Entitlement at the Coffee Shop! A Sunday Afternoon Rant.

I posted this rant to my social media account, asking my parent friends if this was deemed acceptable behavior by parents now. Everyone has responded with a resounding NO!, so at least I know I keep good company.

So I'm at a downtown coffee shop working on school. I'm in the back room because it's the only place there are free tables during the noon hour. A woman walks in holding a baby and asks if it will bother me if they sit back here. Seeing as she seems to consider others, I figure everything will be fine. I'm friendly and welcome her to sit down. A few more people join her. They're chatty but it's a coffee shop on the weekend, so I know what I'm getting into.

Then the baby starts up. He's walking/crawling all over this tiny room, throwing toys all over, screaming, and running out to the rest of the restaurant unsupervised. The adults in charge of him think it's cute. I think it's horribly irresponsible since they are in public, but I don't say anything until the small person starts crawling under MY table directly at my feet. If I stretched me legs out I would have kicked him. The man who is supposed to be in charge of him apologizes but just stands there waiting for the baby to finish its journey into my personal space. I say, "Yeah, could you...?" (BE A DAMN PARENT) and he is no longer apologetic. "Really?!" he says, "This bothers you THAT MUCH?" I return the bitch. "A person crawling under my table? Yeah." "A BABY." He says, as if that makes it fine.

He finally picks up the small person and tells his group, "I'm going to take him outside to walk around. Obviously we're bothering her. Don't worry," he says to me, "We'll be leaving soon." The rest of the group is silent. After he leaves, they just continue their conversation as if they weren't all entitled bitches. First impressions aren't always right. Next time someone asks "Will it bother you...?" That depends. Will you be considerate of others even though you have a baby? Because you can't use your small person as a free pass to be an asshole.