Crying baby

Ever go to a live performance or church service… and within 10 minutes of it beginning, you suddenly hear the disturbing wail of a crying infant?  Or at a restaurant?  Many people have called those kinds of interruptions "annoying".  Sometimes I feel like knocking on the parent's head (perhaps with a brick, lol) and calling into their ear, "Is anybody home?"  They are the PARENTS of those crying children.  That means they already know that the infants are the "crying type", and/or they know how long the infants will keep still.  They know that they're bringing in a "ticking time bomb".  They'll undoubtedly have to rush out of the place, hushing the squealing kid and have interrupted everyone else's enjoyment.  Stay at home.  Listen to the webcast of the church service, buy the show's soundtrack, or watch the performance online.  Or get a babysitter.
     There are some couples (married or not) who have children--not to satisfy their own desires--but to satisfy their relatives' desires.  Guilt and family-pressure.  Their parents want to be grandparents, et cetera.  (A friend of ours, who is 29, recently complained that his mother--who is 45--pressures him to have children so she can have more grandkids.  But he's happy with his life, without marriage plans on the horizon).  Then, those "new parents" are miserable with the duties that come with being a parent, and you hear them calling their kid a "pain in the ass".  Its probably not the baby's fault.  In some cultures, families give lots of money to a couple… once they have children.  Especially, if they have a boy.  #1 son!  Poorer couples might "have children" to collect more welfare money from local government.  Some people don't know how to say No, and then they're miserable for several years as a result of their decision.  Some also fail to learn to make better decisions, all through child-rearing years.

The other night, Lewis and I dined with his longtime friends to celebrate one friend's birthday.  Us, his friend Ly (Ly and I live in Astoria), and a married couple with their 1-year-old.  The family drove to Astoria from Brooklyn (not far by car, but tremendous via subway).  The first hour of the meal progressed smoothly.  But by the time the parents had stored away the stroller, stored away the baby's baggage (literally 2 bags of paraphernalia), set up the baby's jar of food, and baby bottle, and bib, and fastened him into the restaurant-provided highchair… the parents were seemingly startled that dinner had commenced (been served by the waiters) and they hadn't eaten much yet.  (Well, the father wasn't too hungry, since he hadn't been able to waive his hunger 4 hours earlier, so he'd had a big snack.  Ly and Lewis teased him about that, chiding him that he knew he was going to have dinner with us).
     Initially, we three gents took turns waving and making smiley faces at the baby boy, and he'd mimic us.  He loves to smile, wave his hand and say "Hi".  He pounded the table with his tiny hands, and drooled on his bib.  All of the waiters were nice to him and made polite chit-chat to him (and us).
     Like a ticking bomb, after the first hour, the baby became antsy and irritated.  Lewis offered to order some juice for him.  His mother said that they avoided giving him juice that whole year, so he'd focus on milk or boiled water.  Finished with most of his dinner by then, Ly tried holding the little boy.  The kid began to whine.  At that time, the father determined that it was a "great opportunity" to take pictures of his kid amongst us.  Not content with a cellphone camera, he'd brought yet another bag (tucked under the stroller) with a "real camera" and 7-inch lens.  Flash bulbs went off.  People turned to us.  All the while he took pictures, his kid cried and screamed louder, even kicking off his shoe.  Suddenly, the restaurant's singer/guitarist finished his rumba, and the place became quiet… except for the infant, who was wailing like a fire engine siren.  Several annoyed tables of fellow-diners turned in their seats toward us.  All of a sudden, the mother realized how loud her child was and scrambled to take him.  Sheepishly embarrassed, she stood and then tried to get her husband's attention (a few times) to move the chairs, high chair, and bags out of the way, so she could take the crying kid to the restroom.
     It didn't seem well-organized.  Instead of taking pictures, it might've been a good idea to take their baby back into their hands right away, and thus avoided the screaming maelstrom of several minutes.  Other people were trying to enjoy their "Saturday before Christmas" dinners, too.  Some of them had probably left their children at home, so they could enjoy a "night out" of "personal time" to avoid hearing babies crying.
     We ordered dessert.  After it was served, our waitress was quick with presenting the check, as well.  Returning to the table, the mom, apologized.  Throughout dessert, she made three comments (to us) that if we wanted to see a happier baby, we should've picked an earlier time of the day to eat.  [FYI, because of the extended holiday retail hours, Lewis had swapped work shifts with a coworker to leave at 7pm (the earliest).  We had made the reservation at 7:30, but the family had arrived 20 minutes late].  Lewis and Ly both asked why they didn't have a babysitter.  The father was trying to avoid the cost.  Lewis asked about both sets of their parents to potentially watch the baby.  They replied that while each set of their own parents regularly asks to babysit (how lucky!), they decline their offers.
     In that case, we don't need to eat dinner at 5pm.  They might want to use a free babysitter, lol.
     Then, the father handed his still-irksome kid to Lewis and proceeded to take pictures of the two of them.  Just like last time that the baby was away from his parents, the baby began to whimper and then cry.  Instead of taking the baby back immediately, the parents took more pictures.  The octave of crying reached a higher pitch, and he almost knocked over my espresso.  Once again, fellow diners turned in annoyance.  Finally, his mom collected him.  [It reminded me of all the time I've seen parents letting their kids run rampant around a restaurant or catering hall, and merely laugh when the kid trips a waiter or bangs into a bus boy.  Or they're on public transportation and because they've become accustomed to their baby's crying, they neglect hushing it].
     They are not nasty people, nor are they mean parents.  But they might want to consider the people around them.
     The rest of us might as well have left our cell phones on the table, with the sound on, and interrupted everything around us with several loud personal phone calls.  Maybe the parents' wouldn't have minded the intrusion.