MousePlanet “Bags, Backpacks and Feeding a Baby.” Our family of six, along with my mother, are traveling to California for a 16 day vacation—three days of which will be spent in Disneyland along with a 5-month-old breastfeeding baby. I’m printing your post out right now to include in my notebook that we will be taking with us so that I can easily reference “where to be” so I’m not that mom on the bathroom floor. Kudos!
The Breastfeeding discussion continued on MousePad (link), too.
In response to our Measuring Up Panel (link), Jennifer S wrote:
I love the article. I am a mom of a child that is tall for his age. My concern is that, even though he is tall enough, is he mentally ready for the ride? It is tough when Disney cast members, or those at other parks, want to keep the ride a secret and not spoil anything, and say if the kids are tall enough they can handle the ride. I remember asking what is the ride like so I can see if it would be OK for my son, but with cast members saying it will be fine. He was scared for some rides. Now on rides when we are not sure, one parent will go first and then see if it is OK. But when there are long waits involved, we end up skipping the rides.
I have found that most Disney rides are great for kids, but I agree that a wrist band system would help. Even if it did cause a big line for kids and parents to get wristbands, the wait for the rides might go smoother once in the park.
In January we discussed Taking Children Out of School, Yea or Nay? (link).
Michele wrote:
Do you pull your kids out of school for a Disney Vacation?
Yes, I do! Friends and family always try to talk me out of doing it stating that I am damaging my child’s education and that it’s not good for him. Well, I beg to differ with this argument: I believe that kids can learn in any environment if you just enable them to.
By preparing ahead of time and collecting the work and homework from your child’s teacher, they will not fall behind in class. Homework can be done on the airplane as a distraction to avoid the “are we there yet” questions and make the trip a little faster for them. It can also be used to teach your child that their homework is a responsibility that still needs to be done even when on vacation and that, yes, they can go play in the pool, but only after they finish a math page.
Best of all, a Disney vacation lends itself as the perfect opportunity for hands-on learning experiences. I have been pulling my son out of school for Disney trips since he was in kindergarten (he’s in fifth grade now) and each trip was a different learning opportunity depending on what he was studying in school.
When we started out it was counting people, windows, looking for letters. As he got older we graduated to harder subjects like counting money when we bought something to figuring out the rough amount of the sales tax on the item we wanted to buy. Of course, you could teach this anywhere, but the Disney atmosphere makes them not realize that they are learning because they are having so much fun.
On top of all of this, pulling the kids out of school during the off season lends to calmer trips. There are less people in the parks (shorter lines and less crowds) and the weather is usually much cooler. With fewer people you can allow your child a little more wandering space and still be able to keep an eye on them. Also, the shorter lines gets the kids on the rides faster so there are less “waiting in line too long” meltdowns.
With making multiple trips a year from Idaho to Disneyland, the last few years have been one trip during school and one trip in the summer. But with the experiences that we have had during the summer (one trip in August and two in June) our family is putting an end to the out-of-school trips and will be sticking to just visiting during the school year.
Others may disagree, but my son’s report card shows that we must not be harming him too much.
Kelly wrote:
Yes, we have taken our daughter out of school several times for various trips. Once for a week in first grade. First grade, seriously, they don’t miss much and I made it a very “educational trip” for her. We took her out again in fourth grade for three days and, most recently, in October of last year (sixth grade, age 11) she was out for three days again for a trip to Walt Disney World. She took some homework with her and we did it in the morning before heading out, and she had some when she returned. Her teachers were very understanding and never said anything negative.
Our daughter does do very well in school, all As and Bs, and was able to catch up quickly when we returned. The funny thing was when we were down last October we were eating breakfast in the food court at Disney’s Carribean Beach Resort and I was just looking around and what did I see? Two other moms working with their kids on school work at the tables! Seems like its a shared decision: Take the kids out in the off season, save a little money and have a good time. Don’t worry about it, they will catch up and be fine.
But wait, there’s more!
And, of course, members chimed in on our the Parenting in the Parks forum at MousePad (link). In addition to many threads about all sorts of parenting issues, the panel has inspired threads:
On “How old is too old to ride in a stroller?” a three-page thread quickly developed (link). The default setting on MousePad may only show posts from the past month. If you scroll down to the “Display Options” you can adjust that setting to read further back and find even more Parenting topics.
What topics would you like to read more about from our Parenting Panel? Contact us vie e-mail (link).
