Screaming Kids

Misbehaving kids are a product of parents who neglect their responsibilities. I have never witnessed it at a wedding personally because the majority were responsible parents who don't let children have their way.


If it does come up, talk to the parents directly. If grandparents are there, make them aware. Security should be able to resolve this issue too.

View Quoted Comment Yup. I know every other kid will be well behaved and fun but the only one I question is my niece. She throws temper tantrums and my sister gets so defensive if anyone says anything.

I am always absolutely mortified when my children misbehave in public, and they are generally angels in public (they just terrorize me at home haha!). I think I would ask her in advance to please remove your niece to another area if she becomes disruptive until she can calm down so that other guests can hear and enjoy the ceremony and/or reception. She should have the common decency to do that without being asked. The only time I’ve seen this be an issue, the day of coordinator asked the entire family to leave the ceremony and they didn’t return.

I didn’t have screaming kids but I had kids run up to my cake before it was cut and almost touch the frosting! They didn’t because the parent managed to run over but they were literally like an inch away! Their hands were so close to ruining the cake

View Quoted Comment Omg this is exactly my niece, nephew and (now estranged) sister. Hit me up and I'll tell you the story. Maybe it'll be a part of the worst weddings" thread

View Quoted Comment I know exactly what you mean! My niece does this all the time! She’s always putting her hands in food and she doesn’t wash her hands. Or she does this thing where she likes to take one bite of say a munchkin and then put it back and then grab another munchkin of the same exact kind and bite it and put it back. My sister never feels the need to reprimand her. It’s so frustrating. I made the mistake of going for a walk with them to the park yesterday and I was mortified. She pulled a little temper tantrum because she’s all of a sudden just randomly afraid of my dog.

View Quoted Comment Oh geez glad to see I’m not the only one

View Quoted Comment My niece does the same thing but she is also autistic. Some things randomly get her frustrated or afraid. She has had behavioral therapy to help a little in social settings. My sister has been great keeping her eyes on her but sometimes it’s very unpredictable. She is 5 years old. I hope she will behave at my wedding.
Kids definitely teach adults to be more patients!

Have the grandparents looking after her if mom refuses.

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This ^^^

The only child we had at our wedding was our FG and she was an angel all night. She got ready with us starting around noon, traveled to the venue in a very packed car (haha), took pictures, stole the show during the ceremony, and was dancing until at least 11pm.

The worst case I've seen so far was at a friend's wedding a few years ago. They allowed ALL of their friends/family to bring kids without proper planning. The venue was a historic mansion with lots of ornate pieces, narrow halls and stairs. A group of kids (I think they belonged to another friend of the groom) decided that they were going to run up and down the front stairs, jump off the front porch, and basically run around catering staff carrying hot food. Where are the parents you ask? Out back smoking despite the signs asking for no smoking on the grounds.

View Quoted Comment My heart almost stopped when I saw they were so close to touching the cake before cake cutting in before it was served up.

View Quoted Comment Lol I think I may just hire a babysitter for both my father and my niece lol

View Quoted Comment Ughhh, What the hell is wrong with people?! And I am so sick and tired of hearing people who say, “oh just wait till you have kids.” It’s like, I know my kids won’t act like that because I won’t allow them to.

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Same! Our friends have been nagging us to have kids right away. Most recently after a friend's newborn left part of her lunch on his shirt haha.

Now the difference between my FG and these other kids were the parents. My FG was one of my bridesmaid's daughter so we kept her engaged in everything all weekend. She was so excited to play in the makeup with us and put on her "wedding dress" as she called it lol.

The other parents were nowhere near involved. It took until about halfway through the reception for people to figure out who these kids belonged to in the first place. And was there any correction? No. The parents didn't explain that this is an older home and should be treated with respect. But you wouldn't expect that coming from a dad smoking on historical grounds.

View Quoted Comment Oh I know right, The dad was probably using the 200-year-old flower vase as his ashtray.

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Nope, the flower garden. I guess I was even more upset by this instance because this mansion is in the area my grandparents lived and I spent a lot of time with them growing up. My grandfather would walk us the few streets over to spend time in those gardens.

View Quoted Comment Whatever works lol

View Quoted Comment I'm just going to give you a teaser. I'll tell you the full story tomorrow (and why it was the worst time I've had at a wedding through NO fault of my cousin, whose wedding it was. She is lovely)

Background. My sister is a terrible parent. Completely self absorbed and her kids are completely bereft of discipline. My brother and his fiancée at the time did not want children at their wedding. My SIL was ADAMANT about this. Our father was taking our sister's side and saying that the Neice "Anna" and nephew, "Matthew" should of course be there. My brother was caught in the middle and came up with the brilliant plan to have our cousin's wedding (4 months before theirs) be a "trial run" of their behavior. They are notoriously ill behaved. Both father and SIL are mollified. My brother is a genius as he knew our dad couldn't argue with the logic, and also knew that they'd be awful and prove the point.
Anna does cartwheels and screams "LOOK AT ME!!" Repeatedly during my cousin's vows (8 years old). My Mathew has a temper tantrum/breakdown at dinner because they made him stop playing on his phone (11 years old). And during dancing my Anna goes up to my brother (her uncle) and punches him in the...gentleman's region...during the reception. For literally no reason.
Needless to say they did not come to my brither's wedding. Sister came but was furious and cut off all ties to me and my brother (we're her half siblings). My brother, SIL, and I are so grateful. Neither of us was invited to her (2nd) wedding (although her half brother on her mother's side was) nor did she come to our grandmother's 100th birthday nor her funeral. No one on our dad's family speaks to her anymore.
Whew. More than you ever needed to know. But I had no pushback in my child free wedding.

View Quoted Comment Lol omg my sister is the same exact way. All of this story is my niece packed into one little ball of 5yo craziness. There’s only gonna be a few other kids at the wedding, and I’m honestly not even worried about them because they are so well behaved and so polite. But my niece always needs all the attention constantly or else its a temper tantrum. I feel bad because my sisters husband passed away from cancer a little over 3 yrs ago and I know my sister is still working through it and I get it its hard to raise a child without their father, but At the same time I just feel like it’s no excuse to allow her to behave the way she does. It’s only hurting her further. Yesterday my sister told me to go for a walk with them at the park by the beach. They both told me to bring my dog. I pull up, and I almost didn’t even recognize my sister because I saw stroller with her. My niece is five years old now and she walks perfectly fine. I just found it a little odd. But whatever so I get out of my car with my dog and my niece has met my dog countless times. My dog is the most friendliest dog in the world but for whatever reason my niece just decided that she was going to be petrified of my dog out if the blue and scream to the top of her lungs while everyone was watching. My sister just basically ignores it and I’m telling my niece to lower her voice and calm down and that I would just bring my dog home. My sister said no no it’s fine she just has to get over it. So I had to basically stand like 20 feet away from my sister my niece walking my dog on the opposite side, but what was even more embarrassing was that my niece“Didn’t feel like walking “and was having a “lazy day “and so she gets in her stroller and puts the sunvisor down while my sister is pushing her in the stroller. Maybe it’s just me, but it was just kind of embarrassing for people to see a perfectly capable five-year-old in a baby stroller being pushed around. And then of course the second my dog gets anywhere even remotely within 10 feet of her stroller she starts screaming her head off. She doesn’t have autism or anything like that its just that there’s no direction from my sister and zero punishment. Needless to say that was a short walk LOL after about 10 minutes I was like OK I’m going home now