Breeder with three feral brats at a restaurant lets them run wild and is called out. Let the Butthurt begin.

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Clueless Dud
I’m the dad of 3 kids under 10, and today is the first day of spring break. As a special treat I took them out for a pancake breakfast (we’re not traveling or doing anything fancy otherwise). The place wasn’t busy, and the room we were in had some open space, so I let them play in it once they’d eaten while I finished up and paid. They weren’t louder than the conversation around them, and they weren’t getting in anyone’s way; it was just kid shit like measuring each other and pretending to be trains. This lone boomer in the corner got up to leave just before we did, and decided to announce to the room “these are the worst behaved kids I’ve ever seen” on his way out. I thought he was leading into some kind of joke at first, but no: he just dropped that on my kids and left. The way they shrank in on themselves has me in pieces. Literally every other server and patron in the the room came over the say kind things to my kids, but the damage was done. They’ve absolutely wilted and have barely made a peep the rest of the day. Fuck this boomer asshole for crushing my kids on the first day of spring break, and fuck the boomer “kids should be seen and not heard” mentality that makes kids and parents feel like they’re not allowed to exist in public spaces.

ETA Edit since there are a lot of disappointing reactions in the comments: the restaurant is a kid-friendly place in the suburbs. They have a broad kids menu and toys and kids clothing for sale up front. No sane person would be surprised to see kids acting like kids here.

Edit 2: Oh wow, that’s a lot of notifications! There’s too much to respond to individually, so I’ll just try to hit some of the main themes I noticed while scrolling the comments:

First off, sorry to those annoyed by the dramatic title/tone. It was written in the moment to vent, and yes; I know my kids (and spring break) will ultimately be fine. It just sucked to kick things off with a drive-by from a random boomer.

Thanks to everyone who’s been kind and supportive (especially the fellow parents). I’ve cooled down and debriefed the whole encounter with my kids, and I think overall I handled it as well as I could have. It’s been fun reading all the witty responses I could have used, but I agree it’s probably best things didn’t escalate. The boomer was out the door very quickly after his asshole remark, anyway.

The negative comments I’ve seen have mostly come from the assumption that my kids were way worse than I described (which I guess i should have expected on Reddit). I don’t know what to say if someone’s decided they know what happened better than me, but I’ll expand on some things I mentioned the first time around:

A) My kids were in the open area while I packed up and handled the check, not the whole meal. It was maybe a 3-minute period. During the meal we played with crayons and fidgets, but all at the table. Sitting next to us you would definitely know there were kids, but the idea that they were using the restaurant as a jungle gym or something is silly.

Like I mentioned, the other people in the room went out of their way to show they thought the boomer was being an asshole too. e.g. Our server rushed over after he left and said effectively “I’m so sorry, I don’t know what his problem was. You guys have been great.” I won’t try to detail every interaction on our way out the door, but it was all the kind of stuff I would do towards people who just had a boomer freak out on them, not to people who just got their comeuppance.

C) There’s been a surprising amount of interest in what “pretending to be trains” meant. They were just following each other taking short, choppy steps and saying “chugga chugga chugga.” Try it at home! Just don’t do it around any boomers.

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Clueless Dud
They’ve absolutely wilted and have barely made a peep the rest of the day.

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mumofsixbirds
I'm sure his kids will survive "The Attack of the Angry Boomer" and it won't require therapy.

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freya
Honestly, I'm not sure what all the hate is for Boomers. The few people I know with the stereotypical attitude ascribed to Boomers are younger members of the Greatest Generation and the oldest Boomers.

I've known a few younger Boomers who are entitled and think everyone else is just as entitled except the poor youngest generation and they bitch along with them that things should be better for them. But those are the entitled exceptions. And none of the younger Boomers are actually writing checks to pay off the student loans for the younger ones, so it is just lip service.

Life changed drastically between the youngest and oldest Boomers. Many of the oldest Boomers could find good jobs with a high school degree versus those who followed. Younger Boomers are much more prone to have student loan debt and to not have job security (except the entitled ones).

Besides, this generation thing really isn't the best way to split demographics because it isn't a full generation to start with, it is around 12 years. There are also some notable differences that tend to happen to someone in the same "generation" that is more than 6 years apart.

I really think most of the vitriol towards Boomers is because the most vocal ones are their children. And we all know how much children appreciate their parents. I've noticed it starting to decline recently and my bet is that those vocal kids of the Boomers are starting to have their own children and can't sit around whining anymore. They're too busy doing unpaid caretaking and making a living. And bitching to anyone and everyone about how tired and overwhelmed they are, of course.

My guess is that a considerable part of their anger is from the fact that a certain amount of Boomers refuse to be second parents to their grandkids, eschew being unpaid babysitters, don't live within dumping ground distance, establish healthy boundaries and are content with a visit every few months or a couple of visits per year. They want to be Instagram Grandparents. If they want to pin the "children should be seen and not heard" on their parents then at least their parents established boundaries with their kids. Boomers are out living their lives because they are done with raising children. And their kids are livid about it.

I think it is completely strange to expect your parents to babysit your kids. Where is this expectation coming from? My grandparents lived a couple of hours away and only did this as a rare exception and we mostly saw them for visits only.

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freya
Honestly, I'm not sure what all the hate is for Boomers. The few people I know with the stereotypical attitude ascribed to Boomers are younger members of the Greatest Generation and the oldest Boomers.

I've known a few younger Boomers who are entitled and think everyone else is just as entitled except the poor youngest generation and they bitch along with them that things should be better for them. But those are the entitled exceptions. And none of the younger Boomers are actually writing checks to pay off the student loans for the younger ones, so it is just lip service.

Life changed drastically between the youngest and oldest Boomers. Many of the oldest Boomers could find good jobs with a high school degree versus those who followed. Younger Boomers are much more prone to have student loan debt and to not have job security (except the entitled ones).

Besides, this generation thing really isn't the best way to split demographics because it isn't a full generation to start with, it is around 12 years. There are also some notable differences that tend to happen to someone in the same "generation" that is more than 6 years apart.

I really think most of the vitriol towards Boomers is because the most vocal ones are their children. And we all know how much children appreciate their parents. I've noticed it starting to decline recently and my bet is that those vocal kids of the Boomers are starting to have their own children and can't sit around whining anymore. They're too busy doing unpaid caretaking and making a living. And bitching to anyone and everyone about how tired and overwhelmed they are, of course.

My guess is that a considerable part of their anger is from the fact that a certain amount of Boomers refuse to be second parents to their grandkids, eschew being unpaid babysitters, don't live within dumping ground distance, establish healthy boundaries and are content with a visit every few months or a couple of visits per year. They want to be Instagram Grandparents. If they want to pin the "children should be seen and not heard" on their parents then at least their parents established boundaries with their kids. Boomers are out living their lives because they are done with raising children. And their kids are livid about it.

I think it is completely strange to expect your parents to babysit your kids. Where is this expectation coming from? My grandparents lived a couple of hours away and only did this as a rare exception and we mostly saw them for visits only.

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kittehpeoples
I saw that post. I really appreciated the number of people who were calling bullshit on this asshole about it all, from letting his brats use the space between tables as a playground while he ignored them to the fact that any time breeders insist their children "weren't loud" or "in the way" that you know the kids were absolutely running wild. And dear old dad was melting down at every single criticism.