I was at a restaurant with my daughter tonight and we were happily enjoying our meal and playing tick tack toe when much to my utter suprise, the mother at the table next to us said to her child in front of the entire family (grandma, grandpa, aunts uncles the works), "Are you trying to make us ALL miserable? Are you THAT unhappy that you NEED to ruin the rest of our evenings as well?" This girl was five, tops. Literally took my breath away. I gave a sidelong glance to the mother and hoped my own daughter hadn't heard. This was a perfectly normal looking family and I just couldn't believe it frankly. I mean, my daughter has been challenging and at times I've had to take her out of a restaurant or store and seriously 'encourage' her to get control. But the girl was just demolished after that...gran had to comfort her for fifteen minutes. And I think the Mom finally realized I had heard something as she looked at me when she brought her plate back from the salad bar with a special treat for her daughter. Yeah, that'll help. You've just told her she's ruining everyone's life because she's a bit impatient...and five years old to boot...but a bit of dessert solves everything.

Sorry...I just got really really really irritated.

B

That's very sad. I hate it when I see parents mistreating their children like that. And that's in public, I cringe to think what it's like in private. I saw a lady curse her two-year old in a food court because he dropped his m&m on the floor and picked it up and ate it. I mean for goodness sake, he's a baby.

This is so sad, That poor child being totally shamed in public. We put our children in these difficult situations and expect them to sit still and silent for an hour or so. It's just not fair on them.