Dad responds to judgemental diners after his toddler’s restaurant tantrum
A dad has posted a photo of his daughter throwing a temper tantrum on his blog to change judgemental attitudes towards parents.
Clint Evans, the dad behind No Idea What I'm Doing: A Daddy Blog, and his wife took their kids out to a family dinner, when his toddler had a tantrum.
He was forced to take her out of the restaurant to calm her down, but not before receiving judgemental stares from other diners.
In a post to Facebook, Evans writes: "She had a meltdown because mum wouldn't let her throw chicken strips. So she screamed, and screamed, and kicked and kicked, and since I was the only one finished with my meal, I had the pleasure of dragging her out of Red Robin."
He continues: “I carried her past the bar and everyone stared at me, most of them childless, I assumed. No one with children would give me that straight faced, lip twisted, look that seems to say, ‘If you can't control your kid, then don't go out.’”
Evans has something to say about that.
“Well... no. I can't control her. Not all the time. Not yet,” he says. “She's two and it's going to take years to teach her how to act appropriately in public, and the only way I am ever going to teach that is to take her out and show her what's right and wrong. By saying no a million times, letting her throw a fit, and telling her no again.”
He ended with a plea for people to take a second to rethink their criticism and try to empathise rather than judge.
“I get it. Kids are irritating when they are loud in a restaurant. I know. I’m living it. But before you get angry and judgmental, realise that what you are witnessing is not bad parenting, but rather, parents working hard to fix the situation. You are looking at what it takes to turn a child into a person.”
Related links:
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The new grandparenting handbook
Hilarious video of grandparents worrying about their granddaughter