Credit: DisneyThousands of Disney World guests flock to the Magic Kingdom every day, and a large majority of the crowds are likely families with children. Disney has always had that central audience, but there has been a scary influx of parents letting their kids run wild through Disney property.
Statistics show that an average of 460,000 children go missing every year in the United States alone, and that’s no small number by any means. Walt Disney World might not be the most dangerous place in the world, but it can be so easy for parents to get separated.
Unattended Children Swarm Disney World
Inside the Magic has covered shameful parent behavior before, but recent reports out of the parks have shown how much of an endemic they are becoming. After witnessing multiple instances of borderline abandonment, the Disney fanbase responded to the negligence.
Families and children have been Disney’s primary audience since Walt first put pen to paper, that’s nothing new. However, the amount of dangerous behavior from the parents of young guests has been extremely unsettling.
A recent post on r/WaltDisneyWorld reported multiple instances of parents simply turning their children loose in one of Disney’ most crowded parks. Not only is this unbelievably negligent, but incredibly dangerous to both parties involved.
u/bindy0906 begins the post with the following,
I went to Magic Kingdom yesterday. I could not believe the amount of young kids (2-6) that were wondering alone. Parents would look back and keep moving or we didn’t know who they belonged to. One situation was by the bathroom and three boys were fighting with swords. One fell over and was tripped over. Dad was right there and never said a word. I had my 15 yr with me and she never left my sight”
As well as an additional update,
“Clarification My daughter is allowed to walk alone. She knows the “rules” of navigation and when to get out of a situation if need be. It was just point of how easy those crowds can absorb a small child.”
The quote about crowds absorbing a small child should definitely have some parents on high alert, yet this isn’t the only instance of potential neglect reported by fans.
u/rqnadi replied with a scenario they witnessed when they posted,
“My husband and I went there a few weeks ago and the family entering the park in front of us accidentally left their 8 year old daughter. They all got through the entry pads and just kept walking, but her fingerprint wouldn’t take for some reason. She started panicking and kept trying but she was clearly in distress without her parents nearby. They didn’t even realize they left her for quite a while and we finally saw dad come back to get her.”
Additionally, u/SevasaurusRex posts their experience with missing children at Disney on two occasions. The first instance thankfully resolved quickly, the second gave this writer a chill.
The user writes,
“Second kid was a bit older, maybe 7, full on hyperventilating tears, kept saying ‘they’re gonna be so mad’, took everything me and the staff member at [Tower of Terror] had to stop them running off into the crowd whilst waiting for the supervisor to try and find contact details through the system. Took nearly 20 minutes for the dad to turn up who immediately grabbed the back of this kids shirt and start dragging him away saying they’d been in line and now they have to wait even longer. Dude had gotten all the way over to star tours and started waiting in line before they even realised this kid wasn’t with him.”