The obsession with children being loud in public and disturbing others...

[floweplantpot]

On here, is incredible.

I'm nearly 40 years old and I don't think any child has ever disturbed me while I was out in public. I just don't understand how easily irritated people on here get ?

Do we go to different places or something ?

Does anyone else relate to me or do others also often encounter children that bother them in public ?

Think, being on their iPads / phones watching ' very loud ' videos that have ruined your trip out to lunch, or kids running around places etc.

I've never really seen this or even noticed it.

Same on planes.. I've been sat near babies and they sometimes cried, but nothing unbearable.

On here it's like people absolutely despise kids out and about being loud/ existing and being kids...

The only people that have ever bothered me in public have been drunk adults who were threatening people in a tube carriage / a random man in the supermarket calling me a slut / another random man shouting at me for no reasons once when I was sitting in a parked car.. never kids..

Well aren’t you lucky, @floweplantpot , that you’re not sensitive to unpredictable high pitched noise. Lots of other people obviously aren’t either, given how many people don’t make any effort to stop their children shrieking and screaming.

Your eyes don't see anyone running around and your ears don't hear actual screaming, simply because some others are talking loud?

How odd.

I've never really encountered this either, OP. I think some people get themselves very het up about it and as a result notice every little noise a child makes when they wouldn't notice eg a braying man being equally noisy.

Do you have children?

Presuming not, you're probably going to civilised places without feral children. There are plenty of feral children. My local wanky overpriced gastropub has just named all children because certain parents let them run riot in the garden and / or inside.

When mine were small I would have been very pissed off that my time off was ruined by other children.

Where the hell are these restaurants? I live in a very family friendly bit of London with people from all walks of life and eat out a couple of times a week. I've just never encountered a kid running and screaming. I'm not British and get the impression that kids aren't as loved here as in other cultures.

I agree OP, some people seem very intolerant of kids being kids, we were all kids!

Book the "quiet carriage" on the train and then have a mum with 2 very, very noisy children sit opposite you. For 3 hours.

Rarely ever see kids running around nor do I see many children screeching as much as some posters seem to in restaurants but there are usually adults talking too loud even when there is no music to try to talk above the times I’ve gone.

Children making noises, generally no, I tune it out. I don't think I've ever been in a place where a child was loud enough to be obnoxious. Kids can't really help being loud to a certain extent.

Watching videos or playing loud games, I'm sorry yes, that does bother me, because can be avoided with headphones and the considerate thing to do is have them with you so sounds don't disturb others. Repeated game noises or squeaky cartoon voices are very grating when it's something you're not watching and you're in an enclosed space and they're hard to tune out.

You’ve never had a nice lunch interrupted by a screaming baby? It’s very annoying when you’re spending ££ for a treat and trying to relax.

I've also never experienced "running and screaming" in a restaurant. In a soft play, yes. Not in a restaurant though.

Yanbu

Well I have 2 children and I don't experience this regularly 🤷‍♀️

I have a theory that people who worry too much about noisy kids only go (with their kids) to places where there are lots of noisy kids, which confirms to them that kids are noisy. If you only go to nice places (and take your kids) you don't experience it, and your kids don't learn to run around screaming because they don't see other kids doing it.

That would depend on the other cultures and upon the situation.

People love to bash the Brits on Mumsnet, especially when it comes to children, but they'll rarely state where they're from themselves.

I've heard babies while eating, but thankfully they directed their crying at their parent rather than interrupting me with it.

Only a couple of times on a train. I'm stressed when I'm travelling anyway, the whole thing is a sensory overload, and I remember a couple of instances of feeling quite desperate being trapped in a carriage with a really ear splitting child.

Generally speaking children don't annoy me. I enjoy seeing and hearing them chat and play, I approve of them being out and about learning how to be in a range of different spaces, and I don't bosom-hoik about iPads etc; it's not really a very intrusive sound, in the context of the general low hubbub of a restaurant or a train carriage. I do think some people are just intolerant and mean-spirited where children are concerned, and on MN in particular there's a lot of posturing and manufactured outrage.

I think some people get themselves very het up about it and as a result notice every little noise a child makes when they wouldn't notice eg a braying man being equally noisy.

I dont like children making a lot of noise in some places as I said earlier. I dont like adults making an undue amount of noise either. If I can hear what you are saying and I am not sat at your table, you or your party are too loud.

British are famous for loathing children. They must exist only as silent mini adults.

I do think some people are just intolerant and mean-spirited where children are concerned, and on MN in particular there's a lot of posturing and manufactured outrage.

I agree.

Out all the time, but no, never been unduly disturbed by kids. Sure, it’s irritating when they’re watching Coco Melon at full volume for three hours straight on a train but they’re being kept entertained. It’s all part of growing up and it just doesn’t bother me.

Or the tables are too close together

I’d take kids running around and screaming over all the restaurants who play music at earsplittingly loud levels as well. Although that fashion does at least seem to have dropped off since Covid

I do love children and am very tolerant in situations where the children have limited access to move (transit). Played endless rounds of peek-a-boo with the baby in front of my airplane seat, etc. But there are limits to my patience. I was horrified at a woman in front of me on a bus who gave her toddler the messiest biscuits and let her drooly child smear soggy biscuit all over the seats and windows while she had her eyes on her phone the whole time.

It comes down to parenting. Children are not expected to sit in a nice restaurant for 90 minutes while the parents have a quiet meal. Bring something to entertain, but not at the expense of those around you.

It doesn't bother me, same with unleashed dogs coming over to say hello, or cats coming into my garden.
It's only here on MN that you see all the unnecessary hysteria concerning these matters.

I have to travel by train a lot for work and yes, there are a lot of annoying parents who allow their kids to play games or watch videos with the sound cranked right up and no headphones.

No bloody need for it.