Should parents not bring their babies to fancy restaurants?

On Reddit, a woman kick-started a conversation about dining-out etiquette after venting that her first time dining out with her husband since welcoming their second child was completely ruined by another couple's crying baby.

The mother-of-two explained she was looking forward to enjoying her meal at a "very nice fancy restaurant," but it was short-lived after a young couple with a wailing child were seated next to them.

The woman detailed she initially asked the waiter if they could move to a different table, but the couple overheard her complaining and became frustrated, saying there was "nothing they could do" about their crying child.

"At first, it was fine but after a few minutes, the baby started crying. They tried to comfort it, but every time it seemed they had managed to make it sleep, it woke up crying again. We just wanted to leave but we had already ordered so we decided to ask the waiter if we could change tables to sit at the other end of the restaurant," she wrote via Reddit.

"The waiter asked if there was a problem and I said it was our first time out after having a baby and we didn't feel like spending our evening next to someone else's crying baby. He was super nice and quickly asked another waiter to help him set up the new table for us," she continued.

That's when the couple with the crying baby allegedly called the woman "an a--hole."

"She went on and on saying that I probably don’t have kids (I have 2), and that babies are also people and we should just accept that babies can be loud and cry and there's nothing she could do about it," the woman wrote.

She added that she was "annoyed" by the other woman's comment and eventually lashed out, telling her she should have gone home with the crying baby so as not to disturb other patrons.

"I didn't want to start a fight or anything but I got really annoyed by her attitude, so I told her that she could actually do something about the crying. She could take her baby home so it can properly sleep and then let everyone else there enjoy their meals. She kept saying stuff but I just ignored her, went to our new table and tried to have a nice dinner (although we could still hear the crying baby but at least it was not right next to us)," the woman concluded.

In the comments section, Reddit users sided with the woman.

"People with crying babies should get up and take them out of the dining room to soothe them. Yes, even if it means coming back to a cold plate," one person wrote.

"If you can't calm down your crying baby, I'm sorry, but you need to leave. The baby isn't enjoying themselves at that point any more than the parents or the other patrons. Maybe they are too warm, there are too many strange noises, sharp smells ... doesn't really matter, why put the baby and yourselves through unnecessary stress? Ask for the food to go and one parent waits outside with the baby," another commented.

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