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Credit: DisneyWe’ve reported extensively on rule-breaking at Disney Parks, from a trend that encouraged Guests to break Disney’s Dress Code for a free shirt to a violent brawl at Magic Kingdom that left multiple people hospitalized and others arrested.
Related: Fan Speaks Out Against Disney Park Rulebreakers: “Stop it!”
While many fans are disappointed by increased rule-breaking at Walt Disney World Resort, others are focused on the rules themselves. Hundreds of Disney fans took to Reddit this week to campaign for a new rule banning parents that hit their children on Disney property.
“Parents who hit their kids in the park need to be kicked out immediately,” u/breakmyheart01 said, starting the conversation. “We arrived today and have been here for a few hours and I already saw two kids get smacked. One with a shoe even! Disgusting.”
Over five hundred Disney Parks fans upvoted the post – Reddit’s equivalent of a “like” – and hundreds more commented approval. Many shared horrifying accounts of child abuse they’d witnessed by other Guests.
“I saw a guy elbow his daughter in the face. She was about 11 or 12. This, after every other member of the family had bullied her. They were doing that thing that kids do where they hit their sibling, and then when the sibling hits back, they act like it was an unprovoked attack, in a bid to get their sibling in trouble,” u/djkmart recalled. “This poor girl. I don’t know what she did to warrant all of the abuse, but it resulted in her father elbowing her in the face. Her mother didn’t even step in. I, on the other hand, was absolutely devastated.”
Related: Disney Resort Teases Possible End of Park Hopping Restrictions
“Fully agree. I had to get a cast member on my last trip because a dad was beating his very young son for crying while we were on Pirates,” u/happyhumansomeday said. “It was awful.”
Dozens of commenters recalled similar incidents of parents hitting their children at Walt Disney World Resort. They all demand change.
“Why are kids the only people other people are allowed to physically assault? If you slapped a stranger adult on the monorail, you get arrested,” u/mider-span argued. “Yet you give the same slap to an 8 year old and it’s cool because you feed and clothe them?”
“If they do that to a kid in public, imagine what they do in private,” u/Worried_Thylacine mused.
Walt Disney World Resort’s Property Rules ban:
- Engaging in any unsafe act or other act that may impede the operation of the Walt Disney World Resort or any part thereof.
However, this is rarely used to stop adults from hitting children. Instead, it generally applies to altercations between adult Guests.
Do you think Walt Disney World Resort should kick parents out for hitting their children?