Restaurant Rudeness

Manners are important, no doubt about it and they are especially important out in public. What a wonderful place this world would be if everyone's child was born perfectly mannered from day one, never cried in public, never threw toys at playmates, and in general didn't bother anyone. Umm hey... you're day dreaming about that aren't you?? *Smack* SNAP OUT OF IT! Welcome, my friends, to the real world. The one where babies don't always cooperate with your plan to have a nice family meal. Tonight was one of those nights. Nicholas got a little over stimulated with the abundance of grandparents he possesses and got a little cranky. He had a hard time settling down and it wasn't his fault. He is the kind of baby who when he gets upset a calm quiet voice, shhhh'ing, or complete silence from you is your best bet rather than trying to talk over his wailing to tell him to calm down or try and sooth him. The louder you get the more worked up he is going to get. My grandmother is one of those people who wants to try to be heard over him and tonight he had a total baby meltdown in the living room of my mom's house. I finally got him calmed down enough to eat his carrot dinner and he was just a little cranky b/c he was tired after that. Sooooo what we should have done was go home, give him his last bottle of the night, and put him to bed. What we decided to do instead was go to dinner. Bad call on my part. I honestly thought he would calm down and behave himself or sleep - Nope. He fussed a lot of the time we were there and it didn't help that the place we went apparently had some air conditioning problem and it was just as warm inside as it was outside. In Florida, in August that's usually a bad sign. He did settle down and behave a fair amount of the time but he got upset several times too and fussed and then started crying. Understand here that we were seated among several tables full of young children and infants maybe only slightly older than he is and this place is noisy in general anyway so it's not like we were in a nicer type place and he was disturbing the whole restaurant. Most people probably couldn't even hear him and most of the people who did didn't care maybe because they saw us doing everything we could to keep him happy and calm. It's not like I was content to just sit there and eat and let him scream or anything. However, there was one lady at the table directly behind ours, (I was seated so I was facing her), who apparently was annoyed. Throughout dinner she kept giving me and Nicholas dirty looks and kept rolling her eyes. I seriously wished I had had a huge bottle or been able to whip a breast out to feed him then neglect to burp him, shake him up and waltz him on over to her table to spew! Bitch. At least if I had done that she would have had a reason for all her dirty looks. Hey since he ate carrots for dinner anything that came up would probably be bright orange and would most definitely stain. I could have been really mean here now couldn't I. What really kind of irked me was when Nicholas settled down and was hanging over my mom's shoulder starring at the lady and smiling his best Hi I'm Nicholas smiles she just glared at him. Who glares at a baby? What kind of in need of serious therapy weirdo do you have to be to be starring daggers at a smiling infant? To make matters worse she was accompanied by an young man who appeared to be her son and who looked like a real upstanding citizen... you know the kind right, the just go out of Juvie and is on probation for busting up a couple of neighborhood cars kind. Nice. I was sooooo glad when they finally got up and left so I could stop visualizing throwing my drink at her. It's not like he was THAT bad and he wasn't even annoying the whole time we were there. So chill lady, show some respect for people who are trying their best and are doing a good job. Sorry you blew your chance, now it's my turn so keep your nasty looks to yourself  less you happen upon somebody not as polite as I am who is willing to smack them right off your ugly mug for you!

Cut mothers of very young children some slack. Reserve your annoyance for people with out of control toddlers and pre-schoolers that aught to know better!