Darla Neugebauer says she is not sorry (Picture: News Center)

The owner of a restaurant who shouted at a crying toddler to be quiet has defended her actions on social media.

Darla Neugebauer, who runs Marcy’s Diner in downtown Portland, Maine, said she shouted at the two-year-old after her parents, Tara and John Carson, ordered three pancakes to the table and didn’t feed them to her, preferring to talk among themselves as their daughter screamed loudly.

Children who scream in public are annoying, but it’s the parents we should shout at, not the kids

Tara Carson took to Marcy’s Diner’s Facebook page, saying she had the ‘worst experience at this establishment’ and that the ‘owner is a lunatic’. Ms Neugebauer responded from the account, at one point saying: ‘You are lucky I didn’t get really nuts because being physical is not something I cower from.’



Speaking to K5 News Center, Mrs Carson said the incident left her feeling ‘helpless’.


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Parent Tara Carson branded Ms Neugebauer a ‘lunatic’ (Picture: News Center)

‘As a mom that, you know, I couldn’t do anything to help her, because I can’t explain why there’s crazy people in this world that behave like that,’ she said.

Despite an angry backlash on social media and the promise by a number of former patrons that they would not be going to the restaurant again, Ms Neugebauer said she wasn’t sorry.

‘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 told K5.

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Some users came out in support of Ms Neugebauer (Picture: Facebook)

‘I might have used poor judgment. I wouldn’t say I was sorry, because it stopped.’

Some Facebook users came out in support of Ms Neugebauer.

‘Just read the article about the crying kid. GOOD FOR YOU!’ wrote one.

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Ms Neugebauer said the parents were lucky she didn’t get ‘physical’ (Picture: News Center)

‘People pay good money to go out and eat,’ added another.

‘They don’t need to hear a child screaming during their whole meal.’

A third user writes: When I pay to go to a place to eat I don’t want to hear some kid screaming. More should do what she did.’