One Christmas my wife and I decided not to travel, so she bought a ton of gifts, wrapped them, and put them in a couple of large boxes for me to take to UPS. There was 12 people in line. When I moved to the 7th person in line (20 minutes), a woman came in with her utterly undisciplined child. The kid was loud, obnoxious, and was making a mess of everything. We all looked at her with disdain on our faces, but she was just as oblivious to our disgust as she was to the behavior of her miscreant child. Finally, I growled, "Lady, if you don't discipline your child, I will, and I assure you, you do not want that."

The child's reaction was that of fear, and he just quietly clung to his mother's leg after that. She yelled, "Fuck you!"

I replied, "So, you're making no effort to teach your child how to behave when he's in public, AND you're teaching him to use profanity, too. You're really a piece of work."

She was so upset she left, and after she left most of the other people thanked me.

I have called out people with obnoxious kids several times in restaurants. I always get a dirty look from the parents but have gotten some thumbs up from other patrons. Your pride and joy isn't mine, shut them up or get them outside.

Prior to having several children I felt that such behavior was difficult to control. We had several instances of bad behavior and the children complied after awhile. It was not that difficult. If another parent has kids throwing a tantrum I will just leave.

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Originally posted by IntrepidTraveler:

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Originally posted by V-Tail:

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Originally posted by Gustofer:

I walk into the breakroom at work to shoot the chit with someone and there's five people sitting around a table, all staring down at their phones

Waiting room at the doctors' office has multiple signs telling people to turn their cell phones off. Nine people sitting there, I was the only one who was not using a phone.

Sorry, Otto, I gotta disagree, at least in part. First, if you (dr office, lawyer office, motor vehicles, anywhere I schedule an appointment) don't want me to use my phone, then see me at my scheduled time. Fine, I won't TALK on my phone in your waiting room, but I'm damn well going to USE it.

Second, I used to cope with this in the past by bringing a book or magazine. I still read, but now my book is packaged in a 2.5"x6" format - my phone (or iPad). Bringing a book or magazine used to be a perfectly acceptable behavior. So again, I'm damn well going to use my phone.

Now using it so that it annoys people (games, movies, YouTubes), or interfering with what's going on around me (e.g., can't hear when my name or number is called), I do draw my line there.

THIS, I'm certainly not at the DR's office in the waiting room to read the crappy magazines that 8 dozen sick people have handled. I won't talk on my phone but will be conducting some sort of business on my phone.....checking emails, stocks, etc.

Yep.

The doctor's office wants you to turn your cell phone off so that you're not being disruptive, so you're not distracted by it while the nurse/doctor is trying to talk to you, and so that you're not attempting to record someone else's private health information.

Not because they don't want you browsing the web/reading a book/sending a text while you're in the waiting room.

Cell phones have caused a number of problems in modern society, but merely using them quietly to kill time in a waiting room isn't one of them.

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Originally posted by RogueJSK:

The doctor's office wants you to turn your cell phone off so that you're not being disruptive

Loud conversations in the waiting room, speaker turned on, and the user holding the phone in front of her face and speaking loudly at it, are annoying.

I could turn my hearing aids off, but then I would not know when my name is called.

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Originally posted by V-Tail:

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Originally posted by RogueJSK:

The doctor's office wants you to turn your cell phone off so that you're not being disruptive

Loud conversations in the waiting room, speaker turned on, and the user holding the phone in front of her face and speaking loudly at it, are annoying.

I could turn my hearing aids off, but then I would not know when my name is called.

I just join into the conversation. Throw out a few inputs to whatever they are talking about that may not even make any sense.
They usually take it off speaker right away if not just end the call.

The best part is when they give me a dirty look or say something to me and I say "what? I thought it was a group chat."

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The best part is when they give me a dirty look or say something to me and I say "what? I thought it was a group chat."

With your permission, I'm using that!