There’s nothing worse than trying to enjoy a nice meal at a restaurant or watch a movie at the theater and having a crying kid ruin the whole thing as they lose it in public. However, most parents are responsible enough to take the upset child away from the space until they calm down in order to avoid disturbing everyone else. That’s just the courteous thing to do, but not for one dad who refuses to take his screaming rugrat away just to appease other adults. Instead, he thinks they should just deal with it and let kids be kids. Yes, really.
While it’s a well-known fact that kids throw tantrums regardless of how well they’re raised, parenting skills truly come into play when one of these meltdowns happens in public. It shouldn’t be embarrassing for the parent, but it is. That’s usually because they’re well aware that no one else wants to hear their screeching minion losing their shit. However, TikToker Owen Squires (@owen_squires) doesn’t see the big deal and that everyone should have to listen to his kid crying.
“If my child is ever crying at the grocery store, I am not removing them from the grocery store, and I’m sorry if that makes you mildly uncomfortable or brings out the controlling part of your personality, but it is not illegal for a child to have feelings,” he said in a now-viral clip.
Owen believes we should all accept that kids have meltdowns
@owen_squires gentleparenting children parents
In his eyes, he believes everyone around him should have to exercise the same patience that he tries to as a parent. Owen says that if we did all chill out and try and get all zen while someone else’s kid screams the place down, the kid would then learn lessons about empathy. He also believes other parents deserve a little grace as well to figure out what to do next and how to talk the kid down.
Owen remembered his own child losing it in public after waking up from a nap after the family had gone on vacation. “I can feel everybody in the f*cking grocery store just like staring at us, and I look around, and it’s like a goddamn car wreck like, all eyeballs are on us,” he said. “Now I can feel my anxiety level rising … I can feel my anger level rising like now this is affecting my ego. Everybody’s looking at me and judging me for how my child is behaving and now I’m angry with my own child for being a child.”
Admittedly, kids will be kids. They’re all absolute nightmares at times and it’s not the parents’ fault. However, it’s also not other people’s responsibility to have to listen to it. Yes, everyone should exercise patience and empathy, but if we’re getting to minute 10 of your child screaming bloody murder, that’s a problem and you need to take them to a quiet place until they calm down, right? Not according to Owen.
He believes that parents try techniques to soothe their kids in public that don’t actually work all because they feel pressured and judged by others to hurry up and fix what’s happening. “So, I think there would be a lot more parents that would be willing to be patient with their children if society could just like f*cking relax and be a little bit more accepting of children and the fact that they’re not always sunshine and rainbows,” he explained.
The responses Owen got were mixed, with some people agreeing that raising kids should be a “community effort” (no thanks — I’m happily childfree for a reason!) while others insisted that regardless of how “natural” it is for a child to have a meltdown, that’s no excuse for “being inconsiderate of others” by having a crying kid carry on in public.
What do you think?
