Barnes & Noble

Earlier while we were at Barnes & Noble, Travis began to have a complete fussy/meltdown period. Joseph and I were sitting on the table in the adjacent Starbucks enjoying our drinks and talking. I noticed Travis was starting to get a bit fussy so I held him and walked around the store. It helped him a bit, but he was still being a bit fussy so I went ahead and changed his diaper in the restroom. Upon our return to where Joseph was, Travis’s fussiness became more apparent. I tried giving him his bottle, but he was not having it. He began to cry and let out a little scream. 

While people around us were kind enough to not pay us any attention there was this one lady that gave me that, “Why can’t you shut your kid up look.” This lady, young lady actually had this annoyed look on her face as if I disrupted her from the most important thing in the world. At first I thought, “well maybe she’s doing homework,” (my attempt at sympathizing) so I took a quick glance at her laptop only to find that she’s just on Skype chatting away while pretending to do her paper. 

In return, I gave her the “stop staring at me or I’ll say something to you” look and gathered up Travis’s stuff (with the help of Joseph) and proceeded to leave. I don’t know this lady at all, but I was so irritated at that look she gave me. It made me feel like I was the most horrible mom in the world. That look made me more tense and anxious than I already was. 

I understand that a crying baby is disruptive especially if you’re studying. I know this very well myself because I’ve studied at Starbucks, numerous coffee shops, bookstores, etc many many times. However, these locations are very public places and one should not expect complete silence. Isn’t that what a library is for?

After leaving the store, we went back into the car to drive home. Turns out that my little prince was sleepy and just needed the smooth vibrations of a moving car to lull him to sleep.