People Who Think Babies Come With An ‘Off’ Button Are Intolerable

I’m so sick of people complaining about crying babies. Get a grip. Anyone who has a fit about babies who cry has obviously never lived in a city, or had loud neighbors, or had anyone interfering in their totally insular, somehow silent lives.

I hate to break it to you – you are not the only person who lives on this planet. We have to live here too, and some of us have babies.

This is something I think about often, because there is always some new story about someone freaking out about the presence of a baby. In some cases, it’s warranted. In others – not so much. The most recent story, was told by Dad on the Run – about this lovely letter left for his sister who had a crying child at a ski lodge. Her neighbor could not understand why anyone would dare take their offspring on a family vacation:

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Since when did having a baby mean you were tethered to your home until your child was a refined human who didn’t cry when he felt sick or scream for strange reasons? Babies do these things. Parents, contrary to popular belief, don’t sit around staring at them doing nothing to try to stop the madness. I promise you, if you are annoyed by the sound of a crying child – the parent is way more annoyed and also taxed with the job of being the one who has to stop it.

I understand wanting a sound sleep, that’s why before I had children I packed earplugs with me wherever I went. Now I have to actually hear these little minions in the night – so I don’t have that luxury. Travel prepared.

When my first child was an infant, I lived over a restaurant that decided to turn into a full-on nightclub on the weekend because their business was suffering. They brought in a terrible sound system that shook my whole house until five o’clock in the morning. It was the worst. In another apartment, my upstairs neighbor walked in heels all day. It was the strangest thing.

When I would step away from house to enjoy my lunch, there was always something speaking loudly into a phone or otherwise being annoying. Inevitably there were parents with kids who would be loud and annoying, too. As long as the parents weren’t allowing these kids to invade my space – I shrugged it off. You have to. Or you allow the world to ruin things for you. And that sucks.

This letter writer had her weekend ruined – not because of a crying child – but because she felt so entitled to silence she would rather stew in anger than try to do something about it. Ask the resort for earplugs. See if they could move her to a different room. Understand that kids cry and don’t give yourself a rage stroke. We are all in charge of how we react – and I promise you that our reactions shape our realities so much. If you decide that the sound of a crying baby is going to ruin your weekend – it is.

We need more people who think of others and less selfish ones.

Exactly. But not for the reasons you may think I’m implying. When you understand that you can never totally escape the annoyances of others, you develop a more Zen-like attitude about it and drive yourself less crazy. Also, you come off as less of a jerk – so bonus.

(photo: Dad on the Run)

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