AIBU to wonder where all the badly behaved children were?

[cariadlet]

I went out with dd and decided to treat us to lunch at a café. The one I chose is fairly big, known to be family friendly and all but 2 or 3 of the tables had families including children. There were a mixture of babies, toddlers and older children.

At one point I looked around and realised that every single child was sitting down (either on a normal chair, in a high chair or in a buggy). Moreover, every child was quiet. They were either eating (very nicely), chatting to the others on their table or doing something like playing with the toys or sticker books that their parents had had the foresight to bring with them.

Not one child was shouting or screaming (I wouldn't count a couple of minutes of crying from one of the babies), throwing food or running around the café.

That's not what I'd been lead to expect from some of the MN threads. Was I incredibly lucky or had I wandered into some strange parallel universe?

bettyberry - I have had people say the same thing!

The odd thing is that I think my children, on the whole, are pretty good.

My ds is 5 and disabled, he struggles with many things, but on the whole, with his ear phones and ipad, does pretty well - I hate it when there are threads bemoaning ipads in cafes, as having access to his, means that we can go out as a family.

His sisters are great and help a lot with him, last night we took them out for a meal to say thankyou for being such awesome big sisters to ds, they were lovely, and we chatted and had a reallyspecial (and calm!) evening.

But, you know sometimes, shit just goes down!

Oh, Betty, that's just awful of them. It says a lot more about them than you or your DS!
My DS last week decided to throw a tantrum about getting on the coach from the airport to our hotel. It was pretty late for him, other parents didn't say a thing, but the other 4 to nine year olds all sat on the coach with their mouths in little 'o's .
He's not a toddler any more, but does have quite a lot of anxieties about new situations.

betty

people can be nasty

having said that, we have some very good friends (one lot have 6 kids, the other have 3, we have 7) with whom we do say this to each other, BUT because it is mutual and true and we are in it together we just laugh about it.
and it is refreshing and easy to be with them, precisely because no one has the high horse from which to judge.
bliss!

My boy has anxiety & sensory processing... so even at 8 he can absolutely behave like a toddler (regressing to handle the situation I am told) I have had so much crap about it.

It does leave me absolutely stunned, however, when he sits and behaves. Usually with the help of ear defenders, a ds and plenty of things to chew on like carrots!