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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that Waitrose cafe is not the place

174 replies

pussycatwillum · 14/08/2013 12:45

to start singing Old MacDonald to your baby?
DH and I went for our free coffee in Waitrose this morning and first of all we were near a woman who was loudly talking to her child about CAKE. 'Mummy likes CAKE. Daddy likes CAKE' etc. So we moved to let her get on with it without an audience.
Then a woman with a small baby in a first size carseat started singing Old MacDonald. I didn't see the baby, only the seat, but surely singing in a cafe is inappropriate.
Or am I just showing what a Grumpy Old Woman I am?
I've still got it in my head as an earworm and it was over an hour ago!

OP posts:
Pobblewhohasnotoes · 14/08/2013 13:38

YABU, shush.

SirChenjin · 14/08/2013 13:39

If I go to a cafe I want to sit and chat quietly, I do not want to hear some over-earnest parent belting out Old MacDonald (or anything else for that matter). What did she want, an audience and a medal for the Best Parent in the Cafe?

YANBU

BumbleChum · 14/08/2013 13:41

YABU, unless she was doing an operatic version.

MikeOxard · 14/08/2013 13:43

Yabu! It's a supermarket café, Mums will take their babies into it and might have a little sing. Alright it was waitrose, maybe she should've been singing Mr McDonald Senior had a large estate, but mostly yabu.

WentOnABearHunt · 14/08/2013 13:48

Children should be seen and not heard. how dare someone interact with their child in public, talking, singing, being HAPPY??? No, it just wont do.

God forbid if the child itself starts making noise.... perhaps it would have been better to have shoved a fruit shoot in the buggers mouth to keep it quite whist the mother ignored it by messing with her phone. sigh

Just have your coffee at home.

SirChenjin · 14/08/2013 13:54

There's interacting, and then there's INTERACTING

YouTheCat · 14/08/2013 13:59

Exactly, Sir Chenjin.

No one expects anyone's children to be silent or says that children shouldn't be chatted with.

But I don't want a café turning into an extension of CBeebies.

everlong · 14/08/2013 14:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

HandMini · 14/08/2013 14:00

Unless she was belting it out, top volume, through an amp with a tambourine, YABU.

Perhaps a bit of mindless babble/singing keeps her baby from screaming the place down....what would you rather? Oh, that she didn't have a coffee at all?

MoosheKoochak · 14/08/2013 14:02

My baby loves singing. Talking quietly and cuddling just wouldn't cut it. So, OP, it wasn't my baby but if it had been you would have had two options: Old MacDonald or some serious screaming. Which would you have preferred?

YouTheCat · 14/08/2013 14:02

Why can't people just talk to their kids? Why does it have to turn into a sodding performance?

HandMini · 14/08/2013 14:05

Why can't people just talk to their kids? Why does it have to turn into a sodding performance

I don't think it is a sodding performance. A normal level rendition of Old Macdonald would be much easier to take than a mobile phone ringing followed by someone yapping on and on about their curtains or whatever.

Of course everyone should follow the usual rules of public nicety - ie, try not to get on other people's tits, but just because its singing doesn't automatically make it less acceptable than talking.

YouTheCat · 14/08/2013 14:07

But if it's that low level I wouldn't even register it. The fact that it is loud enough to make me roll my eyes means it's a performance.

LaurieFairyCake · 14/08/2013 14:08

You just know in Asda it would have been "Slap my bitch up" Grin

YouTheCat · 14/08/2013 14:08

Also, I'd put people having loud phone conversations in cafés on my list of minor annoyances too.

I really am a grumpy sod. Grin

SirChenjin · 14/08/2013 14:09

Agree YouTheCat.

We all sing to our children, we all talk to our children (or we should do), but many of us manage to raise perfectly articulate, intelligent children without the need for the CONSTANT INTENSE PERFORMANCE PARENTING. You may find your child fascinating, but other people round about you find their companions just as fascinating and don't really want to have to listen to your constant barrage of PP.

Original poster
pussycatwillum · 14/08/2013 14:09

The baby wasn't crying or making any noise before the performance started.
Some of these replies have really made me Grin
I did pay for food as well as the free coffee, just in case you're worried about Waitrose profit margins.

OP posts:
hazeyjane · 14/08/2013 14:10

Wtf is wrong with singing to a baby or chatting to your child about cake, ffs!

SirChenjin · 14/08/2013 14:10

The baby wasn't crying or making any noise before the performance started.

Now why does that not surprise me in the slightest Grin

Pigsmummy · 14/08/2013 14:11

YABU

Thumbwitch · 14/08/2013 14:14

YAB grumpy. It could have been so much worse - could have been singing something like Beyoncé. Or perhaps not, in Waitrose.

YouTheCat · 14/08/2013 14:15

Maybe something from Carmen then, Thumbwitch? Grin

MelanieCheeks · 14/08/2013 14:16

"And on that farm he had some organic rare-breed sheep, e-i-e-i-o"

Join in, everyone!

Original poster
pussycatwillum · 14/08/2013 14:23

Love the idea of 'The wheels on the Range Rover...'

OP posts:
fluffyraggies · 14/08/2013 14:24

But how loud OP ?

Was it louder than normal chatting volume?

I think it's poss to sing gently to a baby without folk at a nearby table being able to hear it clearly.