'I almost lost my job over an entitled Karen': Theme park photographer encounters insensitive mother who yells at a Make-A-Wish kid's family, sees red

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    al HANG
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    Posted by u/AQuiet Borderline 3 days ago How I Almost Lost My Job Over An Entitled Karen M
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    Over my many, many years as a photographer for a major theme park, I've been asked repeatedly if I've ever lost my cool with a guest. And this is that story.
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    For those of you who don't know, there's a wonderful organization called Make-A-Wish in the US, which grants "wishes" to severely/terminally ill kids. One popular wish is to come to our park and we pull out all the stops for them. I have many fond memories of these kids/families.
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    There's an etiquette in place for certain character locations, which most Wish families are aware of. The kid waits at the exit while someone in your party alerts the character
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    attendant so they can tell the character/alert the rest of the line so the kid can meet the character. The family also wears a special pin/lanyard so everyone knows the drill.
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    Most guests are great about this and even complimented us on making the Wish's vacation special. But there's a few bad apples in every barrel.
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    One afternoon, photographing character and we had a family show up who, for some reason, wasn't aware of the "wait in line". Our attendant had closed the line and was waiting at the end of the line. So the mother came up to the family next meeting the I was a princess
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    princess and ask if they can go ahead as they're Make- A-Wish. Fortunately, that family was great and told them to go ahead, even introducing the princess to the little girl.
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    So we think things are fine and I told the mother about the etiquette to make things easier. She thanked me at the end of the interaction and they went on their way.
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    Two families later, our Karen asked me what the deal was with the kid that we let go ahead of the previous family. I explained that they're Make-A-Wish, thinking that's going to solve the issue.
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    The Karen then said (loud enough for everyone to hear, I may add): "I wish my daughter was dying of cancer so we can cut the line." I. Was. SHOCKED.
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    What Karen didn't know was that my Uncle (Mom's Brother-in-Law) had just died from cancer...and his parents had to bury him. He was their only child. I was ready to deck this woman. That's how mad I was.
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    The princess had overheard, looked at Karen with an angry expression and said in a polite tone (but still staying in character) "You better be careful what you say." The other parents in line were grumbling and making comments about how she was an unfit mother, they're going to tell Guest Relations, ect.
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    By this point, I was on the verge of tears, remembering my Uncle and just how much his death gutted his parents. When we were finished with the set, the princess (who is a friend of mine) got me off stage, got me some water and alerted her manager. I wasn't able to go back out and shoot until her next set.
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    msBuddiez101 · 2 days ago Omg what a horrible person. I recently survived thyroid cancer. The amount of weight I lost over the course of a year up till my cancer removal surgery was unreal. I was very thin by the time I had surgery. I hated the way I looked in the mirror
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    because I no longer recognized myself. This dumb tch has no clue what having cancer is like. It literally will eat you up. I went through months of not feeling hungry and forcing myself to eat. No energy. By accident, I found out I had cancer.
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    katiekat214 2 days ago Unfortunately comments like these are all too common in the theme parks. I have a disability and use a special pass where I wait the same amount of time as everyone else, just not in line. The number of people who have wished a disability on themselves to "cut in line" is disturbing.

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