AIBU this young mother should have thought a little harder about what toys to take to the library?

[Morgause]

Local studies department of the library all is quiet as people researching their families, local history or looking through old newspapers make quiet notes. The only sound is the hushed whispered request to the librarian. It's always like that there - a little oasis of peace and tranquillity in the middle of a big city.

Enter young mum with small child clad all in pink. Small child is very loud and questioning (but very cute). Eyebrows are raised all around. A shudder of disapproval meanders its way around the gathering. Mum explains loudly to small person that she needs to look at some things in the old newspapers. Small person not impressed (loudly). Neither are crusty researchers.

"I won't be very long", I've bought you some toys to play with. Sighs of relief all round.

Mum roots round in large bag and produces a xylophone. Small child accompanies herself to a rousing chorus of "Winkle, winkle ickle star" several times without once hitting the right note.

The sense of outrage was palpable. I left before the drum came out.

I found it quite amusing but I guess people who'd travelled a long way probably didn't. I can't help but think some books and dolls may have been a better choice than a xylophone.

Of course YANBU - people who are saying 'libraries aren't all quiet places anymore' need to go back and re-read. This wasn't toddler music session, or even toddler story time, it was a place for people to work / research. There's a big difference.

lots of parents feel the world should revolve around their kids and we should all smile sweetly as they let them create havoc be 'high spirited' and ' free'

they are outraged when you point out that children need to be told no sometimes.

mum sounds a dimbo. anyway can't you look up old newspapers in the net?

I would have left due to being in fits of hysterics!

YANBU though. A xylophone is a ridiculous choice of toy to take to a library.

To be fair it was the 'local studies' part of the library not the children's corner or even the general library.
People were trying to concentrate

I really wasn't sneering. I was relating an amusing incident that happened today. If the child had been wearing red I would have said so. I really don't get why some people are being so snotty.

Children and relatives of children have as much right to exist in public as you do. You and the other library patrons sound like awful snobs.

It could have been worse, it could have been a kazoo!
still gibbering as I remember taking a toddler and very newborn to Ikea only to realise I didn't have a pushchair, I spilt a big coke in the caraway I'd carried the baby in in, there were no seats on the café, it was half term and they'd given out kazoos to all the children
Today at a very busy paediatric clinic there were several scooters.

Oh for goodness sake!

The OP described what she saw/heard. That's all.

And the mother was a pain!

Children and relatives of children have as much right to exist in public as you do. You and the other library patrons sound like awful snobs.

Children shouldn't be able to always infringe on others' spaces. This was not the children's section FHS!

I can recommend Thus Spake Zarathustra (2001 A Space Odyssey theme) on a kazoo, a recorded version of which does exist and which my husband has requested be played at his funeral.

If you can find it on YouTube do give it a listen.

I recommend

There's a time and a place for small children and musical instruments and in the archives section isn't it.

children have a right to exist in public true as long as that existing isn't a pain in the arse to everyone in the vicinity.

Dear, dear! You do realise that you've discriminated against current news outlets by referring to old newspapers, don't you? And what's all this about local? Honestly, OP, how to alienate visitors from the wider community!!

And small!! Everyone knows that they are vertically challenged, surely!

Really, OP, 0 out of 10 for political correctness! I'll give you 10 for the story itself though once I've desensitised myself to the professionally offensive bits

Thanks, Tanith . It's a local studies centre for local people.

What a load of miserable old nit-pickers you are! OP was telling a funny story and all you could do was scan it for un-pc language so you could be outraged.

By the time I was two I had my own library ticket and never looked back, so clearly having to be quiet and considerate didn't 'put me off' books and reading, quite the opposite, it made the library a special place and books something to be treasured. It's great that they have story hour and puppet shows and all that now, I'm all for encouraging people into libraries, but children should be taught that sometimes people just want to read in peace.

Whatever, but it's balls to say 'I was just setting the scene', because the child wearing something pink has knack all to do with 'the scene'. It is clear what's being implied there, and it's highly disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

Nobody says 'vertically challenged'; that's nonsense made up by people who want to make the actually pretty sensible and laudable aims of political correctness - not to offend unnecessarily and to think twice about what you say - seem ridiculous.

Does it really matter if the OP, the mother, the girl or the librarian's mate conform to gender stereotypes through the medium of wearing pink?

The point of the bleeding story is that a madwoman thought a xylophone was an appropriate toy for the quiet bit of a library. And clearly, she was wrong. Clearly, she should have thought it through.

what colour clothes was the young mum wearing? what sort of shoes? was she wearing ugg boots or sketchers? What sort of buggy was it - what section of old newspapers was she looking at?? these things are important, i m trying to create a mental picture

FFS is it 'Pick apart the OPs post night!' on MN tonight?

I love how you managed to capture the atmosphere in your post OP, made me smile anyway. Some people really need to lighten up.

The specific atmosphere that is created by a child in pink?
I don't really have a problem with it being given as a detail - and as OP says, it's there to create atmosphere. And, given that specified reason, it's fundamentally disingenuous and dishonest to say that it's purely incidental and doesn't mean anything. If it means nothing, it's not creating atmosphere. Unless you're doing extreme verisimilitude and detailing everything, even the stuff that is not relevant, like a man was looking at his buttons, it is there for a reason.

That's so funny. When my son was little he chose a library to let out a series of explosive and very smelly farts.

Performance Parenting at its worst. Always the musical bloody instruments. Anyone remember the recorder on the train thread?

I don't really care what she said the child was wearing, it's why she felt the age of the mum was so relevant she not only put it in the riveting story but also in the thread title.

But hey, maybe I'm just oversensitive because in the last two days I've had three separate incidents of having my bump, and then myself, glared at like I've stormed up to them and demanded the money to raise my child personally, because I'm baby-faced so clearly I'm a young irresponsible parent who will take my child's Fisher Price Orchestra Kit to the library with me.

hormones will be the death of me