Sometimes when babies start crying, the only solution is to prove you can be louder | Courtesy of Getty images

Bravo to the Portland, Maine Marcy’s Diner owner Darla Neugebauer, who provided constructive criticism to two incompetent parents for not hushing their crying 21-month old child.

At 21 months, you’ve gained more than enough life experience to know how to appropriately behave in public.

Neugebauer received unwarranted backlash from those who accused her of crossing the line of parental consent. All she did was yell at the parents and by proxy, their child.

Crying babies are a common annoyance in restaurants and theaters. Neugebauer enacted the only reasonable solution: get louder.

Some like this Time writer might lean toward the “both sides behaved poorly” perspective. But the owner’s grievance has more weight.

The mother of the child, Tara Carson, wrote an incredibly unjustified complaint on the Marcy’s Diner Facebook page.

“…You are lucky I didn’t get really (expletive) nuts because being physical is not something I cower from,” Neugebauer replied.

Neugebauer realizes that the plague of crying children has gone on too long and that adults need to resort to tantrums to solve it.

In a Washington Post article, Carson said, “Am I a perfect parent? Certainly not. As parents, we sometimes rely on the kindness and empathy of strangers.”

Because of the plague of children screaming in restaurants and theaters, it’s about time someone stepped up. It is arguable that a productive alternative response to the parents would be to give empathetic advice offered about exercising parenting etiquette in public areas.

But that’s too moderate. We need to resort to something radical for real change to happen.

Neugebauer is the owner of the private establishment, therefore entitled to act however she wants to customers and exempted from judgment.

She told the WCSH6 station, the act “made me happy, it made my staff happy, it made the 75 other people dining here happy.”

But the mother continued to play victim.

“What got lost is that it’s never okay to yell at a baby, especially if you own a restaurant… Neugebauer could have come over politely and told us our baby was disruptive. She should not have thrown (to-go boxes) or yelled or cursed.”

No wonder this mother deserves scrutiny.

Celebrating Neugebauer’s self-crafted professionalism should be top priority when judging this situation.

Babies need to learn how to grow up.

Carol Cao is a creative writing and media production senior and may be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com

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“When babies start screaming, just scream louder” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar