Horrified at 7month old in pizza express with screen

[MadeinSW3]

I went for lunch today at pizza express, there was a couple giving their ?7month old a bottle with a screen propped up with something Disney to watch. They then plopped baby into high chair and put something else on during whole time at the stable. How can people be so stupid! The baby was looking around elsewhere for something more interesting.

[Tulipomania]

Does anyone remember Baby Einstein?

Videos, popular when my now adult DC were babies.

[Paperyfish]

Well, MY 10 month baby had to accompany me and her older siblings to pizza express the other week. She kept her self amused by doing the word search and colouring in the kid’s pack. She then ate her salad very delicately and crawled off to change her nappy and have a nap under the coat rack.


Oh, no wait, I remember- she screamed her self silly till she was given one of my olives ( which she hated) , ate/ dropped most of my margarita pizza, then enjoyed crawling under the table to look for floor snacks. She also nicked the cream off her big sisters chocolate brownie and massaged it in to her hair. On balance, I wish I’d taken a iPad!

[Billben]

You lost me at 7 months old 😂 Can you tell us how exactly do you know the baby was 7 months old?

[ancientgran]

We don't know their circumstances, we don't know if this is a one off. Just let people live their lives.

[JudgeJ]

When I saw this in the Trending column it cut out before the reference to screen and I expected to say that the baby was being fed pepperoni with extra cheese and a large Coke!

[Onatree]

On MN

It’s never “put” DC in a chair. It’s “plop”

It’s never “put/take DC to nursery” - it’s always “palm off”

It’s never “give” DC some fish fingers - it’s always “bung” them some “beige food”.

MN language always fascinates me.

[ancientgran]

@Paperyfish

Well, MY 10 month baby had to accompany me and her older siblings to pizza express the other week. She kept her self amused by doing the word search and colouring in the kid’s pack. She then ate her salad very delicately and crawled off to change her nappy and have a nap under the coat rack.

Oh, no wait, I remember- she screamed her self silly till she was given one of my olives ( which she hated) , ate/ dropped most of my margarita pizza, then enjoyed crawling under the table to look for floor snacks. She also nicked the cream off her big sisters chocolate brownie and massaged it in to her hair. On balance, I wish I’d taken a iPad!

You made me laugh. I remember those days but we didn't even have ipads. I say do what you can to get through the bad days.

[Chasingaftermidnight]

I'll bet a lot of the posters frothing at the mouth are doing the same thing. So many children are starting nursery with poor speech and still in nappies. No interaction as it interrupts them glued to their own phones.

Eh? You’re making things up. Children start nursery at all sorts of ages, anywhere between a few months old and 4 years old. Loads start at 1 or younger when their mothers return to work after maternity leave. It’s a fairly precocious 12 month old that’s out of nappies and conversing fluently.

[Cakeandcardio]

Have to say I agree with you. There's no need for kids to have screens. Engaging with your child helps them to learn, especially when they are young. They shouldn't be anaesthetised against the world with screens.

[EarringsandLipstick]

Yes, it’s down to then, but parents should actually bother with and interact with their children. Also how else are children supposed to learn how to behave at a restaurant?

I may agree. But I can only make this decision for my own DC. Not anyone else's

Which was the point of my response to your foul-mouthed rant

[joydivisionovengloves71]

@Paperyfish

Well, MY 10 month baby had to accompany me and her older siblings to pizza express the other week. She kept her self amused by doing the word search and colouring in the kid’s pack. She then ate her salad very delicately and crawled off to change her nappy and have a nap under the coat rack.


Oh, no wait, I remember- she screamed her self silly till she was given one of my olives ( which she hated) , ate/ dropped most of my margarita pizza, then enjoyed crawling under the table to look for floor snacks. She also nicked the cream off her big sisters chocolate brownie and massaged it in to her hair. On balance, I wish I’d taken a iPad!

Your ten month old was given an olive? I hope you cut it up? Then offered her pizza? Now I am horrified

[Wnkingawalrus]

What the fuck has it got to do with you OP?

[doorornottodoor]

That is bad!

I bet all the people that disagree on here so irately use screens themselves to keep their kids quiet in restaurants I mean “the you do you” etc…

[hoomae]

I can see where you are coming from but you never know the circumstances.

Are you a parent/do you still have young children and remember what it was like?

At 7 months old, my baby just lay in a pram so I didn't have that issue but around 1 years old she would not sit still. I couldn't have a 5 minute coffee in a cafe because she would go nuts in the high chair. I would take play doh, snacks, drink, toys etc but this would only keep her happy for so long. Eventually, I did put my phone in front of her and let her watch something so I could eat and drink something. I did actually feel mortified and really embarrassed if I saw someone looking.

If I see someone sitting there with a phone in front of their toddler, I don't even bat an eyelid. I understand how hard it can be. 7 months does sound quite young though.

[UndertheCedartree]

@Wineisoverrated

I once sat in a Starbucks cafe with my eldest in a high chair watching my phone when we were going through a family crisis.

I had slept about an hour in three days and was at breaking point. I needed ten minutes of just not being mummy before I simply broke down crying.

You never know what someone else is going through. You see a baby watching a phone with a bottle as mum and dad eat a lovely meal. Mum and dad may have just decided to end their relationship and have met to discuss it, mum and dad could have just received awful news, have buried a loved one, have lost their jobs or received a diagnosis and just for the length of a single course of a meal needed not to be completely attentive parents.

Life happens and you do the best with what you have. Be less judgemental.

I can really relate to this. Others may be able to be on top form with their DC at all times. But, you know what, I can't. When my eldest was a toddler I didn't have a smart phone/tablet. But I remember times we had to escape from our house due to abuse from seriously mentally unwell DH. I was a wreck over these times. Sometimes I would take him to McDonald's he'd get a Happy meal and a colouring sheet and I'd have a coffee and read my book. I'm sure there was plenty to judge - unhealthy food for a toddler, me ignoring him. But I was simply doing all I could in that moment to cope.

[ancientgran]

@ChargingBuck

I once sat in a Starbucks cafe with my eldest in a high chair watching my phone when we were going through a family crisis.

Come on now *@Wineisoverrated* - give us the full story.
Did you PLOP your baby into that high chair?
Confess! - out with it - nobody's judging they're just CONCERNED and HORRIFIED.

I once took two of mine, 1 and 3 years, to the creche in a local shop and in very demented way said, "Don't tell me you're full, don't tell me you're full." The lovely young woman took them off me, I went and had a meal in the cafe and sat and read a magazine while I drank coffee. She was a bit worried handing them back but I was once again a rational human being by that time. I think she might have saved their lives.

[EarringsandLipstick]

@FrecklesMalone

You will be told that you are being unreasonable but history will proof us right. All these twenty year olds I keep meeting through work who can't hold a conversation.

Weird. I meet many 20 yo through my work (university) and they speak just fine.

Don't be ridiculous. A baby or child looking at a phone is not a sole determinant of the future educational & social outcome.

If they did this all the time while never engaging with / feeding / playing with their child - that's a problem. But OP had zero evidence of this.

[joydivisionovengloves71]

@Chasingaftermidnight

I'll bet a lot of the posters frothing at the mouth are doing the same thing. So many children are starting nursery with poor speech and still in nappies. No interaction as it interrupts them glued to their own phones.

Eh? You’re making things up. Children start nursery at all sorts of ages, anywhere between a few months old and 4 years old. Loads start at 1 or younger when their mothers return to work after maternity leave. It’s a fairly precocious 12 month old that’s out of nappies and conversing fluently.

I meant pre school nursery obviously

[Paperyfish]

“Your ten month old was given an olive? I hope you cut it up? Then offered her pizza? Now I am horrified”

Errr… I can’t even tell if you’re being serious or not! 🤣 but yes! I didn’t let her have my wine, if that helps!

[ufucoffee]

I think it's pathetic. Epic lazy parenting.

[Wnkingawalrus]

@JudgeJ

When I saw this in the Trending column it cut out before the reference to screen and I expected to say that the baby was being fed pepperoni with extra cheese and a large Coke!

Me too! I really thought it was going to be about giving them so much salty food. I would be more horrified at that.

[NorthernLighting]

How do you know the baby was 7 months old? But I agree with you, although not horrified.

Watch Still Face Experiment (very short clip) on YT.

[viques]

I thought this was going to be baby chowing down on a meat feast with extra chillis thread.

But it’s not.


Honestly, I get so fed up of being drawn into these promising threads only to find myself going “meh”. I think I will go and find myself a life, and I am going to slam the door on my way out so ner to youse lot, see if I care.

[ancientgran]

@Paperyfish

“Your ten month old was given an olive? I hope you cut it up? Then offered her pizza? Now I am horrified”

Errr… I can’t even tell if you’re being serious or not! 🤣 but yes! I didn’t let her have my wine, if that helps!

My granny swore by a drop of Jameson whiskey. It might be why I'm teetotal.

[ChillysWaterBottle]

@VladmirsPoutine

I think it's people like the OP why so many new mums suffer in silence. They don't want to be judged so sit at home alone with a crying baby because god forbid a busy body might start a thread about them being outside of the home with A SCREEN!

I agree.