Just heard the most shocking thing said by a parent in a restuarant...

[Jzee]

Picture the scene; Very family orientated middle class borough of London....
we were sitting having dinner with our DS when a very middle class looking couple walked into the restaurant with a baby of about 1 year. Not long after the baby bumped his arm and started screaming, so the dad picks him up and with that a glass went flying off their table onto the floor and breaks. The mother stood up in a busy restaurant and in a very loud voice said 'F,,,,,g Hell I can't do this anymore!' She storms out of the restuarant with the dad left holding a screaming baby. All of the other customers couldn't belive what they had just heard - 2 minutes later the mother comes back into the restaurant sits down at the table and continues with her meal as if nothing has happend??!!!! I've been to alot of restaurants and have never heard anything like it. How could she have the front to just resume her dinner like nother had happened? She should have run off to the hills and hung her head in shame!blush

Maybe her DH was having an affair with her manicurist and she was meeting up to discuss the divorce settlemnt, and she was restraining herself from dragging her latest acrylic talons applied by said manicurist across his face.....Maybe the baby was the baby of his estranged mistress who had been deported to Bangkok and he was trying to persuade her to pass it off as theirs.....Maybe the spilt glass splashed her immaculate Prada shirt...GOd, anyhting could have been going on - have you no compassion?

jzee, how could your comments be perceived as anything other than offensive?

she looked like a bitch

she was so well dressed but so horrible

i mean, come on....

have you no empathy, no compassion> no sense of what it is like to just want to stand up and scream and just let it all out?

if not, you are the only one!

I have sympathy for her we have all had our moments with young children, but I suppose some of us can control our tempers better than others and I'll leave it at that.

Jzee, perhaps you need to judge yourself, cut your losses and run. You're a well dressed nice middle class woman who's just said something embarrassing in public.

"Perhaps her appearance is the only thing she feels she has any control over right now..."

Yes, very often people who look immaculate and in control is quite the opposite.

Jzee, sorry, I can't leave it at that. Have you any notion of what is is like to have PND or depression?
There are a zillion and one reasons I can think of which might have made that woman snap like that.
OK, so we can see you are lacking in empathy. But do you not have any imagination?

I think this is a little bit similar to standing up and throwing a glass of wine all over your husband isn't it?

I would have gone after her I think. Firstly so we could rant about the often shitness of being a mother and secondly so I could be her friend and borrow her clothes!

That poor woman. I hope the rest of her day got a bit better at least.

Everybody has a breaking point Jzee, no matter what their background or appearance. I hope you have learnt your lesson and won't be so quick to cast assumptions or judge others in the future.

and when you reach your breaking point, no, you can't control your temper.

It is not a nice place to be in and you should have some compassion.

How very and the very reason why many women feel the need to put up a front as to not feel the 'shame' and 'embarrassment' of other peoples opinions if you admit to not being able to cope!

Yes run off to the hills

I haven't ever exp[erienced depression but I quite often feel like that woman, as if I just can't do it anymore - the relentless washing and picking things up and getting milk and school runs and sorting out fights and sweeping the floor and finding things and........

I imagine that that glass was just the end of it for her that day. We all have them don't we?

You need to look around these boards a bit more and see what some people have to cope with. I am incredibly more compassionate and understanding about man, woman and child, since joining MN. (well, maybe not man!) Just because everything is rosy in your garden, you have no idea what may have caused this poor woman to snap.

I actually feel for her. She could have been a spoilt bitch true. But most likely she was a sleep deprived depressed Mum wondering what the hell she is doing.

Have a bit of empathy.

I don't think what the woman said is shocking, poor woman we all have days like that

less judging please, it is not like she hit the kid, and I think it took guts to come back in

I'm shocked that you're shocked because you heard a woman swear in a restaurant.

If this is the most shocking thing you've heard by a parent in a restaurant I can only assume you've lead a very sheltered life.

Oh, and what everyone else has said, too.

Is this National Judgement Week or what? Every sodding thread's like this at the moment. My first thought was of sympathy too. I've been heard to mutter the same phrase on a weekly basis pretty much since DS was born 11 months ago (and I try really hard not to be a bitch)

I really hope judgy opinionated people like you are in the minority jzee.

Ha have you ever been depressed Jzee? controlling your temper is very hard when your mental state is not good...

Omg I really feel for her . I've felt just the same. We gave up even trying to eat out for a couple of years with dc it was so unenjoyable. I usually just wanted to run out screaming at some stage.

Not read whole thread so sorry if I rehash old ground.

Mental health issues do not respect class, creed, race, age, sex etc......

We could all suffer at some point in our lives and let me tell you that her outburst is NOT the most shocking thing you could hear from a parent in a restaurant. And yes, the smallest thing like knocking over a glass can set nerves on edge past the point of no return.

It's not funny suffering from any form of depression, anxiety or stress and she showed classic signs of suffering from one form or another.

She recognised the need to take herself away and calm down, good for her!

i have done the same before actually though luckily was in my home not a restaurant, louldy declared that i had enough, though in more colourfull language and went into the kitchen to cry and smoke!!! if id have been in restaurant feeling the same i would have done the same, though obviuosly i would have gone outside not the kitchen!

all i would have thought is i wonder what that poor woman has been through today to get to that point?

oh btw when i go to a restaurant i usually am immaculately dressed, but am not a bitch (well not unless you upset me!) i just dont get to out to restaurants much so when i do i make the best of it!!!

from the sound of it she did control her temper-she realised she was losing it and walked out to calm down.

when i began to read your op i thought 'OMG its going to say the woman hit the baby or something'.but she walked out?well it must be nice to be perfect