to ask if you’re a parent with kids on loud devices in public what’s your reasoning?

[AMuser]

…just can not quite fathom it?

This afternoon in a beautiful 5 star hotel. A quiet lounge room with various family groups and so on. Suddenly aware of the awful referred noise of a kid watching his phone on full volume. He was aged about 8 or 9 and sitting with his parents - quite some way away from me (to show how loud it was).

Waited awhile to see if it would stop. It didn’t. So went over asked politely could they please put the child’s phone on silent. Seemingly decent woman immediately goes on the attack “why should he”. Well you’re in a public place and it’s rude. “Who says” was her response. I mean, if you don’t realise that what hope is there.

I’ve got 4 older kids who did have iPads etc at a certain point. But always with headphones or on silent. Newsflash they will still stare at it regardless

Rather lovely young Dad seated much closer to them came over and thanked me. Said he’d wanted to say something as it was so grating but his wife had asked him not to.

So if you do this - what is your reasoning? Why is this ok?

YABU - my child (or indeed my own) need to listen to tik tok / you tube / Cocomelon etc trumps anyone else in a public place that might not want to hear our devices.

YANBU - and we must rise up in the most unBritish fashion to challenge this insanity & establish order once more and let people know they need to get headphones or go home to blast their phones in public

It's not fucking ok. Get that into your head and you'll be a decent citizen

Its ok to me, I don’t mind if others have something on quietly. You might, I don’t. ‘Get that into your head’ and stop swearing at me.

I'd hope that any "dictating" would be done by someone with decent parenting skills so other people wouldn't need to say anything

I think with a child I would probably assume they were ND therefore it’s not straightforward for the parents to enforce wearing headphones / turning the volume down, and the children don’t understand the annoyance watching things out loud might cause others.

However I get really quite annoyed when adults do this - watching TikTok reels and YouTube videos out loud on the train. I see this ALL the time. It’s like it’s so common now that people think it’s acceptable and you’d be the oddball for complaining about it!

I applaud you OP.
Airplanes also seem to fair game. Kids are hard work, I get it, but no-one’s civil liberties are breached by wearing headphones.

I was on a plane once and the child behind me was screaming for ages. My son had fallen asleep so I passed them back his tablet. I tell you, the sound of Ben an Holly's little kingdom was absolute bliss in comparison.

There are a couple of comments along these lines, do some people ears really hear electronic devices in the same way as background converstion?

To me those are totally different types of noise

What’s the difference?

(I don’t have kids so I genuinely don’t know.)

Both are fucking annoying.

Totally agree. 7 and 3 year old have not a phone or tablet between them - I don't want them staring mindlessly into a screen.

However last time we ate out, lovely family of four, mum and Dad faces stuck into their phones, young children stuck into their tablets and my 3 year old peering across the room wanting to watch 🙄

Says the person with fucking in their username 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Not worth the argument?
SEN child?

You'll have had a whole plane of grateful passengers, bar one mnetter furiously penning out an AIBU post about declining standard of parenting.

Really it's not ok

You can talk to them in hushed tones/at a reasonable volume or you can loudly chat away including exaggerated laughter and use their name repeatedly to tell everyone what beautiful taste you have in names... That's how I differentiate anyway.

@backtowinter but the OP was dictating what the son did with the phone? I would obviously tell my child to turn it down but would I fuck tell them to put it on silent just because someone else dictated they do it.

as long as it’s not to loud fair enough!

I was in the quiet coach of a train last week with 2 teenagers listening to music, including’Who Let the Dogs Out’ at full volume.

When the ticket inspector came round I was expecting him to ask them to turn it off. Instead he totally ignored it and passed on.

No one (me included) was brave enough to challenge them.

That ND child will grow into a ND adult who may not understand

It's not fucking ok. Get that into your head and you'll be a decent citizen

Swearing at a poster who gave their opinion that having it on quietly would be acceptable to them, doesn’t make you seem like a decent citizen.

I would have challenged these parents. I have done so before.
These children are going to grow up to be loud and bratty adults who care for no-one except themselves.😒

Sorry to clarify - they didn’t turn it down immediately no.

But after I spoke to her and the other Dad spoke to me - the staff became aware and spoke to them. And it was either turned off or certainly low enough I could no longer hear it from where I was sitting.

So they didn’t turn it down after you asked
and the simpering Dad came over and thanked you but didn’t dare to follow up

and no one mentioned to the staff

and this was a room full of adults?

There would be no dictating required if the parent did some decent parenting 🤬

I think having it on quietly is fine, not loud. If it was loud, I’d have got the staff to ask them to turn it down.

Why would a stranger need to point out that the device was at an anti social volume in the first place?

It's not hard getting a kid to wear earphones tbh my daughter is ND and gets that although she may want to watch and hear pepper pig loudly - not everyone does.

People who would dislike being asked to be considerate of others in an open space are often inconsiderate of others in general. Usually take the tack of "why should I do something because someone's ask me to" rather realising if they parented properly - you wouldn't be asked and wouldn't be judged as a shitty parent.

Well done op cunts everywhere

I was on a flight recently when the man in front of me started watching something on his iPad with the volume on.
A flight attend was passing and said “mute it or use headphones” It was the first time I had seen a flight attendant do that without prompting.