Tara Carson and her family went for breakfast last Saturday on vacation. They left Internet famous as the family screamed at by a Maine diner owner who thought their 21-month-old child was disruptive.
An ensuing battle of Facebook posts went viral, naturally, as the owner of Marcy's Diner in Portland, Maine, accused the child of being out-of-control and the parents as selfish. The Carsons, meanwhile, couldn't believe their slightly fussy but well-behaved daughter -- patient after a long wait for pancakes -- was being screamed at with such rage. Cue a debate about kids in public, rude service, the Internet...
Now Tara Carson has a new piece in the Washington Post with more details:
I continued feeding my child because the food was finally on the table. A few minutes later, Neugebauer, now behind the grill, slammed her hands on the counter. She pointed at my baby’s face and screamed, “You need to shut the hell up!”
My husband replied, “Are you serious? Are you really yelling at a toddler right now?”
“As serious as a heart attack,” she said, with fury in her eyes.
I’ll never forget the look of fear on my baby’s face.
They left, Carson writes, after leaving a 25 percent tip for the waitress. And then:
I thought that was that. But after I left a Facebook post about my experience on the Marcy’s Diner page, Neugebauer responded with a nasty, profanity-laden attack where she called my baby an “IT,” a beast and a rotten child. News outlets picked it up, and the story quickly spread. All of a sudden, thousands of strangers were commenting on my parenting skills.
What got lost is that it’s never okay to yell at a baby, especially if you own a restaurant. You should care about providing good service to their patrons. Neugebauer could have come over politely and told us our baby was disruptive. She should not have thrown things or yelled or cursed.
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