When was the last time you heard a kid SCREAMING in a public place?

[Rilchiam]

I mean really screaming, not just talking. Screaming loud enough to be heard from a distance. Or running around, not just walking, but running like a mad thing.

In the last couple of years, I can recall only two such instances. Once, in a Wendy's, two little girls were running around the tables. After they bypassed us twice, Mr. Rilch and I moved to a table outside of their orbit and life went on. The second was at a Ruby Tuesday's. Two little boys were making fart noises with their mouths, while their dad offered direction and encouragement. We'd only just sat down, so we asked to be moved to another table, and life went on.

So how often do you hear kids giving piercing shrieks, or running aimlessly? I don't mean how often are you annoyed by kids; I mean, how often do you hear screaming or see running?

[Captain Socks]

My church. It's a very big church, with a lot of little kids. Who get bored very easily, even with the 9 million toys that they have. So yeah.

[gardentraveler]

Yesterday in the lobby of the Columbus Museum of Art. There was a play area. I'm not sure if the kid hurt himself/herself or was just upset, but the scream was piercing. After the second scream, apparently the problem dissipated because everything returned to a normal noise level.

GT

[Queen Bruin]

A few Fridays ago in Chili's. I don't know what happened but she settled into regular five year old chatter pretty quickly afterward.

[Ferret Herder]

Just last week, at work. I work in a medical center but was under the impression that the child was not the patient, at least judging by the location they were in. He was screeching a little ways down the hall, around a corner where I couldn't see what, if anything, a parent was doing.

I saw running in the hall at work today. A woman had 4 children, oldest perhaps age 6 and going down from there. She was allowing them to run ahead of her down a busy hallway (and around corners in it, out of her field of vision) that leads to a major "intersection" of the buildings at the medical center I work at, and near the top of a stairway. The kids could have tripped an elderly person, been run down by a team with a crash cart speeding off to a medical emergency, fallen down the stairs, etc.

[askeptic]

Yesterday at Bob Hope Airport. I don't mind crying babies. What I do mind is fake crying four year olds. Screaming at the top of their lungs like they had just had their foot cut off when their mom won't let them have a second soda with their lunch. It seems like poor child raising skills.



(what the hell happened to i before e except after c? -see their

[Q.N. Jones]

Every time I go to Target or Wal-Mart.

Last night, standing in line at a restaurant, I had the "pleasure" of watching a 50-ish father and his three kids, approximately 18, 16, and 12, hitting, kicking, and yelling at each other as we waited. So I guess it's not just small children that are annoying.

[susan]

Yesterday at the grocery (aimless, untended running) and last week at an airport (screaming, untended).

[Hilarity N. Suze]

Saturday, at Safeway.

This was a kid who was running, out of control.

But his father caught him and seemed to be giving him a real talking-to.

That's when he started screaming--and they left.

[delphica]

A few months ago at a store. The screamer in question was a toddler in a stroller. He seemed perfectly happy and content, but every few minutes he would let out a crazy sounding, high-pitched shriek. It was really so loud as to be alarming. I was worried he had Tourette's. Although the sound of his scream made me practically jump out of my skin every time it happened, I sincerely thought he had some sort of affliction so I was more sympathetic than annoyed.

THEN, the mother of this toddler got to the front of the line, and started to berate the salesperson for something. The mother started all of her sentences with a high-pitched shriek of a word, as in "WHAAAAAT do you mean, I can't return this used item I bought four months ago without a receipt? WHYYYYYYYYY not?"

The toddler had been perfectly imitating his mother's voice (although just the sound, not an actual word). I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

[dangermom]

Originally Posted by askeptic

Yesterday at Bob Hope Airport. I don't mind crying babies. What I do mind is fake crying four year olds. Screaming at the top of their lungs like they had just had their foot cut off when their mom won't let them have a second soda with their lunch. It seems like poor child raising skills.

What should the mom have done, given the kid the second soda? That would seem like poor child-raising skills to me. Sometimes a 4-yo is going to scream when denied his own way, that's just how they are. The only way to cure it is to never give in, and even then it takes a year or two. A 4-yo doesn't think rationally, and doesn't remember the last 50 times that screaming for TV resulted in no TV for the rest of the day. (I know, because my 4-yo, a pretty good kid mostly, fails to remember that on a weekly basis.) The automatic reaction to frustration at that age is to scream, no matter how good the parents are at their job.


So, my story: Probably about 8 months ago, I was working at the library, and a mom was trying to check out books, carry a large baby, and get her ~5-yo girl out the door. The kid did not want to go, and was screaming like a stuck pig. The mom would drag her out, and the girl would pull away and run back in, screaming the whole time. The mom was very handicapped by the baby, since she was unable to pick the kid up football-style and haul her out of there, but I think she was mistaken in trying to check the books out too--I would have left them all there. (Actually I did do that when my oldest daughter pulled that at 3 or 4. It still took a couple of lessons before she realized that bad behavior = no books.) Still, her main problem was pretty intractable; she only had 2 arms.

[mangeorge]

A few years ago, at MarineWorld. And I get out a lot. I don't know why I don't hear that much screaming. there are lots of kids around here, where I live.
I miss screamimg kids, and I'm old. Guess I'll go hang out at Target. Maybe I'll buy a bag of outdated halloween candy and take it to work tomorrow. Now I'm sad.
Peace,
mangeorge

[overlyverbose]

Originally Posted by delphica

A few months ago at a store. The screamer in question was a toddler in a stroller. He seemed perfectly happy and content, but every few minutes he would let out a crazy sounding, high-pitched shriek. It was really so loud as to be alarming. I was worried he had Tourette's. Although the sound of his scream made me practically jump out of my skin every time it happened, I sincerely thought he had some sort of affliction so I was more sympathetic than annoyed.

For what it's worth, my child does that simply to get a rise out of me. He doesn't even change his expression. Just opens his mouth, shrieks, then waits. If I don't react (and I try not to), he sometimes does it again. He generally only does it when he's tired, so if he seems tired and it's not absolutely necessary to go somewhere, we stay home.

Sometimes they do stuff like that just to get a reaction, even if it's going to be a bad one. Doesn't sound like the mom was helping, though. You described that really well, by the way.

The last time I heard a random kid shrieking his head off was sometime last year when I was walking through the grocery. I had my then five-month-old kid with me and someone else's kid about the same age was screaming bloody murder. The mom had her hands full so she couldn't pick him up out of his car seat. I think he must have been sick because she was trying to decide between infant motrin and tylenol.

[Ms. Pumpkin]

All the time. I work in a drugstore, so a lot of them are sick and cranky to begin with, and I can understand that. There are also those parents who think store = free babysitting, and let their children run around destroying things.
And then of course there are temper tantrums at the checkout lane when a kid wants some candy or toy and the parent says no(and a lot of times the parent ends up giving in and buying it, anyway).

[Rilchiam]

Originally Posted by mangeorge

A few years ago, at MarineWorld. And I get out a lot. I don't know why I don't hear that much screaming. there are lots of kids around here, where I live.

Yeah, there are a lot of kids in my community too, and I honestly don't know whether they don't scream, or I simply tune it out. The two girls in Wendy's got on my radar because they were right up on me, but as soon as I moved away from them, I stopped noticing again. Perhaps it's because there's a lot of noise in this community in general. Construction, road work, we're near the airport, police helicopters buzz us on a regular basis...I guess, assuming there are screaming kids, they're just another noise, and they don't register any more than the approaching planes.

[askeptic]

Originally Posted by dangermom

What should the mom have done, given the kid the second soda?

No. Maybe raise nice polite kids. My nephews are 4 and 8. Never. Not. Once.Have they ever made a scene in public. They never pout or throw fits. They have never been spanked or yelled at either. If they want something they ask for it, if they can't have it they are told why. End of issue.

[lobstermobster]

A child has a total meltdown on the bus at least once a week. It's still less offensive than the teenagers using the filthiest language you have ever heard in your entire life. I have the same bus schedule as the kids going to and from school. Horrible.

[mangeorge]

Originally Posted by askeptic

No. Maybe raise nice polite kids. My nephews are 4 and 8. Never. Not. Once.Have they ever made a scene in public. They never pout or throw fits. They have never been spanked or yelled at either. If they want something they ask for it, if they can't have it they are told why. End of issue.

Back at two years old or so, no "terrible twos?" Hmmm. Did they go through that?
I didn't believe in the phenomena at first, till my own angels got there. So I did a little research. Result? Yep, it's real, and part of growing. Establishing limits is part of it. So is identy developement. You might notice that they can be super sweet at the same time.
It usually ends by four or so. Some kids are more so, and some less. If a kid doesn't act up at all, it can be a sign of a problem.
That's all I remember.

[9thFloor]

Yesterday at a restaurant.

[Hanna]

Yesterday, at Wal Mart. I needed light bulbs and the screaming kid and his mom were (luckily) on the way out as I was going in. I would have turned around and left without bulbs if they had been heading in.

[askeptic]

Originally Posted by mangeorge

Back at two years old or so, no "terrible twos?" Hmmm.

I will get back to you in two and a half years, I have my first on its way. I will probably have to eat my words. But I just spent the weekend with my sister and her family and was absolutely amazed by how cute and sweet her kids are. Which is probably why the screaming kid annoyed me so much, he stood out in contrast. I told my wife we are going to need to take lessons from my sister and her husband about how to raise kids. Both kids are bright outgoing and active in sports and to my knowledge never went through the "terrible twos".

[ZipperJJ]

I don't go out too much (too poor to shop or eat out), but I remember last year around Christmas being in a Gabriel Brothers store with a kid screaming at the top of her lungs.

Gabe's sort of has slow checkout, and they were in the checkout. The mom was looking pretty guilty, and didn't really want to get out of line - I guess I can't blame her.

Seems like she didn't factor in checkout time in her "how long can my kid stand to be in this store?" time calculation. The time she stopped shopping should have been the time she was out the door.

[Airman Doors, USAF]

Originally Posted by askeptic

No. Maybe raise nice polite kids. My nephews are 4 and 8. Never. Not. Once.Have they ever made a scene in public. They never pout or throw fits. They have never been spanked or yelled at either. If they want something they ask for it, if they can't have it they are told why. End of issue.

It's uncanny what you don't see when you don't live with them, isn't it?

I would bet my life that they have gone stark raving nuts publicly at least once, if not more often than that. It's all but guaranteed, and it has little to do with bad parenting.

Anyway, in answer to the question, anybody got a watch?

[askeptic]

Originally Posted by Airman Doors, USAF

It's uncanny what you don't see when you don't live with them, isn't it?

I would bet my life that they have gone stark raving nuts publicly at least once, if not more often than that. It's all but guaranteed, and it has little to do with bad parenting.

Anyway, in answer to the question, anybody got a watch?

See my last post. Especially the part where I said I will probably have to eat my words...

[Kythereia]

A few days ago, on the bus, a one-year-old (maybe?) was sitting in her stroller and screeching at the top of her lungs while her mother tried to soothe her; everyone just sighed, looked to the bus ceiling, and rustled their newspapers.

About a year or so ago, my mum and I were breakfasting on our back porch, early in the morning, when we heard a crash in the street nearby--then a child's scream, high-pitched, and then helpless sobbing. There really is something about that instinct you get: when the baby was crying on the bus, I just grumbled and flipped the page in my book. When the little girl screamed in the car, my mum and I were up and running before we knew what was going on.

(It turned out that the little girl and her mother were driving along when a man came out from the intersection between the street and the alleyway and blindsided them--just barely. Everybody was okay; I can't even remember if the car was towed.)

[elfkin477]

Running around like wild things with no parents in sight? How long ago was Saturday?

Screaming at the top of their lungs - just under three weeks ago, accompanied by the mother repeatedly yelling at her "I'm NOT picking you up!!" Seriously, this was repeated at least two dozen times in the ten minutes I was in the store. What upset me was not the wailing child herself, but finally rounding a corner and seeing the kid. She couldn't have been more than two and a half. I wanted to smack her mother.

[dangermom]

Yeah, askeptic, you probably will. All normal children act up. My 4-yo has thrown tantrums just like any other kid. And of course they've done it in public; that's part of parenthood too. If your sister tells you otherwise, she's either lying or has forgotten. The best kids in the world will throw fits at times.

The mere existence of a screaming child does not a bad parent make. All kids do it. What the parent does with the screaming child is the question, and when you're in an airport/mall/library/public place, with a tired or nervous child, it isn't always possible to make the screams disappear.

I have a friend who has a lovely little girl of about 8. Sweet child, and when she was little my friend blithely thought, "oh, I'm a good parent!" Then she had the next two, who are also very nice little guys, but of course a whole 'nother ball of wax; difficult, moody, each prone to his own variety of meltdown. Friend realized that her first was just a very easy kid. Although I'm quite sure that she had tantrums!

[Antigen]

There are some little girls living in my apartment complex who seem to enjoy getting together for shrieking contests. They'll be running around, playing, and shrieking, as though they're seeing who can scream louder. It's happy shrieks, at least, but damn is it annoying. Their last get-together was last week.

[betenoir]

It's been a while but the one I really rember is...I was on a very long bus trip and he was across the aisle having a fit. Welll after a bit I figured out his mom was sitting behind me...with what apparently her new boyfriend.

The kid (about three) was obviously terrified but she was more interested in chating up this guy then taking care of her child. So I said something. She said "Don't tell me how to raise my child". What I should have said is "Well somebody has to".

And yeah I can tell you, because he is not you property, he's a human and we other humans have to look out for him if you don't. That and I and the rest of the bus have a right to live though a bus trip without beating ourselve to death.

[ignis_glaciesque]

Every evening. I work in a restaurant. Every evening, someone brings his or her bawling brats in, and every evening, I have to put up with their shrieks. Sometimes, they run around like crazy while their parents lumber after them. *sighs and counts down the days till his vacation starts*

[mangeorge]

Originally Posted by ZipperJJ

I don't go out too much (too poor to shop or eat out), but I remember last year around Christmas being in a Gabriel Brothers store with a kid screaming at the top of her lungs.

Gabe's sort of has slow checkout, and they were in the checkout. The mom was looking pretty guilty, and didn't really want to get out of line - I guess I can't blame her.

Seems like she didn't factor in checkout time in her "how long can my kid stand to be in this store?" time calculation. The time she stopped shopping should have been the time she was out the door.

I just had an idea;
When that happens, when a kid in line starts screaming, why not let the parent go to the head of the line and get out of there asap.
Problem solved.
I am sooo smart!

[mangeorge]

Originally Posted by Antigen

There are some little girls living in my apartment complex who seem to enjoy getting together for shrieking contests. They'll be running around, playing, and shrieking, as though they're seeing who can scream louder. It's happy shrieks, at least, but damn is it annoying. Their last get-together was last week.

I have two (now grown) daughters. I remember well seeing them and their little friends sitting on benches and facing each other screaming at the top f their lungs. Some kind of bonding ritual, I assumed. Or a dominance thing. Like boys punching each other.

[sandra_nz]

Can't remember. It's something I register when it happens, but not important enough for me to retain as a memory.

[Necros]

Sunday morning. I was at a restaurant, eating lunch, and they set up a table for about 10 next to me. Two parents and probably eight kids of varying ages. They were all fine for the most part, but one young girl, probably three years old, was running around the restaurant until she tripped and hit her head on the table, and screamed for quite a while.

I don't blame her at all, and felt bad for her. But the best way to avoid having your children get hurt by running around and tripping into table edges? Don't let your kids run around in the restaurant, parents.

[Zsofia]

I'm a public librarian. At least once a week. During the summer, sometimes every day. You don't even know.

[gwendee]

My shop shares a wall with a barber shop. Several times a week I hear blood curdling, relentless screaming that lasts as long as it takes to cut the hair of a squiming toddler. It amazes me. I think to myself that if my child were that terrified of haircuts I'd skip it. Even more often I find myself wondering how it's possible for someone that little to have sustained that level of screaming so long without passing out.

Antigen you don't live in Parkville, do you? A pair of screaming girls (who inspired screaming in other neighborhood girls) moved from our complex to a complex in Parkville about a year ago.

[Khadaji]

Wow. Often enough that I have the impression of it being almost daily. It probably isn't that bad, but it is a few times a week.

I'm stunned that you have only seen it twice in years. In almost any restaurant I go to there seems to be a screaming child.

I just asked my coworkers to see if I was overstating it and they confirmed that it happens at least a few times a week. (They also pointed out that I always point it out.)

As for running: Last time I was in Borders (I think a few weeks ago) a child came running around the book case and ran right into me. I'm a big man - she bounced right off and landed on her butt. And began screaming. Thank god I wasn't recovering from an operation.

[nashiitashii]

Originally Posted by Zsofia

I'm a public librarian. At least once a week. During the summer, sometimes every day. You don't even know.

I volunteer in my local library and I see it every now and then. The last occurrence was quite funny because of the reaction of the other patrons. Two rather ghetto people walk in with an infant and get settled into the computer area; half an hour later, baby starts crying. They ignore it for five minutes, but the people in the computer area do not. After about two minutes of the baby crying, they get comments along the line of "shut that thing up" and "why don't you take the baby out of this area?" The female of the ghetto couple replies "It's just a baaaaaaaaaaby, it's gonna cry," and, of course, gets the response of "We don't have to listen to it; take it the hell out of here already!" from one of the more persistent computer users. The ghetto lady then spends the next three minutes picking her stuff up and dramatically flouncing out of the computer area.

I find from experience that good vs. bad behavior in children tends to vary by region and population. I used to live close enough to Boca Raton that I'd end up shopping there instead of in the city I lived in. Any time I went into a store, the mall, or a restaurant, there was at least one child behaving badly. Running, screaming, throwing a fit, and using an unreasonably loud outdoor voice indoors was pretty common. Then again, so was finding all the areas of a store (especially ladies' clothing) ransacked like there was a riot going on. The adults in the area could not bother with behaving like respectable human beings, and thus were not concerned with raising their kids to be respectful of others. I now live in the Orlando area, and I find that the attitudes toward raising kids are different, but very stratified between areas and ethnic groups, but overall, the kids up here are better behaved than the ones in Boca Raton. The shops are cleaner too.

The last time I heard a child screaming or running around in an inappropriate manner was about two weeks ago. I work in a car dealership, and there are lots of parents who think it's totally fine to bring your kid to a store with nothing fun to do or interesting to look at (well, except for those expensive showroom cars that cost $50,000+); they'll be in here for hours, and the kids often get bored and start screaming/crying/running around after about half an hour. I am now relatively impervious to children screaming and bad background music while in stores.

[rhythmonly]

Couple of days ago. I'm picking up my son, and I hear some screaming on the way in from the parking lot. Can't tell where it's coming from.

I'm standing in the doorway, waiting, and clearly hear the screaming again. From across the hall. I can now discern phrases like "HELP ME", and "NOOOOOOOO".

I asked my son what was up, and he said "Oh, it's just that little girl across the way."

After further questioning, this kid seems to be going through the Terrible 10's. Constant screaming, night and day.

Is loudest before school and at bedtime.

[Jayn_Newell]

July 4, when we went to see Transformers. Bad movie to take a young child to. To the mother's credit, she did take him outside, so we didn't have to listen to it for all that long. I felt kinda sorry for the poor kid to be honest--taking him out was probably more of a mercy for him/her than for the rest of us (the movie was loud enough that the screaming was more like background noise).

[Sapo]

I see it a lot. I love it and wish I could do the same.

I am talking about the kids running around empty tables, screaming and laughing in play. Not about tantrums, bumping into strangers and being obnoxious.

[dangermom]

Originally Posted by Khadaji

Wow. Often enough that I have the impression of it being almost daily. It probably isn't that bad, but it is a few times a week.

I'm stunned that you have only seen it twice in years. In almost any restaurant I go to there seems to be a screaming child.

I just asked my coworkers to see if I was overstating it and they confirmed that it happens at least a few times a week. (They also pointed out that I always point it out.)

Wow. I go out to dinner about once a week, and I can't remember ever sitting near a screaming child. A cute child, yes--some of the restaurants we go to are pretty family-oriented--but I honestly cannot recall ever having a screaming, temper-tantrum-throwing child. Or, for that matter, a child running around the restaurant like people are always talking about here.

Now, I live my life surrounded by small children, both mine and others'. And I'm somewhat used to kid noise. But I really hate screaming, and I really don't run into it all that often in public.

Small girls do seem to come automatically equipped with a love of screaming for fun, and they have to be consistently taught not to do it.

[squeegee]

Originally Posted by askeptic

Yesterday at Bob Hope Airport. I don't mind crying babies. What I do mind is fake crying four year olds. Screaming at the top of their lungs like they had just had their foot cut off when their mom won't let them have a second soda with their lunch. It seems like poor child raising skills.

It's actually excellent parenting skills -- if you give them what they want when they scream, they'll scream again next time. If you make clear that this is definitely a way to never, ever get their way, they stop doing it.

Having said that, if they're four and they pull this stunt, it means that Mom has given in before, and this is the price.

[squeegee]

Also, my son was a huge screamer when he was 4-6 months old. He wasn't upset, he just liked to scream. It's not like you can reason with a kid less than a year old, they don't speaka da english. So we ended up doing things like leaving restaurants right when the food comes (which really sucks), or one of us would be at a gathering, while the other would walk the baby around outside in the parking lot, and we'd take turns.

[sugar and spice]

This past summer I went out to dinner with a friend -- it was a better Mexican restaurant, definitely family-friendly but they also have a full bar and live music, so it's not like we were at Chucky Cheese or something. And it was around 9pm. Anyhow, after the musicians left they played piped in music which was a little louder than I would have liked, but not loud enough to cover up the sound of the little girl who was running around our table and BLOWING A WHISTLE. There were at least three adults at her table, no one made an effort to play with her or give her another toy, they just kept talking and let her amuse herself.

[squeegee]

Originally Posted by nashiitashii

Two rather ghetto people ... the ghetto couple... The ghetto lady

WTF?

[nashiitashii]

Originally Posted by squeegee

WTF?

Get over yourself. The appearance, behavior, and attitude that both of these individuals was consistent with what appears to be common in some ghettos in the area. It was relevant, so I'd rather you try to not castigate me over an accurate descriptor.

[squeegee]

Originally Posted by nashiitashii

Get over yourself. The appearance, behavior, and attitude that both of these individuals was consistent with what appears to be common in some ghettos in the area. It was relevant, so I'd rather you try to not castigate me over an accurate descriptor.

In what way was it pertinent?

[dwc1970]

Friday, November 2, at Chuck E. Cheese. Need I say more?

[Q.N. Jones]

Oh, I almost forgot!

Two weeks ago, I ducked into the Macaroni Grill for lunch, since it is next door to my work. It was after the lunch hour, so I hoped it would be quiet. I often go in there alone, with a book. Usually, the hostess remembers that I like to have a booth.

Instead, I'm seated at a table in what I think of as The Pit--booths surround an open floor area where there are about 8-10 tables. Before I could ask for a booth, the hostess left, so I sat down.

And immediately realized that the other 4 tables that were filled in The Pit each had at least one very small child with them.

It was the most hideous restaurant experience I think I've had, atmosphere-wise. The baby across from me was eating straight off the cloth tablecloth, staining everything, making an unappetizing mess, throwing food, and periodically shrieking at the top of its lungs. The little toddler to my right threw a huge crying fit over whatever her mother had ordered her; it lasted for much of the meal. Her big sister (maybe 5) had a tantrum too. The other babies and children I couldn't see too well, but I could definitely hear them. They shrieked, squealed, and cried throughout the meal. One little boy kept running up and slapping the empty chair next to mine. His parents didn't even tell him to stop.

It was awful. It was as if some intelligent hostess had tried to segregate all the families with children, and then some idiot came along and seated me right in their midst. What is odd is that I usually see very few children in that place, which is one of its attractions.