Parents Just Don't Understand

or, Only Stupid People Are Breeding

If I decide to come eat at a restaurant where you are enjoying a meal, and start to scream for 20 minutes, it is reasonable to expect a manager to intervene. Which is what happened at an O’Charley’s in Kentucky, except I wasn’t the one screaming. It was a little baby.
And, in this story, I completely take the side of restaurant, and I can’t imagine who wouldn’t. If your kid is crying and you can’t make it stop, bring the child outside. That’s the price you pay for not paying the price for the babysitter. If you don’t do this, and a manager comes to ask you to, be polite and apologetic, for it is you who are disturbing the peace in this situation. The expectation of a nice, quiet time in a restaurant is approximately equal to the expectation (now) of a smoke-free environment or the expectation of no machine parts in my fajita at a Montana’s 2 years ago. A hands-off approach to parenting is a fairly terrible idea, and even I, a dumb, childless man, know that a crying baby is trying to tell you something. Parents who get fed up after two minutes of trying to shut their baby up and go back to enjoying their food while they let their kid exhaust itself are thoughtless and awful. And, the ones that let their kids run around a busy restaurant where waiters are running around with plates and trays are negligent, too.
End rant.
Also, this story seems like a fun time to bring up a poll I saw on gawker.com asking which you would rather get: herpes or pregnant?