The owner of a restaurant is defending her actions after she yelled at a toddler who was misbehaving inside her Macy’s diner – and it seems many people are on her side.
Darla Neugebauer, who has her business in Portland in the US, says she’s not sorry for yelling at the 21-month-old child for crying in her restaurant because it got the girl to be quiet.
“I was working on the grill. I had my back to the child. I listen to the child scream for probably close to 40 minutes,” Darla Neugebauer told WCSH-TV.
“Went over with boxes and asked them to either package up the goods for everyone to leave or if they would just take the child out. And they acted like I had three heads.”
“I slammed my hands on the counter and said, ‘This needs to stop,’” said Ms Neugebauer. “She [the child] looked at me, and she stopped.”
The child’s mother, Tara Carson posted a complaint on Marcy’s Diner’s Facebook page and called the eating there the “worst experience”.
“The owner is an absolute lunatic and screamed in the face of my almost two-year-old child because she was crying … You have a problem with a child crying then you are not suitable to run a business,” Carson wrote.
Tara Carson and family.
Neugebauer responded from the establishment’s account, even at one point saying, ” you are lucky I didn’t get really —- nuts because being physical is not something I cower from.”
Despite receiving some backlash on social media from people who say they will never eat at the restaurant, Neugebauer is standing by her actions.
“Life’s full of choices and you’ve got to live with all of them. I chose to yell at a kid, it made her shut-up, which made me happy, it made my staff happy, it made the 75 other people dining here happy, and they left, they may never come back, other people may not come in. Their loss really,” she said.
Darla Neugebauer, who has her business in Portland in the US, says she’s not sorry for yelling at the child.
Many are on the restaurant manager’s side saying she was right to take a stand.
One user, Sheila Dee wrote: “Kudos to the managers for setting that mom [sic] in place. So sick of parents not parenting.”
Debbie Tillar wrote: “Just read the article about the crying kid. GOOD FOR YOU! When my kids were little I wouldn’t let them cry in a restaurant for even 30 seconds. Teach your kids how to behave in a restaurant (etc) or take them outside.”
Brenda Needham Riley: “I have been known to leave a restaurant without ordering if there are unruly children. I’ve also chastised kids who were running all around the place. They were completely shocked that a total stranger would tell them to go sit down!”
