Mom's Viral Rant Calling for Disney World to Ban 'People Without Children' Spurs Online Debate
One parent’s vented frustration spurred a heated debate: Should guests without children be allowed into Disney World?
It all started when a Twitter user shared a screengrab of an old Facebook post made by an upset mother lashing out at childless adults for visiting the Walt Disney World theme park.
“DW is a FAMILY amusement park!!” she wrote, later adding, “DW is for CHILDREN!!!! People without CHILDREN need to BANNED!!”
In the angry rant, the mother claims adults who visit without children cause longer lines and make the experience more difficult for adults with children. The rant was the conclusion of her own experience with her 3-year-old son who allegedly acted out after she told him they couldn’t wait in a long line for a pretzel.
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But what fueled the debate, even more, was an argument in The New York Post op-ed that claimed to go to Disney theme parks without children was “weird.”
“Millennials are indeed in an unhealthy relationship with Disney, having granted control of so much of their leisure time and personality to a single, enormous corporate entity meant for children,” the op-ed written by Johnny Oleksinski read.
“Another oft ignored problem with letting a kids brand control your adult life is the stupidity and culture ignorance it leads to,” he added.
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Many social media users weighed in with an overwhelming sentiment that the Disney theme parks were not made for just children, but rather created as a park for people of all ages to enjoy — because the original stories the parks are created after were written for adults as well.
One user clapped back to the op-ed writing,” WALT’S
WHOLE
GOAL
WAS
TO
MAKE
THINGS
THAT
EVERYONE
COULD
ENJOY.
maybe stop shaming people for enjoying a freaking theme park.”
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With his response he shared the original Disneyland manifesto that read: “To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past – and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future.”
Walt Disney World did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
The user also shared a famous quote from Walt Disney himself to end the debate: “You’re dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway.”