It's not.
People in the coffee shop are not looking at your children with an indulgent smile, unless they (the people, not the children) are concussed (although they might be more inclined toward an indulgent smile were your children concussed). They are wondering, in increasing frustration, whether you were raised in a barn, and if you weren't, whether you have, for that reason, committed to raising your children in a barn.
There are ways to placate children. If all of them fail, remove the child. Your bad parenting and stubborn children are not sufficient reasons to bother everyone else in the building.
It is actually not emotionally crippling or controlling to demand that your child not be a deafening terror. It is good preparation for later life, if he wants a job that is not "reality television star."
2 comments:
Oh, heaven forbid they should damage the little brat's psyche. It would destroy his self-esteem, you see.
I have a child. Most of the time he's wonderful. Sometimes he's not. At those times, I brave the tantrum I know he's going to throw while we're getting him out the door, apologize to whomever I am in earshot of, and leave. It's not harming him, it's teaching him that he cannot behave in such a manner in a public space.
That said, anyone calling my child a brat within hearing range while this is happening will probably get cussed out.
Because unless I'm allowed to call out your impoliteness to your face (which we all have--whether it's your loud conversation with your equally irritating friend or your insistence on singing along with the Christmas music or your inability to say thank you when I hold the door open for you) you are similarly expected to endure momentary irritation and still act like an adult.
Post a Comment