Screaming kids are par for the course in a public space. Even the most well-parented kids are prone to the occasional tantrum, and who can blame them?
People say childhood is the most magical time of our lives, but is it really? Is having no control over how you live your life really all it’s cracked up to be? Look, mum, if I want to stick my finger in this plug socket, you can’t stop me.
Sympathy aside, even the most patient adult can be tested when they’re in close proximity to a kid who just won’t shut up.
In Australia, one café owner was driven to their wits end by a particularly loud set of children.
After a long period of incessant crying, the owner of Adele’s Café in West Point asked the parents of a two and three-year-old to leave.
The owner, Adrian Dall'oste, told FEMAIL that the children had flown into tantrums, saying the eldest of the tots “showed his unhappiness by clearing [the] shelf off with all [their] shells and items on the counter”.
He continued: "Then he picked up one of the metal flasks and threw it on the tiles - I was surprised it didn't smash the tiles.
"My staff member looked at me like 'what should we do' and I waved my hands like it will be over a minute - but they didn't leave, they sat at a table outside."
15 minutes into the siege, he went outside and asked them to leave. The mum “appeared shocked” while the dad said it was “bad business”. Dall’oste might have wondered how much business the screaming kids were repelling from the café, of course.
"I told him, 'No, it is bad parenting,'" he responded. Shots fired indeed.
Laura Edwards, another customer and mum at the café that day, took exception to the decision.
She told Dall’oste that he and his staff “were disgusting”, according to the businessman.
Later, Edwards jumped on social media to “post a video telling people not to come [to the café]”.
After taking the strangers’ grievance into her own hands, she was likely surprised to get the opposite reaction to what she intended.
"Good on the business owner,” replied one commenter. “I would have done the exact same thing. He has a duty to make sure everyone has an enjoyable experience. I have kids and when they were little, if they carried on like little brats I would have packed up and left out of respect for others."
"I was sitting outside at the time of the tantrum and didn't hear them,” Edwards told FEMAIL. “The doors are open the whole time - and I would have thought I would hear screaming and children throwing things. The only thing I could hear was the owner kicking them out."
Dall'oste said she hadn’t been privy to the full event, however.
Nevertheless, Edwards wouldn’t back down. Anyone would think it was her kids who’d been asked to leave.
She told FEMAIL: "I think sometimes you do get looked down upon when having kids, especially if they're having tantrums and stuff, but their brains aren't fully developed at that age, and they need help to process those emotions."
Dall’oste nevertheless claimed that the day after he took action his café enjoyed “double sales”.
Was he out of line, or would you like to see a bit of Dall’oste’s no-nonsense attitude at your local café?
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Rachael Davis