Trust and Consequences

9am - Obstacle Course Race

10am - Arts and Crafts

11am - Bingo

Those were the first three events on the list of kids' activities at the resort we went on vacation. Sounds like a fun morning, right?

Except, when we arrived in the courtyard where the fun was supposed to take place...no one was there. Just us, and a number of other confused parents and kids.

I went to the front desk to ask what the deal was. A young man who was also at the desk had that "oh !@#$" look about him, and said, "Oh...I'm doing the obstacle course later today."

I replied, "Okay...well, there are a lot of kids out there waiting for the 9am event that's on the schedule."

He came out at around 9:20 with some random art supplies for arts and crafts.

And for the obstacle course, which was now scheduled for 10:15, he brought out a stack of orange cones, a couple of capture the flag flags, and left.

At this point, a grandparent reamed him out and complained to the general manager. The manager then gave the kid a talking to.

It wasn't necessarily the kid's fault. Clearly he wasn't trained to run events well. Especially for kids.

By 11am, there were more items out, and it started to look a little more like something might be going on for kids.

But by that point, there wasn't a child or family left to be seen. They'd all given up. And I doubt anyone showed up at the 9am event scheduled for the following morning either.

Regardless of whose fault it was, the trust had been broken.

And when you break that trust, especially on a first impression, it's really really hard to earn it back.