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Parent Lashes Out At Dog Owner For Scolding Baby Who Cried After Being Scared By His Dog

A dog owner tries to subdue his dog while it barks at another dog that's passing by
Elena Popova/Getty Images

Fur babies and actual babies don’t always mix well at social gatherings.

Especially if the kids and dogs are not fully trained and socialized.

More and more restaurants are implementing restrictions on both.

Whether or not they have good reason remains to be seen.

Case in point…

Redditor cryingbaby897897 wanted to discuss their experience and get some feedback. So naturally, they came to visit the “Am I The A**hole” (AITA) subReddit.

They asked:

“AITA for my kid crying and annoying a dog owner?”

The Original Poster (OP) explained:

“I went out to eat on a patio with my 10-month-old and wife.”

“We got seated at a table next to a guy who brought his dog.”

“It’s medium-sized, not sure what breed.”

“It’s a few minutes, all is well, we get our drinks and order our food.”

“Another guy with a dog shows up.”

“The dog barks/growls at him.”

“The guy gets his dog to be quiet.”

“The other dog doesn’t react at all.”

“We aren’t a dog family.”

“We chose this spot because the weather was great and the food/drinks are good.”

“The presence of a dog doesn’t bother me, but I’m not going to willingly interact with them.”

“My kid has minimal experience around dogs.”

“That’s for his safety.”

“The barking/growling, however, caused my 10-month-old to start crying.”

“It freaked him out.”

“My wife was consoling him.”

“It’s maybe 30 seconds and the other guy tells us maybe we should take him away.”

“I see no reason to do that, and I tell him he’ll be fine in a few minutes.”

“My kid however isn’t calming down as quickly as we hoped.”

“The guy pipes up again and says my crying kid is ruining his meal.”

“I flip out, tell him to shut the f**k up, and blame his dog for why my kid is crying.”

“He tells me if I can’t handle my kid, I shouldn’t be going out to eat.”

“I tell him this whole thing is entirely his fault for bringing his shi**y dog out.”

“He calls me an a**hole and calls the waitress over to complain.”

“My wife and I decide to leave cash and get out of there.”

“Was I in the wrong here?”

Redditors shared their thoughts on this matter and weighed some options to the question AITA:

  • NTA – Not The A**hole
  • YTA – You’re The A**hole
  • NAH – No A**holes Here
  • ESH – Everyone Sucks Here

Many Redditors declared OP (and everyone involved) WAS an A**hole.

“ESH – you both overreacted.”

“Children cry. It happens.”

“He shouldn’t have made that comment, and you went completely nuclear in him.”

“My advice to you is to get your child familiar with dogs.”

“He will go to friends’ homes with dogs.”

“People now bring their dogs everywhere.”

“He needs to know how to feel comfortable around them.”  ~ Additional_Day949

“How the h*ll does someone get a 10-month-old familiar with dogs if they don’t have a dog?”

“The kid hasn’t been alive long enough to get ‘familiar with dogs.'”

“You sound ridiculous.”  ~ Unfair_Finger5531

“Telling a 10-month-old to stop crying is full-blown AH material automatically, dog or not.”

“I should know because I’ve never had any children of my own.”

“I’ve also never cared for any children at any point in my adult life and my only younger sibling was too close in age for me to remember 10 months old.”

“Additionally I don’t work with children and have no desire for children of my own.’

But I am a human… and that’s usually sufficient to understand that a 10-month-old is gonna cry sometimes.” ~ funklab

“It would concern me as an adult who is familiar with dogs, snarling/growling dogs are scary, and they are supposed to be.”

“It’s a natural reaction to a behavior that is meant to be intimidating to the other animal, and we all know what it means, instinctively.”

“Poorly behaved animal owner is the wrong one here, if his dog is reactive he shouldn’t be out in a place with other animals.” ~ mortgage_gurl

“The baby was there before either dog, so you shouldn’t have to move.”

“Everything was fine until the second dog showed up.”

“They have some nerve to tell you to keep your kid quiet when they couldn’t keep his dogs quiet. NTA.”  ~ babcock27

“Whether or not the dog was there first doesn’t really matter.”

“Human trumps animal.”

“I love my dog, she is a 15-year-old husky and an indoor dog.”

“Sleeps on my bed the works.”

“However, when I go out to eat, she stays home… because she is a dog.”

“Why in the world are people taking their pets everywhere?”

“Take the dogs to the park or the beach, not out to eat or shop!” ~ Weak_Protection_7942

“I’m sorry but I disagree.”

“I live in the U[nited] K[ingdom] where dogs are welcome inside of cafes and pubs.”

“I do take my dog sometimes.”

“Not always, but if I’m out on a walk sometimes I like to go to a local cafe for a coffee before continuing on.”

“Often he is served water and a dog biscuit before I’ve even given my order.”

“If dogs are allowed in an area then I have every right to take my dog there as long as he’s well-behaved.”

“He usually just lies next to my seat.”

“These days dogs are part of the family.”

“People take them out places.”

“More and more people don’t have kids, they have dogs.”

“While dogs shouldn’t be allowed everywhere, it’s unreasonable to say well-behaved dogs shouldn’t be allowed in all public spaces.” ~ Kowai03

“Nobody said dogs should be allowed in all public spaces.”

“But you can bet if someone demands I leave a dog-friendly cafe because I have a dog with me, they’re going to find a very stubborn reaction from me.”

“ESH, OP shouldn’t have to move with his baby but neither should the guy with his dog.”

“I would say dog guy is more of an AH though as he didn’t need to pipe up about the baby crying.” ~ WeLikeTheSt0nkz

“Everything between the dogs was fine after the second dog showed up too.”

“The original dog owner got his dog calmed down after one bark and a growl?”

“That’s pretty good for most dogs.”

“When you sit outside at most restaurants, you expect dogs.”

“The parents should know this.”

“Regardless of who is there first.”

“The OP here clearly hates dogs, and that’s ok.”

“But when you sit outside, that’s something you’re going to encounter, and dogs, even the best ones, do bark.”

“Where it becomes ESH is the dog owner’s reaction to the crying baby.”

“And the OP becomes a bit of a d**k for not removing the kid for a bit from the situation since they couldn’t calm down ‘as quickly as we’d like.'” ~ sk8tergater

“Agreed. Neither party handled it well.”

“Especially when it’s pretty common to see parents get up to calm a baby?”

“Babies cry, everyone knows that but- I’ve seen on a few occasions at restaurants people with kids (both babies and toddlers) take them for a walk away from others to help them calm down after being fussy.”

“However the dog guy should not really have commented in the way he did.”  ~ necrobarbie666

“The dog is reactive/aggressive.”

“The owner is also an aggressive a**hole to strangers.”

“That doesn’t sound like the kind of dog you want to trust around your baby.”

“Blaming OP for not exposing their baby to dogs is quite something.”

“I don’t have kids, but I know you wouldn’t allow dogs you know extremely well around a baby.”

“Far less one whose owner can’t handle being around babies.”  ~ Trini1113

“Dude thinks a bark is ‘Aggressive.'”

“I’ve had dogs bark at me and 2 minutes later they are using me as a lap pillow.”

“A bark isn’t being aggressive. It’s a dog communicating.”

“A dog trying to bite you is being aggressive.”

“Sh*t if anything the dog owner is doing the right thing by socializing his dog.”

“OP mentioned that it’s a patio and another dog owner showed up, so I’m going to guess that dogs are allowed.”

“The dog owner didn’t do anything wrong since it wasn’t his dog that barked.”

“OP should have removed the kid from the situation until he calmed down and stopped crying.”

“Imagine if you are sitting down trying to eat and a baby is crying all the time.”

“I’d be annoyed too.”

“Sh*t it’s one of the reasons why a lot of movie theaters have no baby rules.”  ~ Lacyra

“ESH look the reality is dogs are everywhere and will sometimes bark.”

“It’s not always aggressive – it’s how they communicate and pretty normal.”

‘Try getting your kid used to that.”

“You might not be dog people, but you can still turn it into a little game.”

“You bark too – woof woof doggie, make other fun animal noises.”

“It might help in the future so they don’t freak out with a dog bark.”

“The guy was AH for asking you to keep the kid quiet, and you were AH for going crazy at him.”

“You just taught your kid that them crying at a dog bark resulted in you shouting with someone, which I’m sure to upset them too.”

“Guess what’s gonna happen next time a dog barks near you.”  ~ imfinewithastraw

OP came back for a sec…

“This blew up a bit.”

“A few things…”

“The dog barked 5-7 times, in addition to growling.”

“Pre-baby this was not a dog-friendly restaurant. Apparently that is a change in the last 6 months.”

“I didn’t know about this after I looked it up online.”

“This was not a fancy restaurant.”

“It was a local chain that is family-friendly.”

Well, OP, sounds like Reddit has a few problems with everyone involved in this debacle.

It’s always best to try and keep a level head, especially in volatile public situations.

But children do need to learn how to be out in the world, as do dogs.

Perhaps some socialization and time may do the trick.