A Desperate Plea

This is a desperate plea that goes out to everybody with young children. If you are out with them in a situation with lots of other people around and the start making a lot of noise please, PLEASE remove them from that situation.

Currently on the train back from Scotland and there is a kid making a lot of noise. If this wasn't bad enough, I'm in the quiet coach. The one where extra hoops need jumped through to get in and where everyone else had thoughtfully switched phones to vibrate, turned down the ipods and are conducting conversations in no more than whispers. (Oddly enough, the parents are freely chatting to each other at full volume too).

I get having kids isn't always easy and most of them are willfully stubborn. That still doesn't excuse you from your responsibilities to ensure no one else is inconvenienced by your offspring. You might think all your child's noises are cute... We don't. And don't pretend not to see all the exasperated looks flowing in your direction. Muffled, "Shhhhhhh" isn't doing the trick either so please take them into the vestibule or just somewhere else. Why do you specifically book seats in the quiet coach when you know you have a kid that's likely to be noisy?

Don't infer from this post that I don't like kids, the opposite is true. I love family gatherings where I gladly assume the role of entertainer for various sprogs, I enjoy helping with St. John cadets and one of my favourite summer holiday jobs was teaching English to foreign kids while showing them some of our great country. I just don't tolerate poor behaviour.

One year when teaching (the course was residential so the kids got to know us well) my kids nicknamed me Colonel because of my strict attitude to discipline. That's not to say we didn't have a laugh and a good time but they knew what was expected of them and knew I wouldn't tolerate them not living up to it. This was particularly true on city excursions (who isn't familiar with how infinitely frustrating tour groups are) where they knew to stay out of the way and walk at a decent pace. As a result of this, I had strangers coming up to me and commenting on how well behaved the kids were. I fully admit ninety percent of this was due to the kids but I like to think they responded well to me too.

Right. Think I'm going to escalate thing now by adding a passive-aggressive tut to my sharp looks. Wish me luck!

JR