I was sitting in the Burnaby Whole Foods on Sunday morning in the store’s lounge area.
It’s a great place to hang on a weekend morning. Free wi-fi, plenty of natural light and enough silence that it comes close to resembling a library.
Except yesterday.
The place was 99 per cent adults, talking quietly or working on laptops.
It was the one per cent that ruined it. A mom was there with her two children. One looked about three years old and the other about 18 months.
Mom was feeding the youngest some pieces of banana as he sat in a buggy. Except that she was taking a long time between handing out bites. That’s because she was staring at her phone and texting. As she typed away, her baby looked at her and let out a high-pitched wail – the kind that makes the hair on your neck spontaneously combust.
Ten seconds went by. Thirty seconds. One minute. All the time, the baby letting out that wail. He wasn’t crying, he was just telling her, “mom, for eff sakes, give me another bite.”
Mom gave him another bite before going back to her texting.
After about five seconds of chewing, the baby let out another distress call.
Ten seconds went by. Thirty seconds. One minute. OK, you get the point. This was repeated over and over as mom pounded away on her phone.
I looked around and could see people staring at her. A couple of people frowned, the glow of laptop screens highlighting their frustration.
It’s one of those times when everybody in the room is thinking the same thing, but nobody wants to say it out loud.
Well, I said it.
I politely (it was more gracious than she deserved) asked her to find a way to stay off her phone and feed her child so said infant would stop making a noise that entices small dogs to howl.
She looked at me incredulously, carving me up with her eyes like it was the Red Wedding. It was one of those entitled “How dare you not let me do whatever the hell I want!” looks.
She didn’t respond to my comment. Instead, she started feeding the rest of the banana to the now-delighted baby. Then she packed up and left in a huff.
I actually saw one guy fist pump when she left.
Look, I get it. Babies make noise. Believe me, I get it. My daughter is 20 now, but I still remember those days.
It’s not that people should expect silence from children, but when they are wailing, don’t stare at your damn phone. Don’t ignore it. You should absolutely be worrying about the comfort of people trying to eat their meal or drink their coffee.
The problem is too many parents either don’t care about others, or they hear this racket so much they just automatically tune it out. We've hit this era in which some new parents think every action of their child needs to be accepted without question so they don't feel oppressed.
That works fine when you’re at home or driving, but when you’re sitting 10 feet away from me while I’m chilling on a Sunday morning, you have to shut that stuff down – or at least make an attempt. I understand that sometimes babies are just grumpy and if you're trying to calm them, I will cut you some slack. Maybe I'll make some goofy faces to make the baby laugh. Kids actually love me.
But if you're just texting while your baby is testing out the range of their lung capacity, I will have thoughts for you.
So should others.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44
