Performance parents

[Maryquitecontrarymary]

Am I the only one who is irritated like hell around these people?
At airport waiting to board flight. Couple infront with 2 kids who seemed to want everyone to know what fun they are and how much banter they have together as a family. "Oh look at us, look how fun we are, look how great we get on with our kids".
Try to ignore but it's impossible as they are so loud and they are constantly looking around as though to see who is watching and listening, so you have to make sure you don't look their way or make eye contact.
Oh and guess where they happen to be sitting? Yep you guessed it, right behind us. I swear the whole flight could hear them and only them. The woman had a gob like a foghorn and seemed to swing between being performance banter mum and having a go at her husband. Even ear plugs couldn't drown them out.
I'm surprised these people don't exhaust themselves with their performances

It’s a shame these people didn’t achieve the same kind of classy and restrained parental performance as you OP 🤔Everyone in the vicinity must’ve been comparing both performances and fervently wishing they were more like you! Or maybe they just didn’t care? 🤪

OP I don't quite get why people are giving you such a hard time. I have seen this kind of thing many times and I find it super annoying too.

Airports and hotels are some of the worst places for this - parents are all wound up and this is often combined with the fact they don't often have to parent together, and for full days of childcare. Try to lean into it by amusing yourself watching them.

No because I don't believe something in front of me is deliberately happening because of me

No I don't think they decided that morning 'how can we mess with people's minds today'

The world really is going bonkers

I danno, we have to talk to Dd constantly and try to keep her in good spirits otherwise she’ll get bored and it’ll be worse for everyone else. I do appreciate it would be nicer if we sat in silence but trust me no-one wants to experience Dd bored and frustrated.

It generally makes me laugh rather than annoys me. I encountered the best dad in the universe at my local Aldi last weekend. Oscar, if you only knew how lucky you are!

Where did I say they did it because of me? It happened and unfortunately I happened to be witness to it. And it annoyed me as it affected me for a number of hours cos I was unable to get away from the noise of it

No one has a problem with you talking to her. And I'm guessing no one expects you to be in silence either. That's not what I'm talking about here. Engaging with your kids isn't the issue. It's the performance and volume that's the issue. And it's pretty obvious when it IS a performance when the perpetrators are looking around them as they are doing it to see who is watching

I think I would have laughed more too if I was able to escape it rather than being stuck on a flight with it

Yes I'm sure they were admiring my superior parenting skills and wishing they were more like me 😂

Agree. It's clearly triggering something in the people who notice it.

I know exactly what you mean. I do find it rather amusing and enjoy to watch, not sure how I'd cope with them sat behind me on a plane though. Just out of interest, does anyone have the name label for people who do this in general anyway? Not just to kids but to anyone they're in public with? I've had .ore than enough experiences of this.

Do you have issues with your own parents or parenting?

I get noise is annoying the rest is really odd

Thars because most people don’t do it and are normal. When you see it you know.

So you wouldn't notice a family in the row behind you on a plane who were performance parenting VERY loudly for hours? Really? You wouldn't notice at all?🤔

It’s usually dads and grannies round here not mums.

Struggling to understand your point here. AT ALL

Actually you're right. It's more of a performance 'thing' rather then specifically parenting. I guess I just more frequently see it where kids are concerned. Come to think of it, a school friend of mine used to do it on the bus all the time. Always trying to catch the eye of people to see who was listening to her dramatic stories

I once had to endure a full performance of a plastic animals on the train
and as each animal came out of the kids bag the mother treated the entire fucking train carriage to an animal impression at the TOP of her voice

I think the difference is most people might think ‘they are a bit loud’ and then move on with their life. It’s the emphasis on thinking someone is putting on a performance and then obsessing over it to the point it ruined your flight and then you’ve gone to the effort of coming on mumsnet to make a thread about it. It is a bit strange that it’s effected you THAT much.

😂

I encounter PP on Saturdays in the supermarket: men who have to engage with their amazing mini mes on a loud level to discuss every item being put into the trolley/ basket
And aren’t they clever running up and down every aisle in their mismatched knitted outfits, expressing their free will……

But you still haven't given an example of what they were doing that made it "performance" parenting as opposed to just parenting as a loud person.

Now mine are older I find it quite sweet. They will be sullen 13 year olds soon enough god help you if you try and performance parent that age group!

I think 'obsessing' over it is a bit dramatic.
Mumsnet AIBU would be a bit dull if everyone was so zen they were never bothered by anything and never made a post about it.
It's a bit strange that you're going to all the effort to point out how much effort I've made to make a post on a forum where people like to have a moan 😂

It was a way to say you seem to have big issues

I think noisy people are noisy and want them to shut up other than that I don't come up with other issues or some long back story to their actions