ROTFLMAO!
I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there! 
I’m childfree, and no. I don’t despise those with children; I despise you.
Well, they shouldn’t be.
I got lost somewhere around page 4 and I’m not sure who’s for what anymore but was the restaurant in the OP on fire? I’m so confused now.
No, but that would be awesome. This derailed train of a thread, however, definitely is.
And my comfort is more important to me than your kid. Your kids starts screaming in a restaurant and bothering me, you’ll be dealing with it. However, since I am apparently a much more polite and civilized person than you are, I’ll start with speaking to my server than with “kicking you in the ears” or whatever that threat pages ago was.
Clearly, this thread will end when we all come to a consensus - if Curlcoat, ZPG Zealot, and a baby were in a burning Chili’s franchise - who will get throttled and eaten on the way to the door?
Question for you: Is there any place where you would not take a baby or very young child? Other than obvious answers like a fine dining restaurant or skin bar.
You are an inconsiderate asshole.
I dunno, asshole. You any good at it?
Of course. Many.
Specific examples? Well, any movie that is not specifically for children; any cultural event, like a play or opera, not meant for children; in short, places where children would be likely to be bored or irritated, where I’m really going for my own benefit and not in any way for that of the child - where the child is, in short, merely being dragged along, and is unlikely to derive some sort of benefit from the experience; moreover, events and places where the kid could not be easily moved if they get bored or irritated (I’d drag a kid shopping because it is easy to leave - but not to the Opera).
Point is, one of them is not a family restaurant like Chili’s, which has a “children’s menu”, stacks high-chairs, and I hear even hands out crayons to the kids. I’m fully on board with the OP that parents who ignore their kids screaming in such places are asses, but equally those who demand that no parent be allowed to bring young kids to such places are, likewise, asses. The reason in both cases is the same - they ain’t being reasonable towards the rights of others; in the case of ignoring a screaming baby, they are also asses because they are ignoring their own kid.
I take it you no longer dispute that some folks here in this thread are unreasonably demanding that kids not be in any public spaces at all until they are old enough to behave? To my mind, that’s totally unreasonable; and that’s all, really, I’m taking exception to.
Moderately. I think the automatic assumption that punishment is required is mistaken, but it’s better than the previous assumption that I should hit my son.
Already beaten to it by MeanOldLady, but yeah - that pretty much makes you a textbook example of an asshole.
Hell, why stop with having your kid make noise during my dinner? Why not bring the little tyke over to my table and empty his diaper in my vichyssoise? And then, you can dunk my head in the soup bowl and hold me under for a minute or two? And after you’ve relented and I’ve kicked and flailed my way free, why not run me over with your “Baby On Board” mini-van in the parking lot, all the while blaring the “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” song through your stereo whilst chomping down on a pacifier and cackling, “God, I love the smell of spit-up in the morning!” :rolleyes::rolleyes:
You know, a lot of us were struggling to come up with an apt metaphor to describe the frustration we feel in certain situations such as described by the OP. I don’t know why none of us saw the obvious paralells between mealtime annoyances and survival cannibalism. :smack: It was right there, staring us in the face.
Oh, as an aside - in that perfectly analagous situation you presented, the first time you bent over to check on your little one, I’d smash you on the back of the skull with the oar and pitch you overboard. And if your kid had any problems with that, over the side they’d go as well. You shouldn’t have an issue with that - it’s just making “appropriate consideration” for others, after all.
Fine. Likewise, I’d keep talking to my dinner companion about my conjectures as to the nature of your family. “So, what do you think - brother and sister or first cousins? I mean, look at the brow ridge on that thing. That just has to be chromosomal damage. Of course, I guess it could be environmental factors. Perhaps Mom shouldn’t have huffed all that brake cleaner fluid when she was preggers, eh?”
Oh, I’ll deal with it just fine. By mocking you here, and ignoring your baseless sense of self-entitlement IRL.
Unless the baby in question screams constantly, you’re retarded. Wait, okay, strike that–you’re retarded regardless.
1.) The baby screams constantly. Then why the hell are you taking it out in public instead of to a doctor?
2.) The baby is pretty normal, and, as babies do, will only scream when it needs something: food, a nap, a fresh diaper, attention. You can therefore assume that, if all these needs are met, your baby won’t be screaming its head off in public. So, you’d be fine to bring it to a restaurant assuming that those needs are currently met or can be met while you’re there, or otherwise be prepared to remove the child if it becomes a nuisance to others.
So why is it okay for your kid to scream and cry, but not run around? They’re equally disturbing and rude to the other patrons and staff. The screaming perhaps even more so–the running only bothers the people who can see it and/or whom they’re running past, but the crying bothers anyone in earshot.
I really hope I can sit next to you at a restaurant some day, just so that I can scream in your ear through the whole meal. After all, I’m more important to me than you are to me, so that means that I can completely disregard your comfort at all times.
Protip: Removing your child when they are disturbing others in public doesn’t harm your child. This is not a zero-sum game like choosing whom to save from a burning building. If your kid is tired or in pain or just in a bad mood, removing them helps everybody. It relieves the other patrons of having to listen to your spawn, and it teaches the spawn that some actions are not appropriate in public, and that consideration for other people is an essential part of being a human fucking being. Not to mention, if the kid *is *tired or in pain and not just throwing a tantrum, you shouldn’t be keeping them sitting in a restaurant, anyway.
In summary: Keeping your crying kid in a restaurant makes you a terrible parent. In fact, you’re probably the Hitler of parents, who also declaws and circumcises your children.
THAT CHICKEN WAS A BABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
It will be if **kidneyfailure **doesn’t shut that fucking kid up.
That’s what I don’t get about the whole “me and my kid come first–fuck everybody else” thing, especially in comparison to saving your kid from a burning building. Being fed, rocked, pulled from a burning building–these are things that benefit the child in some way. But there’s no benefit to the kiddo to be kept in a situation that is obviously very distressing to it. I see the benefit to the parents, because they don’t have to inconvenience themselves by actually, you know, parenting the poor little critter, but I see absolutely zero benefit to the actual child who is supposedly the A #1 priority here.
Narcissistic person is narcissistic! Film at 11!
Where the fuck are you getting the factoid that the kid screams constantly from?
In case you have forgotten, here’s what you actually wrote:
Sorry, but your stated criteria are completely incompatible with ever having babies in “public areas”, period. No baby on earth is always “capable of behaving”, or “mature enough to understand” that they should not cause a disturbance, or capable of “listening” to parental instructions.
Moreover, your assumption - that babies only cry when their “needs are not being met” and so it is always the parent’s fault - is amusing in its lack of reality.
Well, I am Jewish…
So, the Hitler comment is especially ironic!
I wouldn’t have a problem with it. Survival of the fittest and all, eh? I’d make sure to get you first, though: I’d have my baby scream so loudly that it drove you from the area towards a well-hidden quicksand trap. Or maybe just the ole “coconut-to-the-back-of-the-skull” routine. Whichever required less effort on my part.
Yeah, that one made me smile too.
One quick cellphone call to Rent-A-Bully, and before that ill-mannered child at the table beside you can scream three times, an uncouth youth will be delivered to your restaurant to deal with the problem.
3rd party chiming in…
It seems like you are so invested in winning this argument that you’re purposely trying to find fault with her scenario. Of course babies are not always capable of behaving and I’m not sure why you’re debating that because she didn’t say that. Let’s look again at what she said:
She said nothing about expecting a baby to always be capable of behaving. I doubt that anyone here expects that. That’s just plain silly. What I think people do expect is that if the child starts throwing a fit and the adult is unable to calm the child that the parent remove the child (at least temporarily) from the dining area. Maybe a walk to the front of the restaurant to look at a fountain or painting or look out the window. If it’s warm out maybe outside to look at flowers or something? Yes, the parent’s food might get cold in the meantime but it’s their child and (as they want us all to realize) their child comes first to them.
That’s common courtesy. Anyone who feels that is unreasonable or wants to invite someone to kiss their ass for expecting common courtesy is a shitbag and I shudder to think what hellspawn they are raising with that defective inner compass.
What she said was that if a child cannot be somewhat well behaved at home, what on earth would compel someone to think the child could behave in a restaurant? Personally I think people like that simply don’t care if others are affected by their choice, they just want what they want. Fair enough, but to act as if it’s everyone else who is an unreasonable asshole is just delusional. Own your assholeishness.
As far as what Shot With Guns said about being mature enough to understand, I think she might be referring to children at around six or seven who (I know I’ve seen it) think it’s time to run around get out pent up energy while mom and dad and uncle Joe drink coffee and chat. If these are DOPER children we’re talking about… well we know they’re all reading Shakespeare at three and quantum physics at six so I’d think knowing that playing in a restaurant is wrong would be a snap.
So, in summary, I certainly don’t cringe if I see a child in a restaurant. I think for the most part parents are courteous of other diners and handle outbursts smashingly. It’s only when the screaming goes on unchecked for at least five minutes that I start twitching and think about exiting. The kid can’t help it, the parent should be the considerate one. It would be no different than if I took my grandfather, who has dementia, to a restaurant and he decided to pitch a wild fit and I just sat there and let him. I wouldn’t and I can’t even tuck him under my arm and make a run for it!