The 'happiest place on earth'...Really!?!

The ‘happiest place on earth’ ….Really!?!


My Family just spent Thanksgiving week in Florida, mostly at Walt Disney World. Walt Disney Word is often referred to as the ‘happiest place on earth’.

Even my family~ with children in their twenties~ puts that motto to the test after walking around for hours upon hours from ride to ride and store to store and catching the monorail back and forth from Magic Kingdom to Epcot and bus transportation to Animal Kingdom and a ferry to Hollywood Studios!!!!!!

Yet it never fails when we are at the ‘happiest place on earth’ we often witness a parent threatening a crying child with ….’or else’. What is ‘or else’ in the ‘happiest place on earth’? Is it that she will not have to stand in line for another hour-- for another ride-- that only lasts 3-5 minutes? ‘Or else’, that she will receive a pre-packed snack instead of enduring another long line at the food court… ‘or else ‘that she will be taken back to the hotel for a much deserved and needed nap to return to the Park refreshed for the 10 PM Wishes Night Spectacular at Cinderella's Castle?

Cinderella’s Castle turns many colors throughout the evening, however I saw red!...when after the children and I rode ‘yet one more ride’ –my husband shared with us an interaction between a father and a daughter that he witnessed—as he sat out the ride after eating a full meal and immediately going on Space Mountain—his stomach still needed to return to earth. His stomach might have been feeling nauseous but after what he witnessed his heart was sick. He observed up close and personal a male parent not happy with his daughter’s attitude and to expediate an attitude change in her-- he began screaming and cursing at her, immediately followed by a slap across her face.

A slap across the face…at the ‘happiest place on earth’, really!?!

Shame on this father who verbally and physically attacked his daughter. We could ask ourselves, was ‘he’ too tired from a long day of walking or too over stimulated from all the dazzling lights and the Disney characters? Or was he frazzled that one day at the ‘happiest place on earth’ was probably equal to a week’s worth of income? Does it really matter? No, as there is no acceptable reason for his behavior.

No one in my family was able to step in and stop the father’s assault on his daughter. Nor were any of us able to reach out to protect her from the onslaught. Others turned their eyes away—maybe in an attempt to trick their minds that what they saw they really couldn’t have seen--not at --the ‘happiest place on earth’.

Yet, when no one steps in—it sends the message to both the abuser and the abused that the behaviors are acceptable.

I am always very happy to spend days at Walt Disney World, especially Magic Kingdom and Epcot. However, I would not be so naïve as to describe it as the ‘happiest place on earth’. The ‘happiest place on earth’ should be in our own home with our family. A place where one feels safe, secure, loved and able to dream of ‘happily ever after’, not a place filled with fear, uncertainty and doubts of being loved.

Next time you or I are in a grocery store or at the mall or attending a sports event or at the airport or attending a school function or enjoying a leisurely walk in our neighborhoods or even at Walt Disney World, lets step in and speak up when we observe a parent being verbally or physically abusive to a child --of any age. The parent might become enraged…or hopefully educated--but more importantly the child might have a twinkling of hope that there really might be a ‘happiest place on earth’ in her tomorrow land.

Wendy’s Witz-dom: There is no place like Home…that should be the ‘happiest place on earth’.

God’s Wisdom: ‘And now a word to you fathers*. Don’t make your children angry by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction approved by the Lord’ (Ephesians 6:4, New Living Translation, The Bible)

*Mothers---this applies to us also!

©WitzEnd Writings