All right, this is a somewhat complicated answer. My eldest daughter was turning 8 and asked to go out to dinner at a restaurant that had a bar inside it. We were seated at the first table right outside the bar and, let's just say, the patrons were behaving in a particularly jovial manner. In other words, the guys were being fairly loud and boisterous as ones consuming alcohol often do. My husband and I were at the table with our birthday girl, our then 5 year old and our youngest at 5 months.

Now, to give more understanding I must explain our middle child has special needs. An infection at birth caused lack of oxygen to the brain and resulted in multiple infarctions on the brain. In laymen terms, brain damage. This caused her to have problems with changes in routine, sensory issues and a severe speech delay. Not to mention an extreme lack of impulse control. This has always made behavior with her somewhat interesting.

To continue answering the question, as we were eating dinner the baby began to fuss. I did what most moms do; I checked the diaper, offered her a bottle and just held her. She continued to cry and fuss. Now, I was in a quandary. If I or my husband left the table, our special needs daughter would immediately follow. This is that whole routine thing coming into play. Yet, not eating her food would cause a meltdown. Not a tantrum, a meltdown is when a special needs child's brain reaches the point it can't handle anymore and you basically fall off the cliff. Now, the baby was making noise but nowhere near what my other daughter could do if she were to fall into a fit. Plus, the bar was hardly being quiet so I kept trying to distract the baby while the rest of the family finished eating. Then, two older women stopped at our table and glared at us. All I remember her saying is, "It's very noisy tonight. Very noisy." Ironically, after she said it there was a loud roar of laughter from the bar and I couldn't help but think in my head, "Yes, it is." Still, I didn't really say much because what could I really say?

Sometimes, you have to make the best of a situation and pick the lesser of two evils. I did the best that I could and thankfully the baby didn't ever do this again. Turns out she just had bad gas and once it passed she was fine. We even were able to stay and let the birthday girl have her dessert. It is also ironic that we've been complimented several times in public for how well behaved our girls are. I suppose even kids sometimes just have a bad day.