I generally have no opinion of other people's kids. I hate most other parents, though. The ones that permit this behavior, especially. When our children acted up in a restaurant, one of us bundled them outdoors immediately while the other settled with the server.

As they got older/became toddlers, they knew that if we asked them to be quiet, they were on notice and would be removed immediately rather than being asked again. Worked like a charm and we only had to do it (that is, remove them, in disgrace) once or twice per child before they caught on.

Sure, it was a hassle for us. That's part of being a parent. The so-called embarrassment of having your child disrupt other restaurant patrons is not. Those parents are still children.

While I am sometimes sympathetic when people are stuck somewhere and are really trying to control their kids, I do get more annoyed now that I have children.

OMG!!! I LOVE THIS!!! So TRUE!!!!
I once was in Home Depot, trying to decide what floor tiles and counter tops to purchase. So many types and styles to choose from.

Ten feet away was a family with a 2 year old that screamed for over half an hour. I finally asked the woman to please do something about it, and not just let the child wail. People are here to shop and I cannot make a decision as the sound is piercing my head with pain.

Her response was what am I supposed to do? He is only 2 years old and certainly cannot understand any requests I might make of him! and then she went on the attack of me.

The woman had 3 older children nearby who looked like their brains had been fried into oblivion. How in the world could anyone begin to argue with an idiot, without looking like one themselves.

I had to leave the store, and my sand hopping day was done because I had a horrible headache from this extremely selfish b*tch's attitude and behavior. On my way out, the clerk that was helping her, came across the store to thank me for saying what her management would not allow her to do. Though my request didn't make things better, the clerk was relieved of the stress she was feeling from having to button her lip in face of all that stress.

I will never get the lunacy of store mentality either, who fear losing ONE customer versus all the others who leave because quite frankly anyone within a 20 yard radius could not concentrate. 30 years ago, management would ask parents to calm their children quiet or leave in respect of the rest of the customer base and the employees who may be cutting materials (dangerous) or drawing up computer plans for a kitchen (expensive mistake), etc. Today, it seems "everyone" supports the brazen screaming entitled brat system, of which the true brat is the parent.

That was supposed to say "shopping day", not "sand hopping day", the mouse must have jumped.

Kids are mostly cool.

But there is no one at Jezebel who isn't an asshole.

I'm a mixed bag. I have less tolerance for the kids who are not reprimanded or watched or generally allowed to misbehave. However, I have more tolerance for the person who is carrying a screaming child somewhere (or similar). I used to think they were bad parents, but now I know they are the good ones.

Of course, this is situational. If it's the pediatricians' office, well, chances are the kid is sick and the parent doesn't have much choice. If it's near lunchtime, and the grown-up looks like they see the problem coming and do their best to avoid it - say because they had to go to the DMV and have been there for hours - I'm tolerant.

Just today, my lovely 3 year old had a meltdown at the mechanic. She was fine until it was time to leave. I had to schlep the screaming child into the car seat and buckle her in (not as easy as it sounds). She was well behaved for the 2 previous hours though, and they'd told me to expect a 1-hour wait. I got her out, and I would have patience for a parent in a similar situation... as long as they take care of business.

Okay, I agree with that 100% though I don't have kids so you know I don't have any expertise in the field.

But I do remember years ago, when I knew familes or even lived with families who had kids of all ages who were well behaved. Even kids from broken homes and all that. I was couch surfing with one and the two little girls would creep by on the way to the kitchen, oh so carefully because mommy said not to wake me. The parents were nothing special but mostly Silent Gen types and very working class.

So what was with that? What happened in the last 40 years? Parents seem so hapless now, and the kids all have some sort of diagnosis to carry around.

I concur with Shannon. My girls are older now, and more than once, when we've been in a store and a small child is having a meltdown, whichever daughter I've been with (and more recently it's been the younger) usually will go up to the child and distract him/her by talking or showing them a toy. More often than not, the other parent has been grateful in the extreme, and compliments me and whichever daughter provided the distraction. Only once did we get yelled at, and told to mind "[our] own fucking business!" and at that my daughter said "fine! you deserve each other!" and walked away.

I truly try to be sympathetic but if I dealt with my own and raised them to be empathic, caring young women, what the hell is wrong with these other parents??

My kids were always notably well-behaved at stores. I don't recall a whole lot of issues.

When I'm around screaming kids at stores, my read is usually that the parent is just about to scream themselves; they've really got no choice but to finish the shopping trip (diapers and groceries!), and they've got to get through it and get on their way. I usually tune 'em out. I just don't notice as many spoiled kids or indulgent walk-over parents as y'all do. Some, yes. Not so many.

I don't really like children. I have two of them and they are resonable adults. I started liking them when they were about 12.
The only time I tolerated any screaming was when the kids were either in pain, or sick.
I remember standing in line at the commissary one day with my one week old son. He was howling his head off and I was still in so much pain, all I really wanted to do was sit down on the floor.
I have seen some of the worst kids grow up into the most responsible adults, so I try and cut the kids themselves some slack.
The parents, on the other hand, need to remove a screaming child from any public place, they don't absolutely have to be....

This is why kids need two parents. One to sit at home, or in the car with the screaming kid, while the other parent does the shopping and errands.
I think single parenthood has exponentially increased the problem of screaming kids in public.

That was supposed to say "shopping day", not "sand hopping day", the mouse must have jumped.

Oh, that's too bad. Shopping day sounds like a drag, but sand hopping day might be pretty cool.

I'll throw in a dissenting vote.

Over the years, I have heard a lot of single non-parents, as well as parents of "angels" opine about the parenting deficiencies of others. From time to time they are right, but usually they are just flat way off base.

Kids are different. If yours tend to be good, it mighht be because you raised them well, or it might be because they just got good genes. Maybe you were better informed about food choices than others. This is multi-factorial.

Raising a child with emotional difficulties, e.g. ADHD requires tremendous, nearly constant attention. In the meantime, life goes on. There are rooms to paint, lawns to mow, trips to take, dinners to eat. Not everyone can afford a sitter.

Normal discipline, like timeouts or stern talking to, or even forms of corporal punishment simply have no effect. Their executive function is that low.

Is it rude for your child's behavior to upset others? Yes. However people find themselves at the end of whatever rope they have.

I have sympathy for them. I can tell you that they feel worse about it than any observer ever can.

My girls were 10 years apart. I basically raised 2 only children. They learned very early on that they either behaved in public, or we went outside. I never took them to anywhere nicer than the local McDonalds with a kiddie play area until they were old enough to have manners.
That said, my eldest told me that other people's children were the best birth control ever. When she saw how other children behaved, compared to herself and her little sister, she had no problem making sure she was protected against a teenage pregnancy. She even read the riot act to her cousins at the holidays when they would back-talk their mothers, which amazed the lazy parents that allowed their kids to run rampant.

Children are neither my bag or my responsibility. I'm always eager for them to grow up -- but not as eager as I am for the exhausting belligerent/snarky tone of sites like Jezebel, Gawker, Wonkette, etc. to go out of vogue on the Internet.

I thought I would like children a lot more once I had one. But I really only like my daughter. Even holding other people's children feels weird. Maybe it's because I'm 8 months pregnant, but another 3-year-old kept putting her hands on me after church last week, and I wanted to say, "I'm not your mother. Don't touch me."

I'm a lot more tolerant of crying babies, after learning that, no, you can't make a child stop crying, and of kid's with dirty faces or sticky hands, because it's a darn sight easier to let them run around that way than to try to clean them up.

I took my daughter to a family (emphasis on family) restaurant in a mall when she was two. There were a mom and dad, little boy at least three, and a baby at a table next to us. The boy did not stop crying FOR AN HOUR. It wasn't just wailing, either. A lot of it was a really annoying, monster-like "HOO-HOO-HOO" sound. My daughter sometimes does that when she doesn't have any crying left but still wants us to know she's really upset. FOR AN HOUR. I kept thinking, there are two of you. Why doesn't one of you take him out of here so other people can enjoy their meals???

I don't have kids, but I've tended to my nieces and nephews and friends' kids enough to to understand how much it sucks when kids in your care meltdown in public.

How I respond usually depends on the setting, the circumstances and my own mood (sometimes my own trying day makes me less tolerant of others' outbursts, which I try to be aware of). It also depends on whether the parent in question is empathetic to the impact their kids have on we the public, or if they're the type who think we all must bask in the glory of their parenthood.

I'm stuck in a hotel room right now with the Tasmanian devil my daughter morphs into when she needs a nap; we can't go anywhere until she takes one. That's what you have to do sometimes as a parent. I think a lot of people haven't figured that out yet. They think they can still just so whatever the f*ck they want, whenever they feel like it, and the rest of the world can just deal. Self-important, inconsiderate assholes raising more of the same.

I generally like my friends' kids... The only exception is one of my (divorced) cousin's little boys, who is an annoying little whiner. Kids I don't know, I can do without. I have empathy for the mom with the kid having the meltdown at the grocery store (because we all have to eat), but that's about it. I don't expect small children to behave perfectly all the time... But I also don't expect to see them at the nail salon, the pub, or the fine dining establishment.

Anyone writing for Jezebel is a jerk in search of eyeballs and a tiny paycheck. Too bad this monster decided to reproduce.

I love it when someone ELSEs kid screams in public.

I especially love when my same-age nephew throws a fit, especially if it is in front of my MIL.

Actually, mine tends to have more meltdowns at home. Usually I know what caused it. Like, this week has been difficult for a few reasons...

1) My parents were here all last week upsetting her routine
2) My choir had 3 performances last week, and extra rehearsal, so her bedtime routine was also interrupted, and I was not there
3) She got sick.

So this week she's very clingy and whiny and a bit difficult.

If she has a break down, its usually because we've done too much and she's overtired. Now that I'm getting better at this parenting thing, I'm getting better at predicting when problems will occur.

For example: bedtime. It has to get started early enough, before she gets tired, and allow time for her to run around naked and not put pajamas on. If we start too late, we get impatient and don't give her time time she needs to leisurely get ready for bed, and she gets annoyed, and she's overtired anyways.

Or transitions in general. If I just grab her when she's in the middle of playing to run to the store, it's a problem. If I allow time for her to finish what she's doing, dress herself, and go to the car it works much better.

From what I can tell so far, its chilling out and allowing time for stuff and not over extending the kid that is the trick.

My kids were all good. The bad ones are buried in the back yard. Kidding - slightly.

Their mother would not put up with that nonsense for a second. So, it didn't happen. Even on non-stop flights from Detroit to Osaka - 14 hours in an economy class seat. They were always easy to please and amused themselves with coloring books or whatever else they took along.

It's never a problem if you're married to Superwoman. I have no useful advice for mere mortals. It's good to be lucky.

My kids were all good. The bad ones are buried in the back yard. Kidding - slightly.

This made me laugh. I have 3 daughters and on more than one occasion when they were being pains in my ass, I would tell them, "Ya know, you used to have an older brother...you don't see him now, do you?" I only did that when they were older.

But on topic...I hate other people's kids. I barely tolerated mine most of the time (I always loved them). But at least with mine, I could discipline them. You can't do that with other people's kids.

The classic "other people's kids" complaint is children misbehaving in a restaurant. However, in several years working in restaurants, I rarely saw this, if ever. Kids might be a little louder and a little messier, (although no more so than a drunk customer or one eating lobster) but I can't think of a single occasion that stands out as truly awful.

Middle aged adults behaving badly though--whew! It seems like the most entitled, selfish, demanding, and obnoxious customers have been (presumably) childless couples in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. There's just this attitude of entitlement and indifference to the other patrons and waitstaff that's extremely unpleasant: disregarding the line at the hostess stand, expecting the best seats in the house, monopolizing the server's attention, expecting fast-food-esque wait times on a busy Saturday night, etc.

I'm not implying that all middle aged childless couples fit this profile (plenty have been amazing!), just people that behave this way tend to come from that demographic. I think maybe raising kids helps instill humility and a reality check. And you're not going to waste time complaining when you're busy making sure junior isn't throwing his spaghetti.

I think it relates to the topic but when it comes to being considerate to troublesome kids I'm civil to them but I refuse to please them the exact way I'm meant to please better behaved kids who I can connect with.