A Worker’s Worst Nightmare
It’s not all fun and games for everyone at the amusement park. Ride operators have to stand in the blistering sun all day and deal with sticky, crazy kids. But even worse are the entitled parents who enable their kids. Reddit user “Nessie2212“, who we will refer to as “Tess” in this story, can relate. As a teenage girl operating a ride at an amusement park, she had to handle all sorts of people. But the worst one of all was when she came across a mother-son duo who refused to listen to the ride’s rules. Despite being informed repeatedly of the rules, which are for their safety, the two were obviously not used to being told “no” and decided to rebel in an extreme yet devious way. Read on as Tess unfolds the train-wreck of events that followed and ended in a surprisingly satisfying way.
~
“You Have To Be This Tall To Ride”
Tess was just 16-years-old when she got a job at the local amusement park in her city. She just needed something to occupy all of her summer free time and to save money for college. This particular park had a variety of rides, from ferris wheels and roller coasters to swings and bumper cars. Most rides were small and aimed towards young children, but a few rides were for older kids as well. Tess’ job was as a ride operator, and she was often switched around to work different rides on different weeks. This fateful week, she was assigned to work a ride specifically for older kids.
As part of the job, Tess had to measure the kids to ensure that they met the height requirements. You know, the “you have to be ‘this’ tall to ride” rules. Well, they may be annoying for the short ones, but they’re all for safety to ensure the kids don’t fall off the ride when it’s in motion. Tess was required to strictly follow this rule for obvious reasons and deny any kid from riding who was too short, even if the kid had a parent with him or her. This was especially important for the ride she was working that day, as the only safety feature it included was a bar that went across one’s stomach. Therefore, a small kid could easily slip off when the ride was many feet high in the air and moving quickly. It makes sense, right? Well, not to everyone.
~
Cue The Antagonist
The line was long that hot July day, and Tess noticed a woman with cropped hair step in line with her 6-year-old son in tow. Even from the front and without the ruler, Tess could tell that he would be too short to ride. But she had another one or two runs of the ride before he would get close enough to measure him, so she waited a bit to inform them of this news.
After she loaded the second set, she leaned over the railing and called out to the mother that her kid would be too short for that ride. She suggested instead a smaller version of the same ride, gesturing to the other side of the park. She knew he would definitely fit on that one and thought she had made a pretty fair compromise. Well, by the nasty look the mother threw her, she knew the mother was not open to suggestions. “Nope,” the woman plainly asserted, “We’re not going anywhere.” They were still in the middle of the line, but closer to the front now.
Oh great, Tess shuddered at the thought of dealing with this woman face-to-face in a few moments.
~
Those Rules Exist For A Reason
Now Tess had a job to do, as everyone she had just loaded was waiting, and she was required to run it at certain times by her supervisors. She didn’t have time to argue with the lady and punched the button to start it. The ride whirred around for several minutes and slowed to a stop, she unloaded the passengers, and opened the gate to allow the next set of people on the ride. However, when the kid and mother got to the front of the line, she halted him and had him stand next to the ruler. As expected, he was nearly half a foot shorter than required. Surprise, surprise.
Tess shrugged and tried to look sympathetic: “I apologize, ma’am, but your son is too short for the ride and doesn’t meet the height requirements.” She tried to point out the other ride again: “There’s a very similar ride on the other side of the park that’s smaller. He would definitely meet the height requirements for that-“
The woman impatiently waved her off before she could finish: “No, we’re fine. We’ll both go on this one and I’ll hold him.”
She grabbed her son’s hand and tried to push Tess aside and get through the gate, but Tess refused to budge.
Tess tried again: “I am sorry, ma’am, but it’s against the rules for me to allow anyone shorter than the height requirements to get on this ride. It’s a safety thing. If someone riding this is too short, the bar won’t keep them from falling off it when it’s moving. It could be really dangerous. Your kid is too small, and he would probably fall off and hurt himself.”
Her subsequent demand did not surprise Tess at all.
~
Temperatures Were High, Tempers Were Short
“Can I speak to your manager?” she asked with a scowl, her son shooting Tess equally dirty looks as well. Tess got this question a lot, especially from parents with the same attitude and sense of entitlement. She sighed to herself and radioed her management team on her walkie.
Tess still had to operate her ride, so she asked the now simmering pair to stand and wait on the side of the ride for her manager as she let in the next few people in line. The lady almost burst a blood vessel, looking quite offended: “Are you kidding me? We already waited forever in this stupid line and now we have to wait even longer for my son to ride just because you can’t even do your job?”
Tess did her best to ignore the commentary and continued to close the gate, secure in passengers, and start the motor. As the ride ran, her manager finally arrived and approached the woman to speak with her.
To Tess’ satisfaction, her manager agreed that the kid was too short: “I’m sorry, ma’am, but she’s right, your child is too short to ride this ride.”
At this point, the kid was throwing a full-on tantrum, rolling around on the concrete like a sausage in a hot frying pan and screaming. Tess had to stifle her laughter at this point, as she didn’t want to anger the mother any further.
Her manager apologized again, handed the lady a free “skip the line” ticket for the other similar ride, and left, hoping this deal would satisfy the two. Problem solved, right? Wrong. Very wrong.
~
Something Fishy Was Going On
As the kid was busy sauteing on the sidewalk, his mother suddenly bent over as if to shush him. She started talking to him in a low voice, and he immediately perked up and stopped crying. He got up from the ground, all smiles and sunshine, and walked over by himself to the gates, staring at Tess.
Tess didn’t have time to be bothered by this and didn’t think too much of it. She had a job to do, so she continued with loading her ride. The line had died down a bit by now, and there were a couple of empty seats left. As she was walking around the ride inside of the gates, checking to ensure that bars were secure across everyone’s lap, she felt a sharp tap on her shoulder. She turned around and came face-to-face with the same lady again.
“I just wanted to say thank you for all of your help earlier with my son,” she gushed. Tess was taken aback at this sudden change in tone.
“Uh…it’s really no problem.”
“No really,” she continued, “It was rude of me to act that way and I should’ve handled the situation better…” Tess was floored and wasn’t sure how to react to the lady’s apology. But she shrugged off the oddity of it all. After all, it seemed nice that the woman would come back and apologize. Tess replied,
“Not a problem at all, just doing my job. I hope you have a great rest of your day!”
Well, as it turned out, Tess had good reason to be suspicious of this interaction.
~
Where Did He Go?
As she turned back to operate her ride, Tess realized that the lady’s son wasn’t standing at the gate anymore. She got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Frantically scanning the area, she couldn’t see the kid anywhere. Something was definitely up. She turned back to look for his mother, and spotted her standing outside of the gate with her phone camera pointed up at the ride. Immediately, Tess knew.
She bolted to her station and took the keys out from the start switch and made her way back towards the ride. Now this ride was one of those “swing” ones with seats that fly high up into the air and around in a large circle. She couldn’t see all the way around it, but she just knew that the little toad had snuck onto one of the very far seats.
As soon as she had grabbed the keys, the mother started to panic, “What are you doing?? Aren’t you supposed to start the ride? Why isn’t it running?”
Tess didn’t even listen as she stormed across the gated area over to the other side of the ride. Lo and behold, there was little brat boy, squirming devilishly in his seat. But when he made eye contact with a very furious Tess coming his way, he instantly froze and turned pale.
~
She Could’ve Been In Big Trouble
As expected, the bar across his lap was not properly secured AT ALL. He would’ve shot out like a greased strip of bacon as soon as the ride had started. That was it. Tess was enraged. She could’ve been imprisoned for manslaughter right then and there, even though it all would’ve been the irresponsible mother’s fault. When she reached the boy, Tess very coldly ordered him to get off the ride. He whined that he couldn’t, which was understandable, as the seat was pretty far off the ground for someone as short as he was. It didn’t make much sense how he had gotten up there in the first place.
So Tess grabbed him, placed him on the ground, and he started to race towards his mother, sobbing. As he was running, he tripped and completely face planted on the concrete. When he pulled himself up, he had a bloody nose and both of his knees were raw and skinned. He started screaming hysterically. Tess knew that at that moment, things were not going to end well for her.
~
She Had The Nerve To Lie
The mother started screaming bloody murder at the sight of her banged up son. As Tess sprinted over to the kid to help him up, the lady ran up to her, slapped her hard across the face, and hollered for security. Tess was so stunned she couldn’t move. Someone must have heard her screams, as two security guards came running at full speed towards the scene.
When the first one got there, he demanded, “What’s going on?”
This crazed lady was in hysterics, wildly waving her finger in Tess’ direction, “This little witch attacked my son! She just grabbed him off the ride for no reason and threw him on the ground!”
Tess was dumbfounded. “Excuse me??” she cried. Did she really think the guards would believe that Tess threw him to the ground 10 feet away from the ride? But that wasn’t the end of the crazy accusations.
~
The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From The Tree
Taking after his mother, the little boy chimed in, still blubbering, “Y-yeah! She also p-punched me in the f-face!”
The guard looked concerned, “Would you like us to call the police over?”
“Absolutely!” The mother was practically hopping with rage at this point, but was clearly excited to have someone believing her wild story. “She needs to be arrested! She’s obviously mentally unstable.”
Tess’ jaw was practically on the ground at this point. She couldn’t believe the guards were buying this. Eventually her manager came over and demanded to know what in the world was going on. Between sobs, she choked out what really happened, hoping she wouldn’t get fired over this ridiculous incident.
However, there was one teeny, tiny detail the lady forgot to take into account when she crafted this whole scheme.
~
She Didn’t Think That Through
Tess looked up and realized that there were about 15 people sitting on the ride, watching the commotion unfold as they were waiting for the ride to start. They had seen everything. So they told the security guards, Tess’ manager, and the police who had just arrived the truth about the situation.
The mother, quickly realizing the huge mistake she had just made, decided to grab her kid and book it for the exit. She didn’t run fast enough, as the cops caught her almost right away. Tess decided to press assault charges against the lady for slapping her. The same day, she decided to never deal with entitled moms and their kids at that place ever again and turned in her resignation.
~