To think this woman shouldn’t have interfered in the restaurant?

[Goldenrainbows]

We are away at the moment and went to eat last night in a family pub with an indoor play area which seemed to get my ds (3) a bit hyper. He’s normally really good in restaurants but was admittedly being really silly and swinging back on his chair and running off and not eating. I was doing my best to deal with it.

It really wasn’t helped by a woman sitting at the table behind us who kept interfering and shrieking ‘he’ll fall!’ every time he was swinging on his chair and making comments about him and us. I don’t think it was coming from a bad place but AIBU in thinking it really wasn’t appropriate? It was stressful and meant we couldn’t deal with DS properly as she was taking our attention. (By the way ds was far from the only badly behaved child there.)

@Yalta

well as the meal was 2 weeks ago yesterday, and the Op never came back to the thread since the day/evening she wrote it ( 2 weeks ago today ) - we will never know...

I'm not sure why anyone can't control a 3 year old tbh?

Just get up, grab him by the arm and march him outside, carry him if necessary.

Hold onto him firmly if there is a road and tell him very sternly that he needs to sit down quietly without swinging on the chairs and eat his dinner otherwise you will take him home and he won't be allowed to come back here as he can't behave. Then follow through.

Every parent has had to leave an event midway through at some point due to badly behaving children. It's just a hazard of the job.

Don't waste your time on wishy washy parenting telling him over and over to stop. He isn't going to. He knows you won't do anything if he doesn't.

You need to be more strict. My kids don't do that because they know damn well that I only say things once. They get one warning. Stop doing it or they go home. They do it again, I get up and physically remove them and we go home. They might scream the whole way to the car, that's fine. Let them. They will remember next time that if they don't make good behaviour choices, the choice gets removed.

I didn't mind when other people told my DS off, he would listen to them more than me sometimes! Or I would loud whisper to him "that man/woman over there will tell you off you don't behave" (a sinister loud whisper in the ear from my mum always did the trick) still makes me shiver at the thought :-)

So you take them outside...

It sounds as if she was incredulous that he was in a potentially dangerous situation without a parent taking effective control of the situation.

Old thread though so presumably sorted a long time ago now.

I feel for the poor woman trying to enjoy her meal. You should have taken your child straight out and not allowed him to be 'silly'. Parenting fail on your behalf I'm afraid. I agree with this.

By the way ds was far from the only badly behaved child there.)
So there were more ineffective parents out. However it was yours that was directly behind her. It was yours causing an issue and it was yours that wasn't disciplined. The other badly behaved children are of no consequence to you.

Old thread though so presumably sorted a long time ago now.
Indeed, but I bet you can go into many restaurants up and down the country tonight and there will be repeats of this behavior and the parents think that other people are the problem.