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Guests paid $20 for a quiet experience.
By Megan Quinn — Written on Jan 25, 2023
A man thought that he was going into a quiet museum exhibit to take a few moments to enjoy his surroundings.
He was unfortunately mistaken when a mother brought in her child whose screams sliced through the air, interrupting the peace for not only the man but the other visitors.
When he decided indirectly to ask the woman as politely as he could to either control her child or leave so that other guests could enjoy their experience, she repeatedly berated him for not being tolerant of her screaming child.
Now the man is wondering if he is in the wrong.
The man asked a staff member if he could ‘politely’ instruct the woman to settle her crying child.
Sharing his story to Reddit's subreddit, r/AmITheA–hole, he sought the opinion of other Redditors, asking if he handled the situation poorly.
He began his post by revealing that he and a few of his friends visited a museum recently. As they were paying the entrance fee, two women came in with toddlers in strollers.
“As soon as everyone paid, we entered the main exhibit area where [one of the woman’s children] started nonstop crying,” the man wrote.
“Instead of trying to calm her toddler down, she simply continued her conversation with the other stroller mom over her crying kid.” The crying continued for five minutes with “no end in sight.”
He was not the only museum guest disturbed by the constant noise.
“Multiple people were looking in her direction, silently pleading for her to allow them to enjoy a quiet space they paid $20+ each to enjoy,” he wrote.
His efforts to ignore the child were useless, sharing that “every corner her screeching kid was right there.”
Eventually, he decided to alert a staff member and asked him to say something to the woman.
“I finally walked back to the front and asked the attendant if he could politely mention to her that her child was directly prohibiting everyone’s ability to enjoy their time.”
He re-entered the exhibit after the attendant spoke with the mother, and was met with hostility from the mother.
“She must have guessed I was the culprit and proceeded to call me an a–hole for not being able to tolerate a crying kid,” the Reddit poster wrote. “I chose not to engage and ignored her while she tried and failed to berate me.”
“In my opinion, if you aren’t even trying to quiet your kid down at a museum then you should go outside until they stop to be courteous to everyone else,” he added. “Am I crazy?”
Redditors sided with the man and believed that the mother should have either left the museum or attempted to settle her child.
“If it’s a place where there is any expectation of quiet, leave your kid home, or if you do have to take them, remove them the minute they go higher than a reasonable level of volume,” one user commented.
“You are absolutely right, this is an optional excursion for the mother and a place where people can reasonably expect a relatively calm experience,” another user pointed out. “If your kid won't stop, leave.”
“Kids belong in museums, too, and not silent, just as adults are not silent,” another noted. “But a crying child needs to be cared for, and not to avoid bothering others, but because the kid needs to be taken care of! Tending a child also means the other people around aren’t bothered!”
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.