For people who got depressed reading about the worst parenting, what is the best parenting you've seen in public?

1. I recently saw a mother encourage her children's awe and wonder with the world. I was at the mall the other day and was eating some really shitty food court Chinese food when I saw a mother sitting with her two young children, both younger than 5. The kids were staring up at the ceiling windows and were just absolutely fascinated with them. The mom leaned down close to the table to put her head at her children's level before looking up with them and marveling at the window with her children. She was laughing and smiling, pointing out things in the window her children may have missed. I could hear the kids' happiness in their excited gasps, the small giggles, the harsh whispers. I'm not sure why I found it so significant. Perhaps because most of the other parents had their noses buried in their phones, or perhaps it was the way she shared in her children's excitement at the marvels and luxuries we've learned to take for granted every day. The children were just so damn happy and loved. As creepy as it sounds, I almost wanted to take a picture to forever memorialize that beautiful moment.
   — peepinggoldfish


2. This might not be the best all together, but it was the best I've seen lately. I was at WalMart, and across the aisle, I could hear a small child crying loudly. I glanced over briefly to make sure the kid wasn't crying because he was hurt or alone and he wasn't. He was crying and holding a candy up at his mother. She said no, so he started stomping his feet and crying louder. So the mother says, "Do you think acting up like that is going to get you your way? Is this working for you?" The toddler, still crying but not as loud, thinks about it and answers, "No." So the lady says, "Then stop it." Kid stops crying, and it was pretty damn cool.
   — Mistah-Jay


3. I saw a little boy, maybe 3 years old, who was enchanted with a beetle he saw. "Dad, look, it's *beautiful*! Dad got down on hands and knees immediately and they looked at the beetle together and talked about it until the little guy was completely satisfied. This was right outside a Starbucks. Not in the woods or something. A+ dad imo.
   — acorngirl






4. In my hometown, there's a man who plays saxophone in the streets, he's there nearly every day. A few weeks ago, a man and his little girl went up to the saxophone man and asked him to play Let It Go. So saxophone man played the song, and the dad picked up his little girl and danced and sang with her in the middle of the street, he knew every single word, he belted it out at the top of his voice and his little girl had a look of pure joy on her face that I can't even describe. Loads of people were staring but the dad didn't care. 10/10 parenting, fucking great dad!
   — diplomatic--immunity


5. Well this happened few weeks ago, this man brought his 3 kids to get them ice cream and afterwards he asked them to thank the man who served the ice cream. This action would look insignificant to some but that one thank you made the vendor smile. Guess it's really true that a simple thank you goes a long way.
   — raydeep


6. This was during my trip to New York. I saw a little japanese kid who knocked down a littering bag. His father made him help the litter man collect everything back up. The kid then took a bow and apologized to the litterman.
   — TheSuicidalMuffin






7. My dog is very skittish around people, she's just a nervy dog who doesn't really like anyone that's not me and my mom. Little kids love dogs. A little boy tried to run up to my dog to pet her and I said "Oh I'm sorry, she doesn't like to be petted, I'm really sorry" and I tried to steer her away from the kid. She wouldn't have bit him at all, but she would have barked and shied back and I didn't want her to scare the kid. But the little boy kept running up until his mom took him aside and said "Honey, the lady said you can't pet her dog because she's shy. Like your friend, he doesn't like talking to random people either, right?" And the little boy just went "Right!", waved at me, and went back to what he was doing on the playground. I thought that was pretty cool of the mom. Another time I was at the park with my niece, doing park things, and a kid called her over to look at a great big bug. I'm 100% terrified of all insects so I hung waaay back while the kids looked at the bug. The kid asked his dad, who was nearby, what kind of bug it was, and his dad pulled out his phone and showed the kid and my niece what kind it was, what they liked to eat, where they lived, etc. I liked seeing him actively encouraging his kid to ask questions and learn, it made me super happy.
   — Katalystica


8. This probably isn't the best parenting, but it got the job done. I'm standing in line at the grocery store, with mom and 4 or 5 year old daughter next to her. They're just in front of me.Daughter sees a candy bar she wants. Tells mom she wants it, and mom says no. She starts to whine and stomp her feet. Still, mom says no and to stop whining. This sends the kid into a tantrum. Kid throws herself down onto the ground, and wails and pounds the floor with her fists. Full-on meltdown. I look at the mom and she lifts her head back, closes her eyes and makes a big sigh. The mother then proceeds to plop on the ground right next to her daughter and starts to mimic her tantrum. The mom starts screaming, thrashing her arms around and even throws a box of popcorn she was holding. I myself was embarrassed and shocked just watching the mom do this. I looked to my left and right to make sure other customers were seeing this too. They were. We had similar reactions yet kept silent. I look back at the daughter who is now looking at her mom with a HORRIFIED look on her flushed red face. The mom finally stops wailing, looks at the daughter and says "I just did the same thing you were doing. Did you like what mommy did?" Daughter shakes her head. "Well, that's how everyone sees you when you throw a fit. Let's not do that anymore,okay?" The daughter mumbles an answer and the mom gets back up and helps her daughter up too. She brushes her daughter's shirt off and explains to her that sometimes we can't have things we want. I look at my left and see the box of popcorn the mom had tossed. I scoot to the side, pick it up and ask her if she would like her popcorn back. She thanks me and apologizes for the scene. I give the mom major props for embarrassing herself to teach her daughter a lesson. Honestly considering doing this if my kid keeps being a punk in public.
   — AlwaysKim28


9. Parents who respect the shyness of their kids instead of pushing them to do something cute in front of coworkers, friends, strangers, etc.
   — Buloi92






10. When I used to work at Starbucks, we would have this regular who takes his 4 year old son there every Sunday. He usually get a French press for himself, steamed soy with cinnamon for his son and a newspaper. Mann this kid was so well mannered, not only that he says please and thank you, he would occasionally compliment the barista who made his soy milk so "foamy" This amazing dual would pick a seat near the window and read the news together. As the kid's request, they usually start out with the comic section then move on to other things. His dad read to him, explained things to him, laughed with him. It was cute! By the end of the day, this kid is pretty updated on the news and he would tell us baristas his favorite articles. That's great parenting!
    — meowno


11. My husband lived with his brother and sister in law when we were in high school, and due to their extensive drug use and general lack of shits to give, he basically raised our nieces and nephew. I'll never forget the day he picked me up for a date with a spiderman mask, green shirt, red swim trunks, boots, and three shades of pink nail polish. He said, "Take a picture and text it to SILs number. I lost a bet with the kids." They were 8, 6, and 4 years old and he "bet" them he could take out the trash before they cleaned their rooms. He "lost" by a landslide, and we had to photograph him dressed like this throughout our entire date to prove he wore the mask and nail polish the whole time and didnt change clothes. He did things like that all the time.
    — KNSF


12. Technically this is not *direct* parenting, but I like to think it qualifies, and it's a story of my mum being badass. When my son was tiny (3-ish months) a bunch of the family went out Christmas shopping. Me, my parents, my girlfriend, our kid, my brother and two of my sisters, and a sister's fiancé. We were sat in a coffee shop having some hot drinks, my son was obviously thirsty too, and so my girlfriend started to breastfeed him. This old lady a few tables away waits until she finishes, comes over to our table, and tells my girlfriend that she should never had fed the baby in public because it's disgusting and nobody wants to see it. She herself claims to have had three kids, and this makes her an authority. My girlfriend is shy anyway, so she's mortified and not saying anything. Cue my mum. Gets right in this old lady's face, telling her to mind her own damn business, there's nothing wrong with feeding a hungry child, etc etc. The old lady tries to bring up (again) how many kids she's had as some sort of proof of moral superiority, to which my mum gestures to the whole table of us and says "well, I've had more!" The old lady gets huffy, but mum clearly isn't backing down, so she stalks off to sit back at her table. A little later, we're all leaving the coffee shop, when my brother looks back and goes "bloody hell, I think mum's about to hit her". She's stopped at the table where this nasty old lady and her poor, confused husband (who apparently was in the toilet when she decided to stick her beak into our business) and is lecturing the old woman. The woman has a look on her face like she's chewing a lemon, my mum is tearing a strip off her, and then *apologises to the husband* for causing a scene and walks away. It was brilliant.
    — MrTomDawson






13. Doesn't necessarily fall under the "public" part of the question, but my bassist Mike and his wife are probably some of the best, or at least most entertaining parents I know. I sent him a message at 10ish at night one day to ask his 15 year old daughter a question about something at school she wanted my help with, and he didn't respond right away. So I sent another joking and saying my bad if I woke him up. They weren't sleeping, they were playing nerf basketball in their foyer. The whole family. 10 pm on a Tuesday.
    — Peabo721


14. When I ran an ice cream shop, I heard *a lot* of parents tell their kids some version of "You have to be good or you won't get any ice cream." Mostly it was empty threats. Kids made a mess, threw a tantrum, screamed, cried, even cussed and still got ice cream. One day I had a father and his young son come in. The little boy was told he got one scoop. The little boy said "No, I want two!" Dad said "Nope, one scoop or none at all." "Two!" the boy persisted. "I want two." He proceeded to stamp his little feet to get what he wanted. Dad said "We've talked about this. We don't throw a fit when we don't get what we want." Child continued to whine and scream. Dad finally said "Alright, then we're going grocery shopping. If you are very, very good at the grocery store, maybe we'll come back. But you don't get anything right now." Promptly smiled at me, turned and left. Took the fussing child with him. I couldn't even be mad about losing a sale, it was just nice to see a parent who didn't immediately bow to their child's demands.
    — SalemScout


15. I was at the metro station waiting for my wife. A lady and a little boy came down there. The kid was really young. I'm bad with kid's ages, somewhere in the 6 to 8 range. He goes up to the turnstile and the machine spits his card back out. Mom is standing there and just says, "Well, What does the machine say". Kid says that it says to "see the station manager" after sounding out "station manager". The mom says, "Alright, who would that be?" The kid looks around and points to the kiosk and says, "Is it him?" Mom says, "I don't know, why don't you ask him?" The kid goes over and very politely asks the manager why his card won't work. The manager tells him that it doesn't have enough money on it and that he needed to use the machine to add to it. You can see the kid put 2 and 2 together and pull out a couple of dollars from his shirt pocket that his mom had clearly just put there. He then enlists the mangers help to get the money added to the card after figuring out what stop he needed to go to. Mom was patient through the whole thing. Observing but not interfering. Just in that small little moment that kid learned a whole bunch of stuff including some pretty important social interaction and problem solving.
    — voice_of_craisin






16. Am a mailman. Kids love to get the mail from me. Most of the time they just snatch it and run inside with it screaming about mail, it's hilarious. The other day a kid and presumably her grandpa were outside enjoying fair weather. She ran to me, excited, and I handed the mail to her. She turned to run back to her grandpa, but he cut her off, firmly but gently, with, "Ah-ah! What do you say?" Following which she turned back and, sheepishly but genuinely, chirped, "Thanks mister mailman!" I told her she was welcome and nodded to the grandpa before continuing my route.
    — pwnz3rfaust


17. It's funny how this little scene stuck in my head all these years. I was in a mall and an older father, probably in his 40s or 50s, was with his little 4-year-old-ish son. The little boy started crying about something, sounded like a disappointed or hurt feelings cry, not a whiney I-want-it-now cry, although I think this dad would have reacted equally well to the 2nd kind of cry too. Anyway, the dad kneels down to look straight in his boy's eyes, talks to him briefly, with empathy, about what the boy is sad about, and then said some consoling words and hugged him as the boy wiped away tears, trying to pull his little 4-year-old self together. My heart just melted and I immediately looked at the man's left hand to see if he was married. Of course he was. It is just SO UNUSUAL to see a man treat a son that way, in public. I've seen dads joke around with their kids in public, seen them reprimand their sons or daughters and tell them to "man up" and stop crying, whining, or fidgeting in public. I've seen plenty of dads kinda ignore their kids in public. But to kneel down like that, to get at eye level, and react to 4-year-old concerns with empathy and take them seriously - OMG, that is so rare. Even though they were in public, I could tell from the way the dad focused on his little boy, that nothing was more important to that man in that moment than his little boy. It was such a beautiful, empathetic sight. It was also significant to me because in all my life, I've never seen my ex, the father of my kids, react that way to any of our children when they were young - or even when they were older.
    — JustAnotherSurvivorZ


18. We have a rescue border collie, he's scared of strangers (especially children) and will bite, but only if they stare, yell or reach out to touch him. We obviously muzzle him when he's out in public, and one day we took him to the pub and tethered him under the table, everyone's happy. I heard a lady tell her young son nearby, very slowly and deliberately, that the doggy has a muzzle on - don't look at him and give him lots of space when you walk by him. I was so happy, I looked over and we exchanged a quick smile. Just a small precaution from her kept everyone safe and peaceful. (The two children chasing each other screaming through the pub not five minutes later took the shine off somewhat, but what can you do)
    — beckythump