Judgemental DC parents

[Anonymous]

I'll judge you: Giving your children an electronic device at a restaurant is bad parenting. Your children should know how to sit politely and calmly and converse.

[Anonymous]

"I believe in civility" (unless someone annoys me and then I'll curse at them).

"One more comment and then I'm out" (unless someone disagrees with me and then I'm right back in the fray).

OP, you're not making a great case for yourself. Someone gave you the stinkeye yesterday. It'll be okay. Move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"I believe in civility" (unless someone annoys me and then I'll curse at them).

"One more comment and then I'm out" (unless someone disagrees with me and then I'm right back in the fray).

OP, you're not making a great case for yourself. Someone gave you the stinkeye yesterday. It'll be okay. Move on.

Leave her alone already. We've all given our kids some kind of distraction at the dinner table of a restaurant after a long day that we wouldn't normally. Admit it -- or admit you don't have kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"I believe in civility" (unless someone annoys me and then I'll curse at them).

"One more comment and then I'm out" (unless someone disagrees with me and then I'm right back in the fray).

OP, you're not making a great case for yourself. Someone gave you the stinkeye yesterday. It'll be okay. Move on.

Leave her alone already. We've all given our kids some kind of distraction at the dinner table of a restaurant after a long day that we wouldn't normally. Admit it -- or admit you don't have kids.

Most of us have no issue with the phone. Just her weird anger/certainty/judgmentalness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"I believe in civility" (unless someone annoys me and then I'll curse at them).

"One more comment and then I'm out" (unless someone disagrees with me and then I'm right back in the fray).

OP, you're not making a great case for yourself. Someone gave you the stinkeye yesterday. It'll be okay. Move on.

Leave her alone already. We've all given our kids some kind of distraction at the dinner table of a restaurant after a long day that we wouldn't normally. Admit it -- or admit you don't have kids.

Most of us have no issue with the phone. Just her weird anger/certainty/judgmentalness.

Yes, I'm the first quoted PP and I am not anti-screen or anti-iPhone at all, even at a restaurant occasionally. I don't think OP did anything wrong there. I think her reactions here are extreme and bizarre, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll judge you: Giving your children an electronic device at a restaurant is bad parenting. Your children should know how to sit politely and calmly and converse.

Funny, this is what my in-laws thought, that my little children should be able to have adult conversations and should have been able to sit at the table for hours.

What's funny, is the biological grandchild of my husband's stepmother came along later and simply would not comply. It was hilarious watching them trying to get a two year old to behave like he was 12.

Kids are just that. Let them be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Not sure what she said. She watched me pull out the phone and as soon as I put the phone down, she started whispering in her husband's ear as she was staring at the phone on the table and he then turned to look at it, so I can be 100% sure that is what she was talking about.

Just a bummer and frankly are we all teaching our kids to be nasty and judgmental too?

Maybe she said: "see honey? Kids aren't so bad... How about we fuck like rabbits when we get home?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You played an iphone with volume on. Any level is not okay. Terribly rude! Own it.

+1

So rude, it was probably me giving you the look. We watch movies in public but always with headphones. What type of rude person doesn't use headphones?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I'd say the lady is an ass.
I've never got stares or whispers like that as I'm no competition to parents like her.
I bet you were and she didn't like it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's what I figure when this happens. People for whom it is so important to always be right and show their superiority, in general, are not very happy people. They have some type of inferiority complex in some aspect of their lives so they need to have an outlet in some other area where they can prove how awesome they are.

I usually ignore them, although sometimes I do make a comment back to them just to put them in their place a bit. But overall I feel sorry for them. Feeling good about yourself by putting other people down is a sign of a miserable life.

p.s. my family all lives in a nice Midwestern town and this kind of thing happens there too. It's not just a DC thing.

+10000

I might add: it is much more likely to happen here!

OP, they pride themselves on their shock value. Don't let them. They are not Howard Stern c. 1990.

[Anonymous]

OP, next time use the phone to take her picture. Say loudly to the kids: "one minute, guys - mommy is posting something funny".

Works every time.

STFU, beyotch and mind your own kids.

[Anonymous]

I admit I am a bit "judgy" about electronics in restaurants. I get that it's not bothering anyone, but it seems like kids should be learning to cope in restaurants. These kids are someone's future dining companion.

I do get making exceptions for fussy toddlers or kids who are at the end of their rope for one reason or another.

I think the worst manners include pointing out someone else's manners. The lady was out of line and should have saved her comment/opinion for the car ride home.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, there are going to be rude + judgmental people anywhere you go OP. It's life.

I wouldn't let this idiot woman get to you. She obviously has her own issues if the way you raise your children actually impacts her enough where she has to make a negative comment. She obviously has her own internal issues to deal with and that is her bad.

Who cares what she thinks anyway?
I hope you had a nice dinner out w/your children and don't empower this woman anymore by letting her get to you.

She really is nothing to you or your family.

It is all relative, after all.