Kids In Restaurants

Parents Irate After Restaurant Owner ‘Snaps’ at Screaming Child

#Sorrynotsorry.
#Sorrynotsorry.

A Portland, Maine, restaurant owner this past weekend raged at a 2-year-old “demon” who she says was allowed to scream like a banshee for 40 minutes during their busy brunch hour.

Darla Neugebauer says the parents came into Marcy’s Diner and ordered their daughter three pancakes “bigger than her head,” but kept them out of her reach, inciting the “monster” to scream even more. Neugebauer also says she dropped increasingly less subtle hints to the parents (loudly asking staff where their check was, asking them to take their daughter outside, straight up saying it was time to go), until the fuse burned out:

“I slammed my hands on the counter and said, ‘This needs to stop,’ meaning her screaming, and I pointed at her … And she looked at me and she stopped. And her parents said, ‘Are you screaming at a child?’ ‘Yes I am. And she shut up.’

Now some moms are calling Neugebauer out. When the local news interviewed her, though, and asked if she wanted to apologize for the incident, Neugebauer didn’t back down: “Sorry isn’t the right word. I might have used poor judgement. I wouldn’t say I was sorry, because it stopped. When things stop, it’s usually a good thing.” Alas, the toddler’s parents left an angry Facebook message (since removed, but it asked, “Who in their right mind would behave like this unless you are deranged?”), to which Neugebauer replied, “You are lucky I didn’t get really fucking nuts because being physical is not something I cower from.”

Neugebauer doesn’t appear to cower from potential backlash, either, telling reporters “Life is full of choices, and you have to live with all of them … I chose to yell at the kid and it made her shut up, which made me happy. It made my staff happy. It made the 75 other people in the restaurant happy.”

[WCSH]

Parents Irate After Restaurant Owner ‘Snaps’ at Screaming Child