Greg M. Johnson wrote:
> I've done a lot of tourist-y travelling. Granted, it's been to touristy
> places, but it includes NY City subway stations and a lot of places which
> seemed to have included a wide slice of the American demographic. I didn't
> think I needed to "get out more."
> 
> Anyway, we're driving down the eastern seaboard, and stop in Dover,
> Delaware, at a pizza restaurant that is on an eight-lane highway full of
> stoplights, in an ugly place with about a mile of concrete for shopping
> malls on either side of the road.  While we were eating, I was notably
> upset at the babies crying. It sounded like the plaintive wails of
> neglected children, about 3 in the place. I was spooked or creeped out
> after a while and still am when I think about it.
> 
> My wife wondered if it were merely my prejudice at those from a lower
> socioeconomic status. Maybe so, but I thought I'd been around, and just
> exactly how poor can you be and still take your family out to eat?  Our son
> is far from perfect in sociability or manners, but he KNOWS how to behave
> in a restaurant. Since he was 18 months we'd gotten compliments on his
> behavior.  Partly due to pure empathy and letting him know there are things
> we have zero tolerance for. 
> 
> So, is babies-wailing a cultural thing?  If you go to restaurants in
> different corners of Europe or Asia (or the world), is wailing the norm in
> some parts?  Or does it take a lot of disposable income & time to keep
> snacks and toys ready for a kid the moment he peeps?   Or can there be
> geographic concentrations of actual indifference to babies' well-being?
> 
> 
I am not an expert (no kids myself and only one grandson), but I thought 
it is mainly a personality question. Some kids do and some kids don't. A 
bit of training might help a bit in one direction or the other, but 
below a certain age you can not train. I know of families where only one 
baby cried a lot and the others were mostly silent and adult friendly. 
AFAIK nobody knows why some kids wail all the time, it seems unrelated 
to well-being and comfort. I guess you were lucky and so was I (most of 
the time).

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