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An elderly woman’s heated early-morning interaction with two moms at an outdoor cafe has divided Australians.
Tensions erupted between the women at 7:15 a.m. one recent morning, Lauren Treweek revealed on her podcast, Ready or Not , this week.
Her friend and another mom were at the cafe, which only has outdoor seating, when a lady who ordered a takeaway coffee criticized their children’s behavior.
The customer, believed to be in her 70s, “sat down and said ‘tell your kids to be f—ing quiet,’” Treweek told her co-host Lucinda McKimm.
Lauren Treweek, host of the “Ready or Not” podcast, explained that her friend and another parent were at an outdoor cafe when an elderly woman told them to get their kids to be quiet. Credit: Instagram/@readyornot.pod “I don’t think she said the f-word, but she said, ‘You need to tell your kids to be quiet.’ One of the friends who had a newborn baby turned around and said, ‘I’m sorry, they’re kids.'”
Treweek said her friend then turned around and bluntly added: “Get your takeaway coffee and go elsewhere, you vile woman.”
The podcast host praised her mate’s response.
“I thought, good on my friend for saying that because that is disgusting,” she said.
Lucinda McKimm, co-host of the “Ready or Not” podcast, was shocked and felt moms already have a tough time. Credit: Instagram/@readyornot.pod McKimm agreed, saying it’s “no wonder moms don’t feel welcome” in public spaces.
“It’s f—ing ridiculous. That just locks moms in their homes more. [If] anxious moms that already find it hard to get out have that experience, they don’t go to the cafe the next day – they stay at home and feel lonely,” she said.
Despite the podcasters’ obvious outrage, their listeners were divided over the cafe encounter.
“Ugh fair call. If it’s not a playground, is running around and screaming appropriate? Moms want to take their kids to cafes and shops, but not teach them appropriate behavior,” one woman said on Instagram.
“It’s 7:15 a.m. They do need to be quiet! People are still sleeping. Be respectful!” another said.
“I have a food in each camp – kids in cafes are fine, and if they make some noise, that’s fine too. But they are not playgrounds, they should not have free rein to run around,” someone else said.
Supporters of the moms argued that people are “entitled to a child free life, not a child free world.”
“This whole thing of kids not being tolerated in public places where they are not even misbehaving is absurd,” a dad said.
The lively debate prompted one of the moms mentioned in the podcast to add her two cents in the video’s comment section.
“The kids were actually playing outdoors around a big tree with a built-in seat that’s part of a big outdoor setting for multiple businesses,” she said, adding that everyone “needs to relax.”
“The kids were running around having fun in a public area that also provides some seating for cafe patrons. The kids were being kids in a public area.”
Sydney-based etiquette expert Kate Heussler told news.com.au the debate “certainly is an interesting one,” and noted the severely divided commentary.
“I think there’s an important distinction between children behaving in a developmentally appropriate way and children genuinely disrupting others,” the mom-of-one said.
However, a cafe is not a playground; it’s…