A Portland, Maine diner owner is getting mixed reactions on social media for yelling at a two-year-old on Saturday. Marcy’s Diner owner Darla Neugebauer says the two-year-old was screaming for a good 40 minutes, and her parents were doing nothing about it — so she took the situation into her own hands.

The mother of the two-year-old posted this comment to Marcy’s Diner’s Facebook page: “I had the worst experience at this establishment. The owner is a lunatic and screamed in the face of my almost 2-year-old because she was crying. Who in their right mind would behave like that? You are deranged. If you have a problem with a child crying, you’re not suitable to run a business. If it bothered you so much you could have spoken to me and not traumatized my child by screaming in her face. May karma bite you in the ___”

Neugebauer responded to the comment with this:

Wow. She’s pissed. She’s pissed that the parents ordered a child three full-sized pancakes, she’s pissed they then kept the pancakes out of reach, and she’s pissed that they didn’t seem to even notice their wailing child.

Neugebauer is clearly unapologetic about how this whole thing went down. Is it appropriate to yell at a child who isn’t yours? No, it’s not. But it’s also not appropriate to act like public spaces are your home. I let my children be when they’re having tantrums at home, because I have no desire to talk them down from every crying fit they have. In public though? Nope. Because the general public shouldn’t have to listen to that.

Neugebauer has an interesting approach to handling her business, and it’s not one you generally see these days. She doesn’t seem to give a shit what these parents — or anyone for that matter — thinks about this situation. It’s a refreshing change from the whole “the customer is always right” mantra. No, the customer isn’t always right.

The reactions to the story are split. Some think the way Neugebauer acted and how she runs her Facebook page is completely unprofessional:





I love it when people talk about “professionalism” and in the same breath threaten physical violence. Never change, internet.

Others totally support her reaction and the way she is handling her business:







Taking kids to public spaces like restaurants requires diligent parenting – that’s just a fact. If you let your child scream and don’t do anything about it, you may eventually run into an owner like Neugebauer who has no problem screaming back.

H/T WCSH6