Woman's request to move away from crying baby in restaurant divides internet: 'No way!"
By Merryn Porter |
Once you have children, going out to a restaurant for a nice dinner becomes even more of a treat.
It's a chance to share some grown-up conversation and not have to worry if your child is doing the wrong thing or annoying other diners.
But a woman on a night out with her husband is wondering if she was wrong to move away from a crying baby after the mother went on the attack and her own sister thought she was in the wrong.
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The woman, who called herself Ok_Candy7966, took to Reddit's "Am I the A---hole" advice column last week to ask if she was wrong to tell a waiter she wanted to change tables because of a crying baby next to her.
The woman explained that she and her husband went out for dinner for the first time since their baby was born.
"It's my second child, the first for my husband, so it was kind of a big deal for us. We got a babysitter and we went to a very nice fancy restaurant," she explained.
She said a few minutes after they ordered, a couple with a small baby in a stroller were seated at the next table.
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"At first it was fine, but after a few minutes the baby started crying. They tried to comfort it, but every time it seemed they had managed to make it sleep, it woke up crying again," the woman said.
"By then we just wanted to leave, but we had already ordered so we decided to ask the waiter if we could change tables to the other side of the restaurant.
"The waiter asked if there was a problem and I said it was our first time out after having a baby and we didn't feel like spending our evening next to someone else's crying baby. He was super nice and quickly asked another waiter to help him set up the new table for us."
The woman added that another couple had also asked to be seated elsewhere, but things took a turn when the couple with the baby overheard her conversation with the waiter.
"The mum got upset and called me an a---hole. She went on and on saying that I probably don't have kids and that babies are also people and we should just accept that babies can be loud and cry and there's nothing she could do about it," she said.
"I didn't want to start a fight or anything but I got really annoyed by her attitude, so I told her that she could actually do something about the crying... she could take her baby home so it can properly sleep and then let everyone else there enjoy their meals."
The woman said the mother continued to rant "but I just ignored her, went to our new table and tried to have a nice dinner."
However, she was shocked when she told her sister what happened and she agreed "I might have been an a---hole" and shouldn't have asked to move or said anything to the other mother.
While the vast majority of Reddit users voted that she was in the wrong, many commenters disagreed.
"You have kids and got a babysitter. In what universe do you want to go to a fancy restaurant ANY time and listen to somebody else's crying baby at the next table? No way," said one.
"It's the fancy restaurant part that got me. When at a nicer place there is an expectation to have a certain atmosphere, and that doesn't include crying babies," said another.
Others made suggestions of how the parents of the crying baby could have better handled the situation.
"It's exhausting to see people keep using this 'they're just kids' line. Those parents should have removed themselves since they were the disruption," said one.?
"The most clever thing I ever saw at a local restaurant was parents ordering immediately for their kids and one parent. Then, when that meal arrives, they order the meal for the other parent. There is a free parent to help the kids with whatever they need during their meals and both parents get to eat in relative peace," said another. ?
Others suggested only taking very young children into restaurants during quiet or "dead times" ?to enjoy a meal or get children used to dining out without bothering others.
"This is what my parents did with us. We had nice dinners at home. Then as we got better and learned we got to go out more. If we started carrying on we would either leave early. My mum used to take us out to the car when we were really little for a time-out," said one.
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