The obsession with children being loud in public and disturbing others...

I do think some people are just intolerant and mean-spirited where children are concerned, and on MN in particular there's a lot of posturing and manufactured outrage.

I agree.

British are famous for loathing children. They must exist only as silent mini adults.

I think some people get themselves very het up about it and as a result notice every little noise a child makes when they wouldn't notice eg a braying man being equally noisy.

I dont like children making a lot of noise in some places as I said earlier. I dont like adults making an undue amount of noise either. If I can hear what you are saying and I am not sat at your table, you or your party are too loud.

Only a couple of times on a train. I'm stressed when I'm travelling anyway, the whole thing is a sensory overload, and I remember a couple of instances of feeling quite desperate being trapped in a carriage with a really ear splitting child.

Generally speaking children don't annoy me. I enjoy seeing and hearing them chat and play, I approve of them being out and about learning how to be in a range of different spaces, and I don't bosom-hoik about iPads etc; it's not really a very intrusive sound, in the context of the general low hubbub of a restaurant or a train carriage. I do think some people are just intolerant and mean-spirited where children are concerned, and on MN in particular there's a lot of posturing and manufactured outrage.

I've heard babies while eating, but thankfully they directed their crying at their parent rather than interrupting me with it.

That would depend on the other cultures and upon the situation.

People love to bash the Brits on Mumsnet, especially when it comes to children, but they'll rarely state where they're from themselves.

I have a theory that people who worry too much about noisy kids only go (with their kids) to places where there are lots of noisy kids, which confirms to them that kids are noisy. If you only go to nice places (and take your kids) you don't experience it, and your kids don't learn to run around screaming because they don't see other kids doing it.

Well I have 2 children and I don't experience this regularly 🤷‍♀️

Yanbu

I've also never experienced "running and screaming" in a restaurant. In a soft play, yes. Not in a restaurant though.

You’ve never had a nice lunch interrupted by a screaming baby? It’s very annoying when you’re spending ££ for a treat and trying to relax.

Children making noises, generally no, I tune it out. I don't think I've ever been in a place where a child was loud enough to be obnoxious. Kids can't really help being loud to a certain extent.

Watching videos or playing loud games, I'm sorry yes, that does bother me, because can be avoided with headphones and the considerate thing to do is have them with you so sounds don't disturb others. Repeated game noises or squeaky cartoon voices are very grating when it's something you're not watching and you're in an enclosed space and they're hard to tune out.

Rarely ever see kids running around nor do I see many children screeching as much as some posters seem to in restaurants but there are usually adults talking too loud even when there is no music to try to talk above the times I’ve gone.

Book the "quiet carriage" on the train and then have a mum with 2 very, very noisy children sit opposite you. For 3 hours.

I agree OP, some people seem very intolerant of kids being kids, we were all kids!

Where the hell are these restaurants? I live in a very family friendly bit of London with people from all walks of life and eat out a couple of times a week. I've just never encountered a kid running and screaming. I'm not British and get the impression that kids aren't as loved here as in other cultures.

Do you have children?

Presuming not, you're probably going to civilised places without feral children. There are plenty of feral children. My local wanky overpriced gastropub has just named all children because certain parents let them run riot in the garden and / or inside.

When mine were small I would have been very pissed off that my time off was ruined by other children.

I've never really encountered this either, OP. I think some people get themselves very het up about it and as a result notice every little noise a child makes when they wouldn't notice eg a braying man being equally noisy.

Your eyes don't see anyone running around and your ears don't hear actual screaming, simply because some others are talking loud?

How odd.

Well aren’t you lucky, @floweplantpot , that you’re not sensitive to unpredictable high pitched noise. Lots of other people obviously aren’t either, given how many people don’t make any effort to stop their children shrieking and screaming.

There's a thread at the moment where the OP describes her own child as, "running loops around the restaurant cackling at the top of their lungs" 🤷‍♂️

For me it’s hard to notice the kids when there are adults talking very loudly for seemingly no reason.

Doesn’t happen that often but I have encountered it. And I’m a teacher so my tolerance for child noise is quite high.
Was particularly noticeable on holiday abroad with one particular family who had their 5 year old sat at the dinner table with who knows what blaring from the iPad whilst the child sat staring at it. Have been distrusted on several occasions with feral children in restaurants.

Doesn’t happen often. Normally if we go for a pub meal which we tend to avoid mostly.

I did go to homebargains though and there was a child making rather loud screeching noises in a rhythm but I presumed said child probably had Sen as it wasn’t screaming sounds or a tantrum.

We had a baby sitting next to us on the plane when we went on our last holiday. He didn’t make a murmur.

However, a couple of years ago the whole plane missed the pilot’s announcement that we might have to divert to a different airport because a child of about 4 was making so much noise that no one could hear anything. He was sitting with his grandparents and his parents, who were sitting about 4 rows behind, kept shouting “X will you be quiet…? X you’re sitting here in a minute.” It was bloody ridiculous and more their fault than his. I’ve never been so glad to get off a plane in my life.