Loads for this week
because I used to work at a certain safari-themed amusement park in the West Midlands, as a ride operator. Best job ever, but here follows the tale of The Day I Nearly Killed A Baby.

I'd been working there a few weeks, and as a relative newbie was stuck on the crap childrens rides. The day in question was the Magic Carpet, a shaky deathtrap that consisted of a platform that went around in circles. Nice and gentle for the little ones. The ride area was tiny, a square with two gates either end for "in" and "out" and a set of steps in the middle that the little horrors climb up to get onto the ride, with the ride controls at the bottom of the steps. On this monstrously hot and busy day the small ones were clearly far too excited to get onto the ride and instead of a nice controlled procession I got a flood of them upon opening the gate. Spotting one too tall to get on I stopped him and had a chat with his pikey mother, the usual "whaddaya meeeeean elf an safetee, ees only a babbeeee", and halfway through the conversation I heard a noise behind me, a scream, and a concerned mum rushing past me to get to the ride...

One of these little shits had pressed the start button. The Magic Carpet had creaked into life and started to go up in the air, with half a dozen un-belted-in kids and a little toddler clinging onto the side, about to fall into the jaws of death below him. Thankfully his mother clearly loved him and had ran in to grab him, and the child that had pressed it was dragged off screaming by his parents being thoroughly told off (no lollipop and a go on the ghost train for HIM). One emergency evacuation later and I (quite incredibly) managed to stop the toddlers mum from going to the management about me. I'm pretty certain I could have got prison time had that not gone as it did.

Also, on another day I smacked a kid round the head with a metal gate while he was careering his way onto the little aeroplanes and didn't get reported. SugarSpunSister - Queen Of Diffusing Angry Parents.
( SugarSpunSister Yeah, whatever, Thu 9 Jun 2011, 12:36, Reply)