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A#@ chewed by a parent.

28K views 109 replies 65 participants last post by  panicRealm 
#1 ·
I do a yearly yard haunt In Allen Tx. so as I am setting up yesterday, a car pulls up and out pops this mom. (please pardon while I give the back and forth it is short.)

doesn't say Hi, doesn't say excuse me, just comes up as I am working on a head stone, and says," You will not scare the pee out of my daughter this year. if you don't shut off all the scary stuff so she can walk thru and see everything. I WILL CALL THE COPS...."

my reply was, "For all toters i provide a non scare path straight to the goods. if they choose not to go thru the scare. I am very sorry you Daughter was scared last year at my pirate show, i did not know. but please have her tell the greeter she doesnt want to be scared and she will be excorted past the other props safely."

No you will shut down the motion and fog, as _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _(left little miss priss name out) loves to see the stuff but it scares her and she wants to look.. you will shut it down for her.!!!

(me again) no I will not.
(insert sound of her slamming car door) roles down window gives me the bird. and says you will hear from my lawyer..

WTF!!!!!!!!!!

is this possible? I have up signs that say, enter at own risk, and please ask greeter if you wish to by pass...

can I hang a sign that says I have the right to refuse service? so i can just tell her no??
 
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#3 ·
It is hard to refuse service unless the person is unruly, disruptive to business, or the service could be considered dangerous to the person involved. But you are not refusing service. She can go through as she wishes just like everyone else. If she is afraid, she doesnt have to go through, just like a roller coaster at a fair.
 
#4 ·
Sounds like someone hadn't had her morning coffee:D

I can understand parents wanting their young kids to enjoy Halloween without being terrified, but that woman was just plain rude and unreasonable. We don't set up a particularly scary yard (well, at least to us:googly:), but we do see a few kids every year that are afraid to come up the walkway. We go out of our way to make it non-scary for them by showing them how the animated props work, or offering to hold a hand and walking up to the front door with them, or telling them things like "our werewolf is very friendly".

We had a mother one year tell her little daughter as she was coming up the walk that no one was going to jump out at her and scare her. She wasn't the least bit confrontational to us; it was done in a friendly way to let us know her child wasn't up to a real scare, and we were good with that. I actually don't like to see a parent pushing a clearly terrified child up to the front door - takes all the fun out of Halloween for that kid.

I think Haunti is right. The woman was trying to bully you into doing what she wanted. You clearly posted what the option is for anyone who wants to bypass the scary stuff.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Like everyone else has said, she's just trying to bully you into giving in to her probably spoiled child. I wouldn't sweat it unless your neighborhood has a HOA. And even then there's nothing she can legally do to you unless you're breaking written HOA policy. And if it isn't she can certainly try to push the issue at a future HOA meeting.

Otherwise let it go, do your thing as always, she has no legal legs to stand on. And I'm pretty certain she still wouldn't even if you DIDN'T have a sign with warning.

We keep it toned down a little until about 7pm then it's no mercy. We've never once had a complaint it's too scary. I've seen a handful of kids too chicken to make it up the walkway. There is no "chicken" path at our place. You gotta earn your candy, no easy handouts.
 
#11 ·
It's a yard haunt at your home? and you don't charge anything, correct? You have every right to deny her access to your property. It's a private residence and you aren't obligated to allow anyone on your property that you don't want there...provided there isn't any weird HOA thing that I'm not aware of. You've give them all the opportunities and warnings to avoid the scary part and you have no obligation to tailor your home to someone else's demands.
 
#12 ·
that's the definition of a nut case!

you've done nothing wrong and theirs no way she can sue you. after all. it's your property and you've posted a sign telling them to enter at their own risk and to top it off, you've offered a alternative route to the door. she's just being stupid.
 
#13 ·
You're nicer than I am, that's for sure.

Anyway, I can't understand why she wouldn't just skip the house? Seriously, as someone who sets up a "p1ss your pants" haunt with startles and scares, I see plenty of parents with 1 yr olds who take a wide path and skip it (or the mom and dad take turns going through themselves). Don't get me wrong, I'm not completely heartless; we hand out nice things for the little ones and don't trigger all the props. But to shut down all ambient effects, etc? Like I said, you're nicer than I am to even engage her in dialog.
 
#14 ·
My yard isnt an over the top scare. call it disney meets freddy krugger. have the motion tripped stuff like coffins, lights, one armed grabbers, lots of webs.. for me it is about the lights and the thought in the back of your mind of... ohno.... not the in your face scare.


thing is I don't remember this girl going thru last year. or her mom...

I was kinda shell shocked at the gall of her. I will not shut it down for her pampered little princess...

I have fought the HOA already as they said my coffins were not aproved yard lawn decorations. and won, because it states that we have 6 weeks to have up any ANY the op word. holiday decorations. so that I am not worried about. I have lived her 6 years now and developed quite the stream of people who come to see the haunt. 1500 toters last year.
the haunt will go on,,, i will be posting pictures here soon as I finish the haunt....
 
#16 ·
Stand your ground.

We have a safe word of "peanut butter" that the tot's can use to freeze the actors so they don't scare. But it is a logistical nightmare to have to walk around, shut down foggers, change lighting, turn off sound tracks, disable pneumatics, etc. Then have to go back around and turn everything on, cue soundtracks, let the foggers warm up, etc. And that is just not possible and will not happen.

You can always prevent the mom from going through because of your "concern for safety" of other tot's and your property. Meaning, with her previous outburst, I wouldn't trust her to go through and possibly ruin something, just to be vengeful.

Be sure to share this story with your friends and neighbors, they may be able to provide support should that crazy mom return.

It's too bad the little girl is caught in between this, but you have to look out for your own property and the safety of guests. Perhaps the girl can come through during lighter dusk hours so things are not so dark and scary?

Don't worry. I've been threatened by people about lawyers before and never heard back. Usually cooler heads will prevail in the end.
 
#20 ·
Stand your ground.

We have a safe word of "peanut butter" that the tot's can use to freeze the actors so they don't scare. But it is a logistical nightmare to have to walk around, shut down foggers, change lighting, turn off sound tracks, disable pneumatics, etc. Then have to go back around and turn everything on, cue soundtracks, let the foggers warm up, etc. And that is just not possible and will not happen.never thought of a safe word... but 90 percent of my haunt is all on motion switchs I have a few vollenteers (kids from the block) not newkids on the block either...they are there to help with the safety and to add to the scare.

Be sure to share this story with your friends and neighbors, they may be able to provide support should that crazy mom return.the people on the street know... and most hope she comes back when more are there.. they want to give her a portion of their minds.

It's too bad the little girl is caught in between this, but you have to look out for your own property and the safety of guests. Perhaps the girl can come through during lighter dusk hours so things are not so dark and scary?

Don't worry. I've been threatened by people about lawyers before and never heard back. Usually cooler heads will prevail in the end.
and thank you all.. I feel better now...
 
#17 ·
I wouldn't stress it. As others have said you've done nothing wrong and to cater to her child just because she insists is asinine on her part. If she's going to be that way hopefully she'll just skip your house this year.

We had a similar situation in our charity haunt last year where a guy got mad and wanted to fight because we scared his girl friend. Luckily I was there because the actor in that area can be a little hot headed at times, but I told the guy look you paid to be scared and if we didn't scare you you'd want your money back. We're just giving you what you paid for, and then I probably shouldn't have but I told him if he didn't want his little girlfriend scared maybe he should have taken her to Chuck E Cheeses.:D
 
#24 ·
The sad thing about this story is, the woman could have taken the civil approach of simply asking if she could bring her daughter by some time when things weren't running (earlier in the day perhaps) so her child could see the props when they wouldn't be so scary for her. By being rude, she missed an opportunity to help her daughter overcome her fear and have a truly enjyoyable visit under less frightening circumstances.
 
#37 ·
My haunt isn't very scary - I'm just getting started with animated props where I've had animated lights for years. Still, it has a reputation as the scariest Halloween house in the neighborhood since no one else is on the same level. I get parents of very young children bringing them by in the daytime so they can see that everything is fake.

There isn't a "master switch" to turn everything off (well, there's the main breaker in the panel, but then I'd have to reset all my clocks inside the house afterwards), so stopping the show because someone is too scared is not an option. I usually get one request a year to go easy on a 3-4 year old and try to comply as much as I can by either taking my mask off or kneeling to seem less of a threat to them, but that's about as much as I can do.

Parents can bring smaller children earlier in the evening (5-6pm) when it's still light out or they can skip my house altogether. No one is forcing them to send their kids up the driveway.
 
#28 ·
IMO, this is a non-issue! She comes to your house and tells you what you WILL do in order to accomodate her emotionall fragile kid. Tell her to suck an egg and not bother coming on Halloween. In fact, I'd go so far as to forbid her on your property and if she makes a stink, call the police and let them deal with it. Be sure to tell them she verbally threatened you. What a crock!
 
#29 ·
I do wonder too, if she's making her child the issue when it's her with the issue. Sure her child might be scared, but might want to overcome her own fear without mom being... well a bully.

People throw around "you'll hear from my lawyer" like candy on Halloween! I'm not saying you can't sue for just about anything (if you've got the time and money) but it don't mean it will a) get far or b) that you'll win. I don't believe she has a legal leg to stand on and was just trying to frighten you like you frightened her child! Sounds like she's use to getting her way and she didn't, so threw a temper tantrum and took off.

We offer to help kids through our haunt too but ours is much more ummm..... Tim Burton? So even though the kids are mortified most of the time, mostly of me in costume it seems, they are infinitely fascinated and I've been told that many have overcome their fears by visiting my house!

Stand your ground, I think this crabby bitty just wanted some attention on herself and had to start something.
 
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