The_Original_Roxtar: LadyHawke: The writer specifically said the kid wasn't crying or anything like that... just looked like he could be cranky. So I think the slapper is the douche in this case.

Cagey B: bronyaur1: The guy whose kid was annoying everyone else is a selfish dick.

The kid wasn't even crying. The aggressor here is both an irrational asshole and a cowardly douchebag for running away when the rest of the customers turned on him.

tfa: "the baby kept crying"

i don't know what you guys are reading, but it certainly isn't the linked article.

LandOfChocolate: Great Janitor: Children who scream and fuss in public annoy me. Parents who allow it to happen and get angry when others express their annoyance piss me off.

Last month I was at the zoo (right before the weather got cold, last good weekend to visit the zoo). My wife and I were in line for lunch at the Burger King at the zoo. Behind us was a woman and her kid, who wasn't even four years old, was playing with her little brother near the counter right below the pick up section. One couple almost tripped over the kids, the mother lowered her cell phone and yelled at the couple, threatening to hang up on her friend and call the cops to report these two apparent child molesters.

A few more people picked up their food and then I saw it happen. The little girl, being chased by her brother, not watching where she was going, ran right into some dude. Not expecting this, he dropped his tray, spilling the food on this tray, the food for both he and his family. The girl was covered in soda and french fries, almost laughable. This man was not happy. The mother of the girl instantly got onto her high horse, proclaimed that HE was in the wrong because he wasn't watching out, knowing that HER children were playing and they had the right to play in that area and who was he to demand so much an apology, let alone the demands he made that she buy the lunch for he and his family that her little girl ruined.

The manager did what the woman refused to do, and gave the man replacement food. As for the woman and her children, security escorted them out. Something about her refusal to control her children being a potential risk to the animals. I didn't hear it too clearly. The cheers of her being escorted out were rather loud.

Security? At Burger King?

I'm calling bullshiat on this.

Any Pie Left: I don't go to Starbucks... but some weekends, it is really hard to concentrate in church because some idiot parent is letting their kid run wild without ANY reaction or remonstrance or corrective action. I can't keep my mind on God except to wish he'd hurl some lighting up that parent's ass and make them do their duty. I'm not asking for much: when it's a baby, you bring along a bottle to shut it up when it's hungry, or you pick it up and hold it if it needs comforting, or you leave it alone if it is sleeping, and you time feedings so it is less likely to fill the diaper during the service. These things are not hard to do.

When they are older, you start teaching them that it is God's House and we don't run around and climb on the furniture, we don't yell to test the acoustics in the middle of the sermon, we don't chew gum or wear hats or bother the people behind us trying to pray. We go potty beforehand and we are quiet unless we are praying or singing together. If we're bored, we have cloth books or a soft, SILENT squeeze toy to keep us busy. The older you are, the more you are expected to follow along with your family and participate in the service.

When you are a teen, you turn off the phones and ipods, you don't chew gum, you dress a notch above normal out of respect, and you don't show up late.

I was raised to worship this way, and I hold my kids to at LEAST this standard, makes me pissed when parents of other kids seem to pretend they are not there, don't hush them when they shout or make tantrums, or take them out and change them when they fill their diaper and cry because the poo burns. They let kids old enough to participate get away with playing games or coloring or doing anything but pay attention. And best of all these bad parents always choose to sit up front like attention whores, so their whole congregation has to be distracted by their shiat. When my kids were little, we sat in the back so I could take them out to the vestibule if I had to. As they got older and learned better behavior, we picked a row further and further forward. Why is stuff like this so hard for some parents to grok???

Rubberband Girl: FTFA - I have seen frequent out-of-control behavior there, but this child was not crying, just looking cranky, when I saw him and he was in the stroller.

Sounds like the slapper/"non-Dad" went a bit overboard.

I have seen loud/unruly children in the local Starbucks and elsewhere and all I can think is how my parents would've carried me outside and had a "talk" with me privately before returning. Is it really THAT hard to leave your latte unattended for a few minutes?

ace in your face: This is a slight diversion: OK so I went with my cousin and his wife to this movie one night. I feel like it was "master and commander" or something- not a kid movie at all. It started at 10pm. So I was looking around and I muttered something to them like " I can't believe how many of these people actually brought their children here!" And the wife was like "Why? when we have kids I am going to let them stay out late- especially if its something I want to do".

AMurderOfCrows: Speaking of movie-and-children horror stories, here's mine:

It's a late night date. Dawn of the Dead, for fark's sake. I just HAVE to go pee and I skip off to do so -- narrowly avoiding the four or five year old girl this couple has planted in the farking AISLE of the theater to play with her toys while mommy and daddy watch the movie.

(Yes, at 10 at night.)

I come back. It's the scene, you know -- where they first realize that the bit rise from the dead because that guy comes back? They'd never seen it get transmitted before. So all hell breaks loose on screen as I'm coming up the stairs, and Toddler Girl reacts by LEAPING toward the nearest adult passing her by trying to get to mommy and daddy in the aisle, and grabs my legs, sending me to the stairs.

Startled, I nearly kicked the kid in the face. They pry her off and were SMART ENOUGH not to start anything as I picked my ass up and limped to my boyfriend, and little girl is soon comforted and playing in the aisle a few minutes later.

In retrospect, I should have made a scene and had them ejected and scored recompense tickets or something. I'm meaner now.