I got married in Vegas in part because I didn’t want to have a bunch of kids at my wedding. It caused more problems than I ever expected and I still ended up having 3 children show up. The kids went and saw Hoover Dam and rode some rides and played in the arcade so I’m sure they had a good time. Besides that they are pretty easily distracted by lights and shiny things so Vegas was probably a really entertaining place for them. The problem was that their parents didn’t seem to give a damn that they were ruining *everyone else’s *vacation by hauling their children along with them. They brought their children to an event that specifically requested children not attend and paraded them around the strip where everyone is trying to be drunk, naked, and full of swears. People go to Vegas to really let their hair down and be naughty for a few days, not to feel guilty because junior is watching them solicit prostitutes or drink alcohol from a cup taller than me.
This is not like children at the grocery store or on airplanes or anything like that. Those are places where children need to be from time to time and they learn to interact with people in public by being in those places. The strip in Las Vegas is not a place for children any more than the local porn store is a place for children because it is a truly adult environment. Kids should be welcome at the Grand Canyon. At the Hooters Hotel and Casino not so much.
We were relocating to San Diego from St. Louis and stopped in Las Vegas with a 2.5 year old and a 6 year old. We stayed in the Excalibur (the medieval themed, family oriented casino). The kids had a blast, we swam, saw the Knight show, the older one played in the kids area and won prizes. I was pregnant at the time, so I went to bed when the kids did and my hubby played some black jack. Las Vegas wouldn’t be my choice period, but we managed to have a nice time with the kids.
If I was at the Circus Circus or Excalibur, I’d totally expect kids to be roaming around, being kids (ie: loud, screamy, snotty and all the other good things a generally happy kid is). But when I stay at more. . .adult themed hotels/resorts and my relaxing pool time is ruined by screaming monsters doing cannon balls into the pool, my rage meter goes exceptionally high.
This thread is pretty timely, as about half an hour ago, I did a lap through the hotel (from the spa to my room- I’m in Vegas for work) and was surprised by how many freaking kids were wandering around. This is the Hard Rock! You know, the sex, drugs, and rock and roll hotel. Aye aye aye.
In the parenting threads in MPSIMS, particularly the ones for new moms, it repeatedly comes up how busybodies come out of the woodwork to tell you how to raise your kids. And time and time again, we denounce these people as idiots. “Mind your own business,” we tell them. “Just tell them to shut up!”, advise some posters.
Do you people not realize that that’s precisely what you’re doing in these threads? You ARE those busybodies! OMG, it’s a kid in a casino in Vegas! Call the cops! You immediately make assumptions like 1) there’s nothing for kids in Vegas, 2) these parents don’t modify their behavior for their kids, and 3) they expect the rest of the world to deal with the kids.
At least have the guts to come out and SAY you hate other people’s kids, like some Dopers. At least I can respect that.
There are also plenty of shows that kids would enjoy. My parents took me to Vegas occasionally and I always had fun. Pool, arcade, shows pretty lights…
My experience? Painting with a broad brush: poorly supervised/behaved children are annoying anywhere and well supervised/behaved children are welcome just about anywhere.
Perhaps you should read what I wrote. I don’t have any problem with kids who can fend for themselves, the problem is that these days far too many free range kids don’t seem to have been taught anything along the lines of manners, conscience or respect. Such as 8? 9? year olds being allowed to scream for hours, until about midnight, approximately 30 yards from my front door.
As for “nanny babies” which I am guessing means the offspring of helicopter parents, I don’t really care about them either way as long as they aren’t being thrust into obviously adult areas, such as casinos at Vegas.
As for dissing all kids these days, eh. So few are worth anything, it’s easy to generalize.
And? There are exceptions to everything, however having a PhD and being “quite successful” does not automatically mean that anyone is a decent person. Or perhaps your children were the sort that are complained about here, but they managed to rise above it. I have no idea about that, but I do know that education and money don’t mean that any given person is any less egocentric than parents that drag young children to Vegas.
Exactly. Somehow, the idea of letting kids spend the summer, or even a weekend, anywhere other than with mom and dad has come to be seen as exiling them. It’s “dumping” them, even though they’re with a friend or family member, and you’d never do it if you love your kids. Heads up: If you drag your kids to a place where there’s nothing appropriate or interesting for them to do, as in pbbth’s example, and drag them around so they can listen to you have conversations they can’t be part of, and take part in activities they can’t take part in, that is exiling them. Why not let them stay someplace where they can have a good time?
(Did they seriously walk, with their kids, on the Strip itself? Just all that walking, even without the tits and beer, is a bad idea. And then they wondered why the kids were so cranky, right?)
Another one. Read what has been posted here - it isn’t A kid, it is swarms of kids, of all ages, quite often causing trouble. There is really little for them to do in Vegas other than at Circus Circus and the Excalibur (forgot about that one), which is probably why there are so many unsupervised kids at the casino pools. Bless the Tropicana for swim up black jack! As for parents modifying their behavior for their kids, do you really expect us to believe that these parents went to Vegas thinking it would be a family vacation? Along the lines of Disney World or the Grand Canyon?
And yes, they do expect the rest of the world to deal with their kids. They bitch at check in about the restrictions in the casino, they leave the kids to run loose in the pools and play areas, they get blind drunk and occasionally their kid dies because of it, they bring SUV strollers and shove their 3 year old thru the heavy crowds on the streets. I’m quite sure there are a few parents that take care of their kids and don’t allow them to be a nuisance, but then I imagine that most of them don’t consider Vegas as a kid vacation destination either.
We also aren’t telling you how to raise your kids, we are telling you to keep them out of obviously adult places.
Is this outside of your door at home or outside of your door at a motel in Vegas 7-8 years ago? Details are important.
I think this summarizes your feelings exactly. We appear to live in a different world. I know and have known many, many kids over the past 30 years that I have been an adult, 99.9% are awesome. Where exactly are you living that so few children are worth nothing? What a sad, sad place you live in.
Well my kids are decent, their friends are decent, their sig others are decent. You are the one surrounded by horrible children and people. Hmmmmm. What does this say about us?
I think it’s been pretty well established on this board that curlcoat is constantly surrounded by nasty people because she is constantly nasty to them. Also, there is no point in telling her about the positive attributes of your kids because there is nothing that will convince her that any kid is not pure scum (even if the ‘kid’ in question is 30).
On the subject of kids in Vegas - I don’t see the problem with that unless the kids are actually at the adult casinos or in a strip club or something. People keep saying there is nothing for them to do in Vegas, but in this thread they’ve already listed the Hoover Dam, Circus Circus, the Excelsior, various live shows, rides, arcades, and family style hotels with pools. For heavens sakes, what more do you want for the kids to do? Not to mention that many of the families are probably there for a conference or wedding, or as one stop on a longer family vacation. I have no issue with kids being left at home with relatives for some of these things, but I also think it’s not crazy for parents to want to take the kids. As I said, if they are in adult-only establishments or at weddings where the couple have specifically requested no kids, I get why that would be annoying. But I don’t get why just seeing children in the hotel or on the street while you’re on vacation would get someone so worked up. News flash - kids are everywhere, and the bratty ones with bad parents are annoying everywhere too.
And this is coming from someone who doesn’t have kids, doesn’t want kids, and doesn’t even especially like kids. I just don’t expect the world to be cleansed of kids just for my sake.
Since I don’t tend to have time for this sort of thing, this will be the last time I repeat myself - the kids were (my estimate) 8 or 9 years old and they were 30 yards from my door. My door, not a hotel door.
Hardly. There is no reason why any world must be a sad, sad place simply because it doesn’t fit your ideal. As for 99.9% of the kids you have known being awesome, it is obvious that your definition of that word does not fit the average persons. For example, if you had listened to children screaming (not yelling, not shouting) for just under 10 hours, would you consider those children awesome? If you were trying to get some business done with a mother whose children spent the whole hour interrupting, would you consider those children awesome? Etc. These are not awesome people, these are beings that are taught that the world revolves around them and therefore they can do whatever they want, whenever they want.
It says that you don’t live in Orange county (tho example two above is not from this area), and that your tolerance for brats is much higher than mine. Which I have found to be pretty typical of parents, which is probably why the children are getting brattier every year.
Huh. Didn’t take you long to get here with your lies. Do you have some sort of search function that allows you to tell when I post?
Thing is, there’s a Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Orlando now. Every Hard Rock Cafe has a kids’ menu and high chairs, and itty bitty My First Hard Rock Cafe T-Shirts in the gift shop. Hard Rock has been marketing its brand name to families for a good while now. I’m not surprised, even speaking as someone who wouldn’t dream of taking kids to Las Vegas for a family vacation, that those parents who do so have the Hard Rock on their mental list of kid-appropriate places.
Ahhh, the old “I have a right never to interact with a kid in public crowd,” and curlcoat (always a blas in kids threads) to boot.
Las Vegas is a HUGE destination for conferences. It’s also a HUGE destination for weddings, many of which do include kids. There are also millions of people who live there, many of whom might have family visit now and then. Just because you can’t picture having a good time in Vegas without it being centered on hookers and booze doesn’t mean that everyone else feels the same way.
Anyway, kids can have fun anywhere. Plop them in the hotel pool (which they, as paying customers, have an equal right to use as you) and they’ll have fun. When I was a kid I used to look forward to the yearly family trip to that beacon of entertainment…Bakersfield.
My parents took me and my sister when we were too young to gamble, but it was part of our one month trip to California and the grand canyon. In the summer there’s probably quite a few families that stop over as part of alonger trip.
I loved it there by the way, maybe because my parents only gambled a bit when us kids were doing other things.
I feel sorry for you. I don’t waste my time being tight in Vegas. There is always more money in the ATM machine, and I can always make more money later on.