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

Also wondering how you would know what 'all' the other customers were thinking

so she had a wobble, probably went out and had a fag or took a few deep breaths or went sat in the car and screamed or something then she came back in. It took guts to go back in there after that. She was probably praying nobody said anything I would have felt too daft, so good for her. Of course it's not ideal to use bad language, or make a scene, but it's hardly front page news now is it? Stop the presses - Woman Loses Temper With Her Kids In A Restaurant.

And fwiw, health care professionals look out for too nicely dressed/clean house/super organised etc as it can be a warning sign just as much as not washing for a month can be! Sometimes when you feel you are teetering on the edge, you try to look 'together', and can be OTT about it.

You saw a few minutes of her life. She might be a prize bitch for all we know. Equally she might be a lovely woman who is drowning. Or she might just have had a shitty day. Or anything in between.

IAteRosemary, I can beat that join you. I threw a knife across the kitchen after ds2 had (accidently) cut ds4s chubby little fingers once....and smashed teh kitchen window.

I didn't know there were non-swearing London Boroughs.

Sorry - was I rambling?

To be clear, I just wondered if jzee was posting something controversial and made up just to see what happens.

I've seen quite a few and I think the official geeky name for a person who does it is a troll.

Reminded me of the time I "lost it" in an M&S cafe in a "posh" city - not where I live. It was some stupid bickering with dh and an (empty) tray slid to the floor with a crash. He said (unwisely in retrospect) that I dropped it deliberately.

I went absolutely crackers shouted a few inappropriate words and stormed out. (our dd then about 3 was with us - she kept saying "but daddy why did you say mummy threw the tray")

Yes, it was absolutely disgraceful behaviour and lots of the (mainly elderly) customers were tutting at our outrageous display. But you know, I was pg and knackered and it was just "one of those days". I shouted a bit - wasn't the end of the world for us or the other customers.

(Hope the OP didn't witness my outburst that day - it was far more shocking than what she saw recently)

rofl at the spaniel's last (diplomatic) comment!!

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I've been there so many times in fact I lost it twice today, not in a restaurant and in fact not infront of anyone apart from my DH but the women you saw must have been at bursting point and I really felt for her when I read your story. poor thing I think I would have wanted to run after her and give her a hug.

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I lost it in the park a while ago, shrieked in out of control way at ds1 who was running away out of sight then stomped off with pram leaving ds1 to aghast husband...

You should have seen the looks of incomprehension and disgust I got from the other mothers...I seriously think there are women for whom a really bad mood/PND/PMS is simply fiction...

I met one of the women who had stared at me in openmouthed horror and told her I had serious PMS and depression at the time, but I could tell she did not really believe me...however she has since seen me several times behaving like a human being...she doesn't seem to understand how to deal with that and looks at me with fear...

We all have bad days and some of our days are terrible. That's why 'some of us control our tempers better than others'. Urgh, the smugness in that statement makes me want to lose it again!!

Sounds totally normal to me. That's me about once a month - no, precisely once a month I usually throw a wobbler at home rather than in a restaurant, and it is usually aimed at DP not DS but I do tend to stomp out exactly like that and take a couple of minutes to calm down in the garden. And I really feel for that woman because it is always just another, really irritating, did-that-really-have-to-happen thing like a glass getting broken that is the last straw. I've been far more shocked by the nasty, vindictive things I've heard perfectly in-control parents say to their children tbh.

Did she throw anything? Or hit anyone? Rant and rave in a prolonged, intimidating & aggressive manner?

She swore & walked out of the restaurant? Is that really all?

I very much doubt she's done any harm to anyone, my kids have heard me swear in anger & they are fucking fantastic

And she needn't have PND or other mental health issues she just could have been having a really crap day.

I think you (OP) need to get over yourself - is that honestly the worst thing you've heard a parent say? Jeeez what world are you living in?

good lord - woman uses profanity in a public place and leaves dad to hold his own CHILD!!!!

What a cow - bring back the stocks I say and let's all throw rotten tomatoes at her. We can put a sign around her neck saying:

"This Abandoned Wench did Knowingly and in a Public Place Bring Shame Upon her Husband and Child by the use of Wicked and Abominable Language, and did Force her Husband to Engage in the Unholy Act of Child Care.

Yet Worse - the Wench hath taken Undue Care with her Dress and Bedizenments."

I get like that sometimes, i can hold it in for ages and just one more straw makes me snap and i will shout and have to get away from whatever upset me.
Then after about 10 mins i will come back all calm and collected.
Last time i did this was when we were on holiday in South Africa on Valentines day (part of a 2 week holiday).
My DH had arranged for us to stay in a lodge in the middle of nowhere, took over 3hrs driving to get there.
Arrived there in the night and the owners had gone home! because we were 1hr late!
We had no way of contacting them, mobile not working and no phones, so at 1am i had enough and had a screaming row with DH in the car and walked out of the car and down the dirt track...in the pitch black...in Africa, with snakes and things.
Soon regained my composure and got back in the car and found ourselves a hotel (lucky).
The OP should not be so judgy, at least that woman did not come back to her DP/DH and start arguing again, she showed real nerve and maybe the OP was jealous of her courage?

Just to add, this was with our DDs aged 3 and 5yrs old and i was getting worried for them, also managed to drop my moneybelt in the car and could not find it (until i had calmed down).
The rest of the holiday was OK after that

Well, well, a quick look in the mirror assures me that I am anything but immaculately dressed, so go on, tell me- how much leeway do I get in restaurants??? Go on, go on- what can I do?? (jumps up and down madly in excitement!!!).

Tonight I shouted 'It's not fucking fair!' as my dd got up straight after I had put her to sleep, as she does every night, and then gets up every hour... do you actually know how hard it is? I reach the end of my tether on an almost daily basis, because I am exhausted. Maybe she is exhausted, and at the end of her tether. I'm not even depressed, but extreme tiredness does terrible things to you.
But I'm never immaculately dressed and don't wear makeup. I'd probably be more likely to be seen in MacDonalds than a restaurant, because I can't afford to go to a restaurant. So that's ok, right?
Jesus, I thought you were going to say she'd smacked the baby or something!

oh give the poor woman a break, i have been known to say " i cannot do this anymore" quite a lot.

She's probably been up all night and has toothache and what with one thing and another...

Oh the poor woman. I know how that feels - I have done that at my own dinner table before.

middle class people shouldn't do such things - there is a word...'decorum'

boden would turn in his grave