Posted on 08/15/2006 6:24:16 AM PDT by steve-b
For Cindy Nooney's 3-year-old twin boys, playing with the Thomas the Train set at their local bookstore in Southern California is a major thrill. Jack and Sam push Thomas, Arthur and friends down the track, they run around the table, jump up and down — and, of course, they squeeeaal.
Nooney expects as much in the children's section of the store. But on a recent afternoon, she was surprised by an employee who confronted her, calling her darling Jack a tyrant.
"He was a little loud but this is a children's section," says Nooney. "They run a noisy, cavernous bookstore but they don’t want kids to make any noise? It just seems ridiculous and leads me to believe that they don't want kids, they want silent kids."
The bookstore is not the only place that likes quiet, controlled children — and isn't afraid to say so. Across the nation, there are signs of a low-burning uprising against children supposedly behaving badly in public.
Eateries from California to Massachusetts have posted signs on doors and menus saying "We love children, especially when they are tucked in chairs and well behaved" or "Kids must use indoor voices." In North Carolina an online petition was started last year to establish child-free restaurants — the petition loosely compared dining with children to dining with cigarette smoke....
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
He left home last week to start his second year at college. I'll go dry my tears now.
I think it is a little of both...like most things. Partly natural hardwired personality types and partly upbringing.
Some children have an easier time with some types of limits, and others have a difficult time with other limits.
Just like adults! The point in my estimation is that you don't dump the limits just because they are harder for some people to learn.
I always say that I was the perfect parent before I had kids, a decent parent when I had one child and didn't know a thing by the time the second came a long.
My two children are extremely different, and event the way I punish them has to be different. I do a LOT more praying now than I used to, which can only be a good thing.
I did omit the threat. I didn't say how I'd stop the kid.
If the world worked that way, every international problem would be solved as soon as the UN got around to passing a corresponding resolution.
disagree, and I noted, from the descriptives from the article I assume it's an anti-straight insult.
Breeders
Collective term for straight people,very derogatory term usually used by lesbians who are fed up with breeders using the word 'gay' in derogatory context.
But yours don't kick over and over and over and over.
And you try to do something about it.
That makes you NOT the kind of parent we're complaining about.
As for my situation, I merely made eye contact. Whether she chose to feel intimidated was her lookout.
If she had even once said, "Stop kicking," I would have kept my mouth shut. There was an absolute abdication of parental control, and I wasn't gonna put up with that, and I still won't.
>>:if I go into a book store and the decible level is too high, I leave
By By,
That's why it was in a children's section.
That's the correct answer. You are right that kids cannot contain themselves and cannot be expected to contain themselves. That's why they shouldn't be put into situations where that might be a problem.
If you want fine dining, leave the kids with a babysitter. If you want to eat out with your kids, eat at Chuck-E-Cheese's. Everybody's happy.
I'm a she type.
And I'm not "proud" of what I said. I merely share it as an anecdote, much as other posters have shared their stories.
My harrumphing, commenting to my seatmate about the brat kicking my seat, and glares at brat and mother would have been sufficient for a normally observant parent.
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| "I find the better ones are usually the ones who remember where their bread is buttered." Amen to that. While I'm the first to tell a lawyer joke, especially while in the company of several attorneys, I'm also the first to admit they are worth their weight in gold and I have found myself time and time again to be deeply indebted to their help. |
Why do little kids glare like that? One of my nieces is great at looking at me like she wants to eat me. Her twin sister has never given me that look. (Maybe my sister is feeding one and not the other.)
You are correct. At one time it was an insult used exclusively by homosexuals directed against all heterosexuals, but by the mid 1990s at the latest, the term had morphed into a putdown (BNP, breeder not parent) directed against people who let their kids run wild. It is by no means an exclusively homosexual/lesbian slang term any more, and many of the heterosexual people using it may not even be aware that , prior to 1990, it was "gay slang".
My daughter works at a popular family restaurant in Downtown Disney. People come in from a day at the park with their tired kids and let them just run everywhere. My daughter almost lost her hold on a full tray of drinks when a 3 year old ran right into her.
She said that even when you are polite and ask people to mind their children for their own safety, they take offense. Some will even complain to a manager about the rude server. Usually, after messing up the table floor and general area around their table they just get up, leave the mess and of course - no tip.
I used to get that when I worked at a grocery store. The kids would stare and stare. I would usually scowl right back at them and they'd go flying under their mother's skirt *LOL* The other time this kid was behaving so bad, I mean out of control. The mother turned her back so I reached over and growled 'you'd better shut up or I'll box your ears'. That kid was quiet the whole time hehehehe.
I always say that I was the perfect parent before I had kids
This is sooo true. I was quite judgemental before I had kids. I think that is partly why I TRY to live by the standards I expected before I was a parent. Which is not easy, probably impossible. I find it interesting for my friends who have had kids 6-7 years after I did - there is a humbling that takes place in each of us parents. I try not to be so quick to judge. (But, the destructive thing really gets under my skin).
I sorta like the low-spoken threat. That way, you still have plausible deniability if the kid accuses you of saying something mean to him. "I don't know what he's talking about. I didn't say anything. I was clearing my throat."
Thank you.
Yeah hehehe!
LOL, I bet my next door neighbor wonders what the heck I'm laughing at.
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