A Woman Responds To "Screen Free Kids" Screaming In A Restaurant
The children's moms laughed as their kids shrieked.
Sometimes it feels like parents can’t win. If we let our kids watch screens in a restaurant, we’re judged for letting technology parent our kids. If we don’t use screens and our kids get loud or rambunctious in public, then we’re judged for not parenting perfectly.
Although... there’s a line.
And these moms found it.
Recently a mom posted footage from a recent meal out at a restaurant with a friend and their toddlers. Both kids are screaming at the top of their lungs, to the horror of the other guests (which include other moms). And the moms are laughing about it instead of making any attempt to get their children to quiet down or leave the area.
The caption reads, “Taking our screen free toddlers out to lunch.”
An actually sensible person, @tfay_10, stitched the video and she, like many people who saw the clip, had thoughts.
“So did we actually do anything, or did we just sit and let our kids continue to scream their heads off while other people are trying to enjoy their meal,” she asked of the two moms in the video.
“The worst part about this is that if another party had been seated near them and asked to move or left the restaurant entirely, [the mothers] would have seen it as an attack on their children and an attack on motherhood,” she continued. “When in reality, you’re just allowing your children to scream in public like it’s perfectly fine.”
She pointed out that this is a greater problem than these two women in a restaurant.
“I’ve been seeing all these videos on my For Your page from moms complaining about how there’s an attack on motherhood, like, ‘You’re entitled to a childfree life, but not a childfree world,’ and ‘Kids get to exist too.’ All of that is well and good and true, but the problem is videos like this one where you have parents who think it’s a joke and are clearly aren’t taking parenting seriously.”
Down in the comments, parents and non-parents alike agreed that the moms’ behavior was completely unacceptable — in fact, even a fellow mom in the video was giving them bombastic side-eye.
“When other moms are staring at you, you are the problem,” one person wrote to many up-votes.
“The snickering is so disrespectful,’ said another.
“Can we normalize self awareness again?” asked a third.
“Yes, kids can exist in the world, but it’s not unreasonable to ask them to be well-behaved and have manners,” another added.
Yes, kids are going to have tantrums, be loud, and misbehave in public — especially toddlers who are just learning how to get along in the world. But it’s our responsibility to parent them, teach them, and, if things get really out of hand, remove them from the situation. Don’t give parents (or kids) a bad name!
