Teams calls in cafe and toddler

[Swiftswatch]

I’m probably being unreasonable for posting here in the first place since there’s a bit of an anti kids in public sentiment here at times, but when did it become acceptable for people to think a coffee shop is the same as an office??
I was just having breakfast and a coffee with my toddler and someone was taking a teams call at a nearby table. If it’s relevant we were seated first.
Toddler was being good as gold imo, I get sometimes they can be too loud or badly behaved but they were just sat drinking their juice and having a little babble and sing, occasionally pointing out things they seen. “Cup! Cup!” Obviously louder than if I was just sat by myself but really not a disturbance and no louder than any other table of 2 chatting.

The man was sat sighing and rolling his eyes for about ten minutes until I just had to turn to him and say ‘sorry but this is actually a cafe not an office, if you’re in a meeting and need silence you’re in the wrong place’.
He did a big huff, picked up his laptop and walked off trying to find a new table but had to come back as it was too busy.

Now he’s sitting there giving me evil eyes.

AIBU to think I’m not in the wrong here?? I’m really not a confrontational person and normal wouldn’t speak up but a public cafe at breakfast time isn’t exactly the place to do a work meeting!
If people want to rave about working from home then go fucking work at home. People out in public don’t need to tiptoe around you because you want a change of scenery during the work day while you sit in meetings.

Plonk your arse on a spare chair at the table, they don't own the table.

I get you, but you were the one to start the confrontation; he didn't say anything to you! I doubt I'd have even noticed someone else in cafe I just focus on my baby.

I regularly work and take calls in cafes. It would never occur to me to get annoyed at background calls as clearly I am the one using the cafe for a purpose it isn't really intended for! You crack on and let your child have a nice time. If it is critical I will make sure I am somewhere quiet. He needs to do the same.

Yanbu and good on you for telling him so 👍

Or a Wetherspoons. A Wetherspoons would be much quieter at 10.30 am than a coffee shop and you can get coffee there.

I do this! Mostly because you can order on the app, so I don't have to leave the table. It's a lovely change from my kitchen table, and cheaper than a coffee shop. But I don't have meetings/phone calls, that's not the nature of my job, so I know I'm not disturbing anyone.

YANBU and well done 👍

Because it's not relevant to the thread? For instance if I point out now that I had bad service in a café yesterday it's not untrue and has a tenuous link to this thread - ie references a café, but I'd expect people to be scratching their head and saying how is that relevant?!

I bet you spent far more than the man did. As someone upthread said, office people will sit there for hours having purchased one cup of coffee.

I bet you spent far more than the man did. As someone upthread said, office people will sit there for hours having purchased one cup of coffee.

And some make a point of buying coffee and other items regularly while they're working in the cafe. You have no idea which category he falls into.

You were in the right. A coffee shop is not the work place and it’s very unreasonable to expect to take a Teams call and have the place fall silent.

I would have started 'performance parenting' just to annoy him more.

Maybe because this rude woman was interrupting his Teams call.

There always had to be one outlier who is prolific in their instance that their very extreme viewpoint is the only correct one!

@Chippy1234 Why is it wrong to point out that some people with children leave a terrible mess (unless of course you are one of those people who leave the mess and think everyone else needs to clear it up because after all you have a child!)

You seem to have a really strange agenda on this thread!

Completely agree with this! I was pleasantly surprised by how the comments were going, and then I realised it's probably down to mumsnet WFH envy 🤣 OP you were of course totally in the right, and good for you for sticking up for yourself. I cannot stand people who expect young children to not exist in public. There's more than an touch of misogyny to it too.

But also, as someone who has done a lot of cafe work over the years, I have to say that the WFH crowd (and this was pre-covid) and mums with toddlers were our favourite customers tbh. We didn't care if anyone had meetings. Both groups are likely to become regular customers during weekdays. They kept us busy! It was actually the owner of a cafe I worked in who pointed this out to me. She was very keen to make both types feel at home. Anyone who had a problem with either type of customer would have had a short thrift from the owner, I can tell you that for free.

Aw, I'm thinking back fondly now as it was a really lovely place to work due to the regulars 😊

I travel a lot for work. But I wouldn’t expect people in a cafe to be quiet to benefit me. I can sit outside on a park bench if I need quiet.

I feel sorry for the staff of cafes. Entire tables taken for hours by people on laptops buying one drink in hours to use the heating and electric for free.

I would have any loved to be present, to applaud you 😂😂😂
He sounds like something I can't say or I'll be banned 😂

I never really understand this attitude. In my experience, if the cafe is busy, at some point the cafe owner or manager might come over and ask someone who has just been nursing a single cup of coffee to please vacate the set but as a rule, coffee shops are seldom constantly busy and having someone sitting there is better than it being empty.

Also, most of the people I know who work in coffee shops se it as quite an expensive option - there's the coffee and pastry on arrival. Bottle of water and cup of tea after an hour or two. Then an early lunch or a late snack....

😆You're just brilliant aren't you! Better than all the rest of us.

I’ve never come across a toddler that is the same volume as two adults chatting. Congratulations, mine could project like the very best Shakespearian actor

Yea YANBU! This actually is a massive peeve of mine, some people now days seem to feel very entitled and for some reason feel it’s okay to slam parents with young children for their child’s natural behaviour (Of course meaning chatty, singing etc, not misbehaved).
i personally believe that cafes and coffee branches should either provide private spaces for ‘worker’ to use their facilities all day as an office or tell them to leave for other customers to use the space.
Good for you for speaking up though, that’s a brave thing to do when you’re on your own with a little one, but 100% you were correct and he was an ass 🙂

He's most definitely in the wrong though at the same time I think kids should be discouraged from singing in public. I am very sensitive to noise and for people like me others singing is just too much. You might have been doing just that though and the toddler should be able to speak just like any adult.

That's a sign of failing management, bad business and poor staff.

They should be encouraging extra sales or moving people on.

If they leave customers hogging a space without paying that's on them.

End of the day if both the man with the laptop and woman with the noisy toddler have paid for the cafe's services they are both entitled to be there.

Your toddler is most likely much louder and more annoying than you realise. Shouting out things they’re seeing does sound annoying, teams call it not.
However you’re both entitled to be there so you should’ve left him to “roll his eyes” is peace.
We hear on here all the time how men confront women in ways they wouldn’t confront a man. z
Silver lining, you got one in for the team…