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Wow. I'm sorry for you and your dog. As a big dog lover, that would have really upset me.
So - does anyone think that it WOULDN'T have been rodentraiser's right to yell at that stranger's child for hitting his dog? Doing something to directly impact his life at the laundromat. Hitting his dog. I would have yelled at the kid, and if the mother said something about me yelling at her kid, I would have gone off on her, too. You don't hit my dog. I don't care who you are. You don't hit any dog.
If a child hit my child, I'd not yell at the offending party. I'd tell (TELL, not yell) the child to go back by his mother and not to hit my child again. A dog is no better than a child. rodent could have taken the child over to the mother and explained what happened if he/she was really interested in making sure this child didn't do it again. But rodent isn't concerned about that. rodent is concerned only with her dog and proving that all children are *******s.
She had already asked them to leave, already offered to box up their order, they were the ones who refused those solutions so tact wasn't working. I guess she could have called the police and had them forced out of the restaurant, that might have been one solution. The thing is this would have never happened had the PARENTS act responsibly. Had they been considerate enough to prevent their child from ruining everyone else's breakfast, by either removing the child or figuring out a way to quiet her, the owner would not have lost it.
The mother's story is very different. According to her the owner didn't ask them to leave.
What i do find very interesting is the mom states she did at one point consider taking the little bundle of joy out of the diner, but it was raining outside....so as a parent, for you to consider taking your child outside, you must have known she was acting up, but almost had the mindset of "well i dont want to get wet, so i will let my snowflake continue to disrupt" there is the entitlement trait in full bloom
Last edited by Keep It Simple; 07-25-2015 at 08:34 AM..
What i do find very interesting is the mom states she did at one point consider taking the little bundle of joy out of the diner, but it was raining outside....so as a parent, for you to consider taking your child outside, you must have known she was actting up, but almost had the mindset of "well i dont want to get wet, so i will let my snowflake continue to disrupt" there is the entitlement trait in full bloom
I worked late on Fridays and then went to the laundromat. Because it was somewhat isolated, I used to bring my Doberman in with me and to keep him occupied, I also brought in his blanket and a rawhide chew toy.
One evening, a mother and her son, about 4 or 5, came in. The little boy was running around past my dog who didn't pay any attention as he was chewing on his rawhide. Of course, the mom was completely ignoring him. Suddenly he came up alongside my dog and hit him as hard as he could across the back before I could even react, and I was watching him. My dog, much more tolerant than me, merely stopped chewing and looked at the kid and then at me, wanting to know what was up. I told the kid loudly to knock it off and leave the dog alone. The kid reared back for another slap and I took the dog and put him back in my car. Mom never even turned around to look.
Know why I don't like kids running around unsupervised? Because kids can be badly hurt and then guess whose fault it is? As far as I'm concerned, my dog had a right to take that kid's arm off at the shoulder when the kid slapped him. Because I actually trained and worked with my dog, he didn't.
And speaking of which, I still remember taking my dog into the bank with me. I'd stand in line with my dog sitting next to me in the heel position. When the line moved and I moved, the dog would get up, move forward with me and sit again. Compare that to the kid that was running around the bank totally out of control. There were a lot of nice comments direct towards my dog that day and a lot of people who mentioned how well behaved my dog was compared to the little brat running around.
It's sad when I take more time to train my dog to behave in public than some people take to train their kids.
How well did your kids behave in public, Magritte?
I agree with your entire post except in this case...the child was two, they put her pancake just out of her reach....her response (crying) is what a 2 year old is supposed to do...I object to people saying a 2 year old crying in frustration is bad behavior. And I say that as someone who doesn't have kids and doesn't particularly like being around kids. But I know developmental stages and this little baby was appropriate behavior-wise for her age. It's the parents who didn't take her out (and put the pancake out of reach in the first place) that are to blame. What would have been the big deal if the baby ate her pancake before everyone elses came out??
If a child hit my child, I'd not yell at the offending party. I'd tell (TELL, not yell) the child to go back by his mother and not to hit my child again. A dog is no better than a child. rodent could have taken the child over to the mother and explained what happened if he/she was really interested in making sure this child didn't do it again. But rodent isn't concerned about that. rodent is concerned only with her dog and proving that all children are *******s.
I don't think a dog and a child are the same in that situation. The dog can't speak. What it CAN do is bite the kid or attack it, and the mom and kid are lucky the Doberman didn't do that in that case. Getting hit by a stranger, even just a child? That dog could have gone after that kid. And then we all know what would have happened next - lawsuit against rodentraiser. Because somebody decided to smack the dog.
A child that walks up to an animal that is sitting there doing nothing but chewing on its bone then smacks it using all the force he has deserves to be yelled at, to me. Sorry but that's how I see it. Especially if it's MY dog and I don't know the child. I will be yelling at that kid. And the mother can shove it.
I don't think a dog and a child are the same in that situation. The dog can't speak. What it CAN do is bite the kid or attack it, and the mom and kid are lucky the Doberman didn't do that in that case. Getting hit by a stranger, even just a child? That dog could have gone after that kid. And then we all know what would have happened next - lawsuit against rodentraiser. Because somebody decided to smack the dog.
A child that walks up to an animal that is sitting there doing nothing but chewing on its bone then smacks it using all the force he has deserves to be yelled at, to me. Sorry but that's how I see it. Especially if it's MY dog and I don't know the child. I will be yelling at that kid. And the mother can shove it.
Here is the crazy part....there is a group of parents out there, not concerned that their child for no reason smacked a strange dog, they will try to assign blame to the dogs owner saying something like "what is tha dog doing inside the laundromat"
This past Friday evening, 5 of us went out to eat....there was a family there, and they allowed their daughter/toddler, to ruin everyone else's evening. She would scream, and they would laugh...and this went on during the entire time they were there....everyone kept looking at them, and yet, not once did they say no to her...they laughed at her and encouraged her to do it more....
People were looking at them....but they didn't care...I almost got up and said something to them...you couldn't hear anyone else talking...and when they got up to leave, I honestly thought that people would start clapping.
So, yeah, I've run into this problem a lot....
When we were kids and in public, we had to whisper and if we went out to eat, we were seen and not heard....and if we caused a commotion, we were taken outside, and our butts were smacked....or the parents left and went home....
This ruins everyone else's evening out, and enough is enough....parents have to learn how to be parents....
I don't know if the parents of this child are going to sue her, but I back her 100%
Or, you could just yell at the kid to shut up and sit down, like I did once.
This morning, in another thread on another topic, I found myself posting post after post. There are times many of us find ourselves doing that. Usually that's a signal that, if we are really thinking, we probably need to step back, relax, and sometime later see if our perspective really fits the situation.
Of course it depends on age, but children are not always faultless or blameless. And, children aren't going to go into real meltdown over someone yelling at them. I think this is what one poster means when she refers to children as "snowflakes" -- the idea that children will melt if something unpleasant happens to them.
I don't expect children to be perfect. I was an educator for 33 years. Trust me, I know how imperfect children can be. But I do expect parents to be considerate of others. When I go out and spend my money buying a meal, I expect to be able to eat in relative peace. If I go to a movie, I ought to be able to enjoy the film. There is a time and place for children, and even their sometimes bad behavior; but that time and place is not where it is affecting others for more than a couple of minutes.
A couple of months ago I was in a grocery store shopping for about 30 minutes. There was a youngster probably about the same age as the child in the diner who screamed and cried at the top of her lungs for the entire time. As far as I'm concerned, that mother was being negligent to the needs of the child and negligent to the needs of other people in a PUBLIC place.
The responses online by the diner owner are a little off the wall. No question. So what? It isn't an either/or situation. It isn't that either the diner owner OR the parent is wrong. Both were wrong.
One day I was on a 2 hour flight and sitting next to a mother with her baby. Fine with me...I thought. The minute the plane took off the baby started screaming. And did for 2 full hours. When the plane touched down the baby finally stopped screaming. And then, just to make it a perfect day, the baby vomited on me. Now I felt sorry for the baby, and I imagine the air pressure was hurting the baby's ears. But I was not sorry for the mother, because she just totally ignored the screaming and crying. She was being negligent.
And then, parents of misbehaving children have no understanding at all of why a growing number of restaurants do not serve families with children under a certain age. Or why there are increasing calls for young children to be segregated in terms of seating on airplanes. Etc.
I can let things go pretty far when it comes to how children behave. But not when it shows a lack of parent action to alleviate the situation. Your child should not be my problem.
^ "Snowflakes" refers to children whose parents feel they are unique and above reproach. It's usually, in my experience, used when discussing anti-vaxxers, whose children are way too special and unique to receive that deadly concoction of God knows what. It's just a term used to describe parents who think their children do no wrong and are very special and unique - like a snowflake. No snowflake is the same...
In this situation, it's used for people who are outraged someone would dare yell at a child and who think everyone but the parents/child were in the wrong. "Snowflakes" is used to sarcastically discuss the children who in no way deserve to be yelled at.
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It's just a term used to describe parents who think their children do no wrong and are very special and unique - like a snowflake. No snowflake is the same... 
