You know, Eve, there are a few key phrases you may need to learn for use in this situation. On my last day at work, I was having lunch in a nice restaurant with some coworkers. There’s a separate “family” area of this restaurant, much cheaper and kid-friendly, so really there was little excuse for the mom who had her small child with her in the tablecloths-and-fancy-silverware section. The poor kid was screaming at the top of its lungs, and mom was doing nothing about it. I asked the waitress to see if the mom would at least make an attempt to quiet her spawn- which the waitress and eventually the manager did- to no avail. Finally, while I was in the middle of saying something to one of my coworkers, I stopped in the middle of the sentence, raised my voice just slightly, and said “For god’s sake, don’t make it suffer… just kill it.” Then went right back to what I was saying.
If the child misbehaved loudly and obnoxiously in a professional environment and the mother didn’t care, or said “deal”? Why in the blue fuck would the gender of the OP matter at all?
My point is that I suspect there might be a double standard if the situation were reversed. If I (as a man) complained that a female coworker was bringing her noisy brat to work, how many people would chide me for not being more understanding of a single mother’s hardship?
lezlers and I both bitched about mothers doing the same thing. I’m a woman (don’t know about lezlers) but I don’t think if I were a guy it would make any difference. I really think you’re reaching here. And what makes you assume the man in the OP is a single parent? Or are you just trying to pull as many “hot button issues” into your hypothetical situation as possible?
Got another lovely e-mail from the Daddy’s supervisor this morning: “No, you’re not being mean . . . his kid was loud. We have a place he could hide, in our config room. He should have had the sense to take themselves there. I apologize for the distraction.”
Thank goodness for him! I am avoiding the Big Boss for all I’m worth, as I am still so mad about her attitude that I might be tempted to . . . Well, I know shaking babies very hard can cause their little heads to fall right off; does that work with bosses, too?
