She Said That A Stranger’s Baby Crying Was Background Noise And Not A Big Deal, But Her Friends Think There’s Something Wrong With Her

Chris Allen

7 months ago

Source: Reddit/Pexels

The changes women go through when pregnant is truly eye-opening.

Not just physically, with so many changes happening in such a short timespan, but mentally and emotionally as well.

But should every woman automatically feel for a crying baby?

That’s what this woman’s friends seem to think.

AITA for ignoring a crying baby (with its mother present) in a restaurant and continuing to enjoy my desert?

A few days back I was out for dinner with 2 friends. Ann is pregnant currently (ca. 17 weeks), Kim is married for 3 years and currently desperately trying to get pregnant.

Because Ann is pregnant, Kim cannot stand the idea of not being pregnant yet and that is all she can think or talk about.

Though it doesn’t interest me much (as someone who doesn’t plan on ever having children), I happen to have developed a good tolerance for pregnancy/child related topics because all my friends are either pregnant or parents.

During dinner they spoke only about pregnancies and childbirth (where I was hoping to catch up on other topics).

I couldn’t get them to talk about anything else, despite politely and subtly trying to change the topic several times.

But as I understand that these topics interest them more right now, I very politely contributed to the conversation where I could, otherwise I let them talk as they pleased.

Then during dinner wouldn’t ya know it – a baby started crying.

A baby started crying in our vicinity and kept crying for a while even though the mother tried to calm it down.

It didn’t seem hurt in any way, it seemed to be a normal cry for a baby. I noticed it start crying because it was loud and then didn’t notice it anymore.

I know it was crying because that’s what my friends kept talking about but I tuned it out and went back to savoring my desert.

The crying was like background noise to me.

But then enjoying her dessert became a problem for her friends.

But then my friends notice how I’m enjoying my desert and not contributing to their conversation about how sad they feel for the baby and how it’s making their heartache.

As in, they were having some sort of ‘physical reaction’ to the baby crying.

I tell them that I don’t hear the baby cry anymore.

They asked me if I had a hearing issue, so I explained how it was like background noise to me after the first 10 seconds.

Both of them looked at me in horror and pity.

Kim told me that it is good I don’t plan on having children because I’m heartless and that my baby would be unlucky to be my baby.

Her friends kept at it.

Ann said that she pities me that I’ll never know the feeling that they both had.

I laughed at their comments because I thought that Kim wasn’t very serious about her comment, and Ann is going through a few hormonal changes with her pregnancy and deserves some leniency regarding what she says to me.

But they both got mad at me.

According to them it wasn’t something to laugh about.

She stood up for them, but has come to question the whole interaction.

Neither of these comments bothered me at first, but after I posted about it yesterday, I received a lot of comments telling me that they are not good friends.

I argued in their favor because of their difficult situations.

They are emotionally having a tough time, but after what happened today, I’m not so sure anymore.

And Kim kept up the pressure.

Kim texted me today saying that I need to start showing a little more concern towards crying children if I am to spend time with her future children.

When I asked her if my heart should ache every time a strange child cried just because I have a uterus, she called me an AH.

So AITA for ignoring that crying child?

Let’s see what Reddit had to say.

This person said exactly what we were thinking the whole time.