Well, I imagine the title got a lot of attention, but all is not what it seems.
I took my three grown up (all in 30's) out for an early Sunday Brunch at a lovely local (very rustic) village country restaurant, where you don't "book". We were seated and ordered and just waiting and chatting. A large group of adults, all seemingly having one child each came in with a huge number of buggies, bags, bottles, toys, - etc etc and demanded (and it was a demand, not a polite request) that the young girls serving made major re-organisation of what was the "main" room by moving 4, 4 seater tables and chairs together in a long line. This caused a fair bit of noise and commotion, and jogging of people already eating. The large and rather angry looking man, who seemed to be in charge "oversaw" the complete re-arrangement of the restaurant for his party. At one point, my son was jogged quite heavily by him, as he pushed past and shoved his chair, so my son simply very gently pushed "our table" a little bit further out of his way, and shuffled his chair further in under our table, in a completely passive way to give them yet more space. The "man in charge" (now known as MIC glowered at all four of us, as though we had done the OPPOSITE, and tried to "re-claim" breathing space. Finally all seated, parents order. Out comes about 5 packed lunches, drinks already in their own beakers, and a very demonstrative display of "we have brought our own food" with most of the adults very clearly "surveying everyone in the restaurant" for their reactions. Out came noisy wooden toys, which were slammed constantly on the table .. again MIC "surveying everyone else seemingly SEARCHING for any sign of a negative reaction!" None of the adults chatted to each other, nor seemed pleased to be having an outing, but were just constantly surveying everyone else in the room - it was very weird indeed! Lots of other families out with their small children, enjoying their outing, and we four adore children, and are absolutely not the sort of "tutters" you hear about. I made the mistake of innocently and distractedly glancing over when a 3-year old (ish) started screaming his head off, it was a momentary 2 second glance... I swear! MIC then glowered at me with a very intimidating expression for ages and ages... (and ages) actually "turning" his chair to face me. It was awful, and I completely lost my appetite. We felt so intimidated, that we hurried up and left. Surely, SURELY, this was some kind of "social experiment?" I even tried to smile, (albeit probably weakly) at MIC, which made his expression even angrier! What do you all think? We definitely were not imagining it, as this was happening to other guests who were being "scanned" by MIC ! Do let me have your thoughts, or perhaps I will read about this "social experiment" in the newspapers next week, perhaps?