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We took our son who's a little over 2 to a bookstore with a cafe. Normally he's pretty good in public, and he wasn't that bad on this occassion. But he got a little testy after we sat down with our coffees and screamed a few times. We got dirty looks from a couple people, as if he/we shouldn't be there. I've been on the other side of this in year's past, and it can be annoying, but I never gave any looks or said anything because I was in public. This only happened a few times over a half hour or so. So it's not like he threw a 5 minute tantrum and we ignored it.

I know single people think if you can't keep the kid quiet, you should either stay home or take him somewhere noisy, but how am I supposed to teach him how to act in public if I don't take him out in public?

It's not just with kids either. God forbid you talk at a coffee shop when people are trying to study.

It's not just with kids either. God forbid you talk at a coffee shop when people are trying to study.

If they're in a public place they should expect SOME noise. If they want complete quiet stay at home or go to a library.

I agree that kids should be allowed to make noise in public places as long as that public place is big enough for me to be able to get away if I choose to.

However, if I'm sitting down at a restaurant or in a tiny store or something and I can't otherwise escape from a screaming baby that the parent does nothing to silence or move to a different location? That's probably my biggest pet peeve in the world. I have a particular sensitivity to certain pitches and if there's a screaming infant getting louder and louder with higher and higher pitch, I am literally in pain andit makes me want to strike the child, then the parents. Sorry, but it does(of course I would never do anything like that in reality).

A toddler going off wouldn't bother me as much, to relate it back to your situation, GR.

I'll be blunt. As long as your kid isn't screaming in my bar, I don't care where else he/she does scream or has a tantrum or even says "peep".

I'm not sure where the line is but I expect my daughter to act like she's in a public place when she's in a public place.
If we are on a flight for example, she cannot scream or run the aisles but we will certainly have a conversation if she feels like talking.

I used to think there should be "kid sections" at restaurants (like smoking sections) because the noises they made grated on me so badly.
Then I got some neices and now I can see what people "see" in kids that I never could before.

lukethedrifter wrote:I'm not sure where the line is but I expect my daughter to act like she's in a public place when she's in a public place.
If we are on a flight for example, she cannot scream or run the aisles but we will certainly have a conversation if she feels like talking.

That's pretty much where I stand. I have kids, but I don't think they get a free pass to yell, scream, throw a tantrum, etc., just because they're kids.