Resume is the Dumbest "Feature" ever.

I want my trusty Mac back.

I cannot completely disable resume - as in make it go away, I don't want it. Resume has seriouly disrupted my Mac. Why?

1. I heavily control my child's user account using parental permissions, which work great. I like this. It's one of the reasons why I liked my Mac so much. I used to have it set up so that when she walked away - like all kids do - from the computer when the screen saver kicked on I had a script run that automatically logged her out and returned the Mac to the login screen.

That exactly what I wanted because (a) I don't want her messing with her parent's work user account and (b) whenever she logged back in Firefox would start up and she went straight to the web pages that I controlled.

Now, in order to get this to work she has to remember to click the little stupid box that pops up automatically on even an automatic logout. You know what, Apple, KIDS DON'T FIND LITTLE CHECK BOXES WHEN THEY HAVE WALKED AWAY TO GET A JUICE BOX.

I want control over this machine. When I tell it to log out, I want it to log out like it should. Not make me jump through hoops. Sure, I guess I could write a new script that would kill all processes for that user... but why can't I just turn "resume" off?? There's even a checkbox in the System Preferences that's apparently not hooked up to anything. This is stupid.

2. Rare as it used to be, now my Mac sometimes crashes with Lion. Yes, I know it's a new operating system so I'll cut y'all some slack. Yes, each time it's 'cause the kid spent too much time on PBS Kids website or something or other and something's buggy over there. But now when I go to do a restart, guess what?

Yup. "Resume" opens back up all of those buggy programs that I was trying to get away from to fix the darn thing.

Apple, WAKE UP. If you put in a new "feature" test it first. Seriously, test it in the real world, not by a bunch of happy-go-lucky-iGreen-hippy-pocket protectors in Cupertino. Have parents who really use their Mac for their jobs and for their children, and for all of their family entertainment (Apple TV in my house, cut the cable cord years ago) give it a whirl and see what happens. Listen to what the testers say.

Give your customers options that work so that if they don't like your new "feature" they can make it go away - reliably go away. Before your customers go away.

So, other than writing a "kill all" script that kills all, has anyone out there in Lala Land figured out a way to make "resume" NEVER resume? (See above, no the System Preference checkbox doesn't work. Yes, I tried.)