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

i feel sorry for her as i often fell this way like i have had enough and recently swore as ds who is nearly 1...

I didn't mean it and felt very sorry after but i feel very stressed out at the moment and often fly off the handle when there is no need..

You really should not judge as she is probably having a bad time at the mo

We've all been there!

Had a very similar episode last week when i screamed like a fishwife (indoors) threw a lot of things at dp and stormed out for an hour. Now im wondering if my neigbours were talking about me

not me. im perfect too. me and jzee.
i never swear and never lose it. i am the epitome of composure at all times.
you should all bow down to me really...

only on mumsnet could you get the words middle class in the op so many times !

"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"

pmsl at "very middle class looking couple"

why are you so obessed with class?

Sorry but she's not the 'real bitch' .

She sounds to have been having a really tough time - she lost her temper but had the common sense to take herself away from the situation (baby was safe with its father) and then once she had calmed down she came back.

Have some fecking sympathy - you know nothing about her situation or mental health and have no right to be so judgemental

I think she shounds like she was having a tough time

Good for her for coming back in to the restaurant.

Message withdrawn

I guess even middle class people in a middle class borough with middle class clothes and middle class shoes still find it hard to cope with lack of sleep
Or is that chavvy?

surely this is a wind up?? reached target harrumphing very quickly?

I am middle class
i look like a right bitch
i have said fuck in a public place.
i once sat on the floor outside marks and spencer in my immacilate middle class clothes and cried.

I should feel really ashamed

Poor mum How awful for her to have got to that point, I really feel for her.

How awful that other parents have judged her when sympathy and empathy would be more appropriate!

I bet she's feeling great today

The compassion you lack is astounding, it's not right to judge someone on a sentence.... perhaps he mother has just died, perhaps she hasn't slept for a week, perhaps she has just had enough.......

i once was pushing ds1 in his buggy through the town where i live,he was about 2 , i was fed up, depressed and ds1 was screaming as he didn't want the raincover on (it was tipping it down)

i was at the end of my tether, i stopped, and shook the buggy, and shouted 'oh for gods sake, bloody shut up'

the looks i got were awful.

i have been told by many that i am a great mother, but i bet that day people judged me as the worlds worst.

so, i would never assume anything anymore

agree with Cheery Face Never assume. The scene in OP could have been me 100 times over. No I've never done that exact same thing but have felt like it many times and have certainly done a variation of it - like smack my son in public, like screamed at him etc. I try my very very best but no one is perfect. This parenting thing is the hardest most frustrating thing I or my husband have ever done, and we get it wrong alot. I feel sad that there actually are people watching like the OP judging....

i remember years ago being at a lunch with lots of 'mummies' where someone recounted seeing a local 'perfect' mum strapping l her children in the car then banging on the roof of it saying ' oh my god i cannot do this any more' the story attracted much mirth but only because we all knew we had felt that way and it was ( rather cruelly) nice to know every one was the same

goodness i know i am

Hmmm.. I definitely would have felt sorry for her. I don't know any mum who hasn't reached this point several times! Just because she did it in a restaurant is irrelavent to be honest. Myabe it was a little out of order to swear in front of older kids but when you snap you don't think.

I saw an incident that I did find shocking the other day where a woman was driving down the road with her kids (3 of them) and they were all fighting in the backi. She suddenly slammed on the brakes and got out (in the middle of the road none the less) and starting screaming at them to shut up then she stormed off. Even then I wasn't shocked that she had lost her rag like that just that she had left her children in a dangerous situation.

This woman sounds fairly sensible in that she left the baby with its dad and went outside to cool off. Far better to vent your rage when needed than to bottle it up and possibly let it out on the child itself eh?

Nikki

OP cant believe you have childen and haven't reached breaking point now and again, I know I have. Goes with the territory I think. I would have felt sorry for her for having a bad day not been judgemental. However, I've seen someone in a suprmarket do this and slap the child and call them a c* which is obviously afwul. I'd rather watch someone just shout like she did.

this thread is quite funny/sad.

I shouted at my 20mo last week - shouted "just shut up" and then burst into tears . And yet I am a total middle class ponce - this event happened in North London and I was in the middle of preparing a couscous based dish for supper . Whaddya know...

I can see it happening. She sounds overwhelmed. Who knows what the real story is/was. I'm sure she's upset with herself for losing it in front of the baby, but it happens.

Isn't this thread just a follow on from this one... www.mumsnet.com/Talk/67/557522

To the OP- there is nothing wrong with having a crappy day. We (well most) of us have been there quite a few times. I remember stomping out the restaurant hissing at DH "just get the f*ing bill NOW". I find hissing is less obvious than shouting at him!

Oh gawd I've done this. Not neccesarily with the swearing. If I'm at home I would go down to the cellar to 'sort laundry' and have a bit of a scream. lol what a bitch I am

I thought everyone had moments like this? A bit of a strop and walking away is fine, so long as children are not being shouted at and are safe- she only left him with his dad. ffs?

I tell you, the sound of my babies crying puts me terribly on edge sometimes.

you see, I've just outed myself as the worst person on MN. I shouted at my DD. She was being bloody annoying and was heading to a record 48 hours of whingeing though

This one came first tigermeow