The other night, my wife and I were having a late dinner out. (Well, late for us, might be normal time for some people.) We drove up to a nice Italian restaurant north of Toronto called Il Fornello. (There is an Il Fornello 3 blocks from my condo, but we like to go a bit farther from home for dinner sometimes.)

Only a few minutes after we were seated, a nice family of 4 were seated near us. My wife remarked how good looking their children were, and I agreed. The kids appeared to be 6 or 7 years old, and both as cute as can be.

A few minutes later, I looked up to see that one of the kids had spilled their soft drink on the table. This is when the fun (for us) and misery (for them) began.

The mother was extremely upset. Some of the drink had apparently touched her jacket and came dangerously close to her purse. She immediately threw her purse at her husband, where he proceeded to keep it on his lap for the rest of the meal. She spent a couple of minutes attending to her jacket, although it seemed like she was spending more time looking at her jacket in an upset fashion and less time cleaning it. I think there may have been 1 or 2 drops of Coke on there.

As the family was moved one table over, the mother then took the opportunity to angrily scold both of her kids. Man, she was so pissed.

She spent the next 20 minutes (waiting for the meal to arrive), with her arms folded across her chest, staring into space. Her back was slightly leaning away from her family. The table was silent. As far as I could tell, no one spoke for the entire 20 minutes. The kids were quiet. The girl who spilled the drink appeared to be fighting back tears.

Every once and a while the mother would add a “flourish“ to her temper tantrum. She'd roll her eyes. Readjust her folded arms forcefully. Sigh heavily. Man oh man. She was upset, and she wanted everyone to know. I will say this, she never once screamed or shouted. She didn't lay one finger on her kids. But that's about the only nice thing you can say about her behaviour.

Then the meal came. Were things back to normal now? Had the incident blown over? Had she calmed down? Of course not. The little girl was too upset to eat very much, and of course the mother grabbed her food from in front of her and started eating it herself. A knife went flying onto the floor (I didn't see how that happened), and no one from that table even looked at it or bothered to pick it up. The son did have a shocked look on his face for a few seconds, like he couldn't believe what just happened. But everyone else at the table acted like flying knives were normal.

So here we sit, my wife and I. We've been trying to have kids for years, and am now spending tens of thousands of dollars in medical fees and drugs to make it happen. And we're watching this “family” (well, the parents) behave like this in a restaurant. Is this what it is supposed to be like?

So, even though this was a miserable situation for them, this incident provided my wife and I with some food for thought. Before we left, I felt like going over to their table and giving them some food for thought. I doubt my words would have changed anything, but geez... how can you watch an adult behaving worse than a 2-year-old child for 45 minutes and not say anything:

* “All this over a spilled drink? Seriously? My parents acted better than this when I came home and told them I wrecked their car and almost killed myself in the process.“

* “Hey, it looks like you have a couple of children here you don't love. My wife and I have been trying to have kids for years. We'd be happy to take them off your hands -- no charge!“

* “Hey, buddy. Why don't you grow some balls and protect your kids from your wife's nasty temper?“

I am sure we don't know everything that preceded this, but seriously... what the HELL is wrong with this woman? And why isn't the husband doing anything besides protecting his wife's purse? The kids are terrified. One of them is crying. And this couple sits there silent - extracting every last tear from their own children as payback for a $6 dry cleaning bill.

Sometimes I don't understand people.