what’s a baby doing in DC on U St. on a Friday night?

On Friday, my ex-roomie and one of my sweetest friends, Shell, came into town. After getting a cocktail and doing some shopping in Georgetown (ah…just like old times), Shell and I met up with our mutual friend D and went out to dinner. D was in the mood for Thai, so we went to U St to find some.

We walked into a cute, trendy Thai restaurant around 9 pm and were seated right away. At the table next to us sat two couples, one of them with a baby. My first thought was, Wow, what a cute baby (I’ve warmed up to kids ever since Serena was born). My second thought was, What are you doing out with a baby at 9 o’clock on a Friday night? Well, the baby was cute and it’s not like he was crying, so I let it go.

A few minutes after ordering, we were disturbed by a strange, LOUD noise coming from the baby table. One of the couples was shaking the LOUDEST rattle I’ve ever heard to get the baby to smile. It was like we were suddenly at a Mexican restaurant, featuring salsa dancers and maracas. I enjoy a good maraca-shaking every now and then (must be in my Mexican blood), but a cute, trendy Thai restaurant in U St. was not the place. Despite our annoyance, the couple kept shaking the rattle (maybe it was a maraca, it was so loud). At this point, I turned away and noticed that the entire restaurant was looking at the baby table, visibly annoyed.

D, who would rather be efficient than passive aggressive, got up and politely asked the baby table to keep it down. I have never in my life heard D get angry so I imagine he used the most calm tone to make this request. The couple stopped shaking the rattle and uttered something about us being Republicans as D headed back to our table. Hey now! There’s no need for insults.

After one of the couples asked us to keep it down for laughing (clearly someone was in the mood for revenge), they got up and left. While enjoying our delicious (and spicy) meals, a couple of people came up to our table and thanked D for asking the baby table to keep it down. They too agreed the sound was annoying and disturbing the atmosphere. I appreciated the validation D’s efforts received.

I’m not anti-baby at all. However, I feel that it was probably not appropriate to bring a baby out on a Friday night to a cute, trendy restaurant on U St. And it was certainly not necessary to shake some maracas to keep the baby entertained. The fact of the matter is that the baby was fine. He wasn’t wailing our ears off. He seemed to be perfectly content with the normal-sounding baby entertainment before the maraca came into the picture. There are ways of entertaining a baby that don’t require increasing decibels of annoying sound.

And there are certainly better ways to deal with being asked to keep the noise down than to insult people. Come on, guys. Grow up!