Bad parents in public

Read this heartbreaking post. It hurts. And some adult vocabulary, as a heads-up.

These are my thoughts.
We parents can all admit there are times we have our children out later than usual. Past bedtime--way past. For us, it's been when traveling to the grandparents'. That's a three-hour trip straight through, but if you factor in the occasional meals and potty stops, it has taken as long as six. When you don't get started until after Daddy gets home from work, it puts things pretty late.
What we as adults need to remember is what lack of sleep and being off-schedule does to little kids. They get tired, and crabby, and whiny. Or they get overstimulated, and fidgety, and hyper. Our job is to do our very best to cope and counteract with self-control, patience, and understanding. A sense of humor is a really useful thing, too.

It's not having the child out late that is the poster's--Flea's--main point. It is the "parent's" behavior toward the child that receives the most ire. As is appropriate.

Like I said in the comments, they need to be hit upside the head with a sock full of wood screws.

Hat tip, Diane.