To arrange to descend on my local Starbucks with an army of toddlers after being told to keep my one year old laughing child quiet in there today by miserable manager?

[Elsmom]

I would understand if I was letting him run riot but he was sitting lovely (for once!) and laughing!

I think it's ok to take children out, but it pisses me off when these mothers start changing poopy nappies on my table right next to my frappaccino, and leaving the kids behind the count next to the coffee machine while they lie down on the sofas with their other mummy friend's smoking joints and drinking gin.
ENTITLED,

Sooty... Who is invading anyone's personal space? You people are just making things up along with your pathetic assumptions based in nothing!

If you find a baby waving at you and saying bye bye an invasion of your space then yes you are clearly a miserable git.

I was completely on your side until the bus thing. I smile, wave, pull funny faces etc, etc at babes but now after that post I believe your boy was squawking which is just horrid, whether your kid or not.

And you clearly expect your little DS to be the centre of attention, and admiration from all around, if you can't see that people not wanting to wave at small children in a public place aren't all miserable gits.

Thanks to those who have sent sensible responses and actually listened to what I have said and goodbye to those who have got completly the wrong end of the stick and make ridiculous assumptions. I'm out of here to write to head office!

Oh dear God. Expect their child to be the centre of attention just because someone noticed a small child's attempts at interacting and integrating into the society into which they were born is completely ignored? Seriously?

Yes. Why not. Let's teach children that it's wrong to show any basic politeness. In fact, why don't we teach them that excepting basic kindness and politeness is completely wrong. Let's show them just how miserable and entitled people can be. And when we're all old and infirm and we can barely feed ourselves and our bowels don't work so well anymore and we need help with that, when our bodies revert to an almost baby-like state and we become dependant, or even when we're just in need of some basic human interaction, some basic pleasantness, let's see how today's children respond.

But I'm sure we will all expect today's children to treat us with basic decency and kindness.

Quite a leap from not wanting to wave to a toddler on a bus to being doomed to a life of incontinence, happy.

Kindness and politeness has nothing to do with people not interacting with a child

some people do not it does not mean they are rude they may feel awkward doing so of just rather not there could be many reasons

I never felt when ds did not receive a wave back he was being ignored I felt a little sorry for him at times but he did not seem to care he

I think it's a bit rich OP to complain about others not reading what you said when you have done just that. My reference to invading space was my answer to your question about whether you would ignore an adult who came up and talked to you. I never referred to babies invading people's personal space. I merely pointed out that no one is obliged to respond to unsolicited contact.

I mean in smiling/waving engaging with young children

"off to write to head office"
oh dear god

Will you be telling head office that you admit to encouraging your son to be louder after the manager complained?

Bowlerslam - your post was heavy with derision, not merely not waving back at a baby, but derision and plain unpleasantness. And quite a leap you made about the OP clearly expecting her child to be the centre of the universe - hyperbolic I'd say. However, a significant number of us will need long term care as we age - that isn't a leap at all.

So happy I assume you have now noted that I did not refer to babies invading personal space?

Plain unpleasantness? It's not me who's going round calling people miserable gits.

Dear lord the ice machines at Starbucks are roughly the volume of a jet taking off. Your child would have to have been shrieking non-stop for the length of a Frappucino to be even audible.

If you wouldn't tell an adult off for laughing too loud then you shouldn't tell a child off for the same.

I don't get the "mass descent" thing. Have seen it done when cafe staff have tried to tell women not to breastfeed there. It's not much of a protest if you all go there and spend loads of money on coffee and cake even if you are feeding babies or making them laugh at the same time. A better protest would be to go to Costa or the nearest independent cafe and buy tons of food for yourselves and all the laughing babies.

I m sorry but anybody who thinks that somebody saying a friendly hello, starting a comversatipn or engaging in a perfectly polite way is invading their personal space is not what I would class as a polite nice person. If you engaged with somebody and was completly blanked I think you would have the right to consider that person miserable! Whatever people think of babies or toddlers they are part of our society and have the right to be present in public places whether you like it or not. I'm not complaining that people don't come up and go wild with excitement over him, I understand they aren't everyone's cup of tea, that's fine but when people actively go out their way to be rude I will consider them rude and miserable! It's a good job that raising a child takes a village saying doesn't apply here

I never referred to babies invading personal space.

I don't think it's rude to politely disengage from an adult trying to make conversation with you when you'd rather be left in peace.

And I don't recall anyone saying that babies had no right to be out in public.

So who's making stuff up now?

That was how it read, sooty I'm afraid. Perhaps you should have been more specific? But now that I fully understand exactly what you meant yes, actually, an adult addressing you in a polite manner shouldn't be a problem should it? If they persist when you have been polite back but in that way that we are all able to read as 'please go away now' then yes, that becomes a problem.

In general and under 'normal' circumstances, no, I would not just completely ignore an adult who politely engaged me in some way. To do so is rude.

The people on the bus didn't go out of their way to be rude, op, they were just people with their own lives and things to think about and your little ray of sunshine simply didn't register, you know?

If they'd given him the two fingered salute, now, that would have been unnessessarily rude; but they didn't.
You really do expect him to be the centre of attention; but to most people other people's kids are just that; other people's kids.