I took the “age discrimination” comment to be a bit of sarcasm. Huge overreaction going on.
And I don’t know why the OP was banned, but I believe the OP’s user name indicates a love for the Hollister chain of over-priced clothing stores, which indicates our OP is probably under 21.
Huh? Are you saying that not wanting to have one’s peacful bookshop browsing interrupted by a 115 decibel high pitched scream is the equivalent of racism?
There’s nothing wrong with it, as in illegal type wrong. You’re certainly free to have a dumb, bigoted opinion.
Also, my post was intentionally over the top, for fun Pit-style. But Captain_C is a dick.
Reminds me of a story a friend of mine told me about a friend of his*, who was grocery shopping with her daughter one day. Kid in the cart seat decides to pitch a fit because Momma didn’t let her get something off a shelf. Nothing the mom did quieted the kid down (and the kid was at least 5 or so, so old enough, ostensibly, to know better). Mom, almost at her wits’ end, looks around the store and thinks to herself, “there are other stores in town. I do not have to shop in this one ever again.”
So the mom throws herself on the floor and starts pitching a temper tantrum of her own, complete with flailing arms and legs and shrieks. In under a minute, the kid is telling her to stop that! You’re embarrassing me!
Reportedly, the kid never pitched a fit in public again.
*Like all FOAF stories, I have no way to verify its accuracy, but dang, it’s a good one!
Bwa, ha, ha! You ignorant fuck. Just because you can’t keep your thighs together and have probably been knocked up by half the guys in your town and now we’re all stuck with the sixteen ill-bread fatherless screaming brats you plop out every nine months hardly equates to racism. Ooh, aren’t you special, you can spread your legs, toss your heals to Jesus and oh, my gosh, nine months later you crapped out another kid. Aren’t you special? People who don’t like your screaming brats are racist bigots! Give me my welfare check! I’m out of twinkies to feed my brats!
No, I’m saying disliking an entire group of individuals based on the actions of a few is ignorant and bigoted. Saying “I can’t stand kids,” is, if not the same as saying “I don’t like black people,” certainly an opinion of the same type. It’s dumb. Saying “I don’t like it when children scream in stores, and I wish parents would try to teach their children manners” is a sensible statement we can all agree with. But that isn’t what he said.
:rolleyes:
Thank goodness! Sometimes the right thing happens.
But all little kids do in fact cry and scream from time to time. I don’t hold it against them, that’s their nature and they’ll grow out of it. But their parents should be aware of any annoyance their kids are causing and take steps to mitigate it.
I like kids. I can’t stand parents who think that everyone else has to accomodate their bundle of joy. Have all the kids you want, but let me browse a bookstore in peace.
And Captain C’s comments may be over the top, but I don’t see how they’re anywhere near racism. There are behaviours common to all kids.
Because children learn appropriate behavior in public by being in public and seeing appropriate behavior - and by being corrected when the behavior is inappropriate. You don’t learn how to be well behaved grown up being surrounded by children. Children who have only been to Chucky Cheese become teenagers who are only able to go to Chucky Cheese and become grownups who don’t know how to behave in a restaurant - I’m sure you’ve seen grown ups like this. Children learn by practice and exposure.
Now, you don’t take your three year old to your local Ruth’s Chris - but taking your five year old to TGI Fridays is how you end up with a twelve year old you can expose to Ruth’s Chris, and becomes an eighteen year old you can take to Charlie Trotters.
You can be louder than the kid, so the comparison is not correct.
Bring in the decible meter. We can measure the sound of, say, my kid. If that is the noise level that requires exit, then apply it perfectly equally.
By the way, while we are at it, any of you assholes using fucking pit language in the store can get your foul mouths gone too.
Your cell phone better not ring above that level either.
What a bunch of whiny little shitheads we have. I sincerely doubt that there are many, if any, around here who truly is without sin on the noise subject.
I think the similarities revolve around looking at any group, and because of their characteristics just by virtue of being a part of that group, deciding you don’t like that group.
I think the difference between saying you don’t like babies and saying you don’t like blacks is that the former is about choosing not to be around babies and not personally creating any and the latter is about choosing not to be around blacks and, in the extreme, doing everything you can to oppress, subjugate and actually annihilate them. I don’t get the impression people who say they don’t like babies would actually go to those lengths.
To expand (or expound) further, not liking blacks has a whole cultural, institutional and historical aspect, miscegenistic attitude, power-dynamical tone and diasporical effect that I just don’t see in Captain_Cs admittedly over-the-top comment.
P.S. the OP said he/she was 14.
[sub]Emphasis mine. [/sub]
I think this is exactly the problem that Miss Elizabeth is having. Honestly, there are TONS of parents out there that seem to have this problem, and blame any person who thinks their kids’ behavior is the parents’ responsibility as being hateful and bigoted. Yes, parenting is tough, but there are a great many ways to make it easier on yourself. Consistent parental discipline and rewards for behavior help, but so do things like taking the responsibility for your child’s and your own actions as well; children are like sponges and remember every example of bad mommy/daddy behavior as a reason why they don’t have to follow mommy or daddy’s rules.
Morgyn, my dad got me out of tantrum throwing very early with a similar technique. I do believe I was throwing a tantrum at home, but by him throwing one on the floor next to me, I learned that, not only is it not appropriate behavior, but you look like a fucking dumbass when you throw a blue wobbler.
Oops, I posted this sort of out of context. I was talking about the OP author.
But it came right after miss elizabeth’s post. As for her (?) line of reasoning, it’s the worst I’ve seen in a while here.
Excellent post, and I heartily agree. Parents certainly should take their kids out in various public places and expose to all sorts of environments. This is how they learn. Public isn’t the place to expose the rest of us to your child’s worst behavior.
WRT Captain_C’s post about an adult going into Borders and screaming their head off, being asked to leave (quite rightly) and applying the same standard to children, here’s my take on it: Why not? Of course we don’t really hold kids to the same standard as adults. But, we do hold the parents responsible, do we not? Or shouldn’t we? If I throw a rock through my neighbor’s window, I’m responsible. If my kid throws a rock threw my neighbor’s window, I’m responsible. It’s my kid. So, if your kid starts screaming in Borders, of course we realize kids do things like that. But you’re the parent, so you’re responsible and you might as well consider it as you screaming in Borders.
It’s not equivalent, but it’s an interesting point. I agree that misbehaving children can be irritating, but misbehaving women can be irritating - ever been in a restaurant with a table of eight women on their third glass of wine? The screaming and yelling trumps any baby who ever lived. If I posted a thread about how irritating women are in public places I’d be swatted harder than a bug. There used to be a kid in my high school who had Tourette’s; nice guy, actually, but he’d shout and yell uncontrollably in the library, at events, in class. I’d be quite a major asshole for calling out Tourette’s sufferers.
Children are HUMAN BEINGS. They’re people; more to the point, they are people who have very particular needs. They’re not animals or irritations or impositions upon you, they’re fellow members of society, and when you/Captain C were kids you yelled and screamed sometimes, too, and please spare me the “kids are worse today” bullshit, because they aren’t.
I don’t doubt there are some parents out there who let their kids go nuts in places they shouldn’t (e.g. the movies) or to unreasonable extents, but come on. Even the OP said it was at best 2-3 minutes of crying. How often, really, does this happen, versus the number of times you’ve seen ADULTS act diruptively? I mean, I can’t believe some of the bullshit people are spewing. Look at this:
Gosh, ya think? There was once a day when it was unimaginable to bring a child on an airplane? That’s simply a lie; you’re telling me when Carol Stream was a kid nobofy ever brought children on airplanes? The only way that was “unimaginable” when Carol Stream was a kid is if Carol is so old that they didn’t have airplanes then. Who could say something like that with a straight face?
Nobody EVER brought kids shopping, to places like bookstores? What a gigantc pile of bullshit.
You child haters have real issues.
I never said I think children should be allowed to behave poorly in public. I never said I think all parents should take their two year olds to Le Fancy French Restaurant and allow them to act like hellions. I don’t think kids should act like hellions at McDonalds; my kids certainly don’t. HOWEVER it is completely stupid to say that a baby fussing in a store is the same as an adult walking in and screaming at the top of their lungs. For one thing, people, this is a store, one where children are welcome. It’s not a library, where people are studying. They both have books, yes, but there is a difference. If the story was about a toddler who had run around tossing books off the shelves, and generally causing a ruckus, I would be one of the first people to say it was awful and the kid should be taken out of the store. And as for the OP, I think that perhaps (I wasn’t there, so I can’t say for certain) but perhaps, the baby was allowed to make too much of a fuss before it’s mother picked it up to comfort it. But, to take this minor incident, and use it to say that kids have no place in public until they are six is so stupid… I can’t believe there are people here defending it.
I can’t stand adults who think everyone has to accommodate their desire to go through life without ever being bothered by a young child. There are LOTS of places and situations where babies and young children are out of place. But Borders, in the middle of the day, ain’t one of them. And if listening to a baby fuss for a minute upsets you so greatly, maybe *you *are the one who shouldn’t leave the house, because I’ll let you know, stores like parents. And they like kids. Even bookstores. Maybe even especially bookstores, because parents spend a whole lot of money on books for their kids. That’s why they have whole areas set aside for kids to play, at least mine does.
Why do you feel its reasonable to say young kids (and parents, by default) aren’t allowed out of the house? Can’t you see what an asshole you sound like?
Thank you. I was going to try and make a point comparing children to women, but you beat me. I appreciate it, since apparently I’ve come off as a loon.
I wasn’t defending Captain_C’s statement, only making a comment about the disconnect I felt existed in misselizabeth’s statement making the comparison that she did. I don’t think that was an accurate comparison.
Please read all of my posts, particularly #92, that says some of the same, reasonable things you’ve said. Once you’ve done so, to say I’m intolerant of kids is way out of line.
I, in fact, love kids and regret that I won’t ever have any, even ones that would dare cry in public.
That’s your opinion. I say they are MUCH different than even 20 years ago. And 30-40 years ago? Much,Much different 
I’m 39 and no way was I or my sisters ever allowed to run around in any store like I see many of these kids do nowadays.
I can’t tell you how many times I also see unattended children in public as well. Then you see stories of abductions on the news and you wonder how THAT happens :rolleyes:
I have a sibling who is 20 years younger than myself. I half raised her and she never, ever had a tantrum. She didn’t cry or wail in public. She listened and stayed by my side. Mom told me that my other sister and I were the same way. I guess that was luck?
Oh yes, children behave much differently now than years ago.