I WENT to the famous Sup Hameed restaurant in Penang Road, Georgetown the other day to satisfy my cravings for a good bowl of mutton soup and a set of steamed Roti Benggali.

The place was infested with families – parents and children.

As my stomach began to rumble, I waved my arm in the air and called out for the waiter, but the place was too noisy and in a state of havoc for any of the waiters to take note of me.

I had to wave my hand continuously for a few seconds before a waiter taking orders from customers a few tables away took notice.

“Order. Order?”

“Mutton sup satu. Kopi tarik satu,” I almost pleaded.

While anticipating my order, I was disturbed by a kid on the next table who was playing nursery rhymes on the handphone on high volume, over and over and over again, driving me almost insane.

I turned to look at the kid’s parents – they were on their respective gadgets as well. The woman was blasting some Korean drama on her tablet, placed nicely on the table while the man was texting away. Both were not bothered with the noise pollution coming from their table.

Just as my soup arrived, a boy from another table jumped off his chair and started running around the restaurant while holding on to his toy car, peeking into everyone’s table while his parents continued slurping their soups.

When my order arrived, the boy stopped at the table, placed his chin and his toy car on the table and stared at me.

“Hello,” I said, attempting to be nice.

Ignoring me, the boy started dragging his toy car on my table, making ‘vroom’ sounds with his mouth.

I smiled.

“ALIF! COME AND EAT YOUR FOOD. HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU? his mother yelled.

I looked at her, expecting some apologetic reaction, or at least a smile and a nod – but all I got was a cold stare.

Annoyed, I dipped my Roti Benggali into my mutton soup, trying my level best to control the smoke blowing out of my ears.

I understand these sort of things are common when eating out in our country, especially by stalls along the roadside. Some may even think I am asking too much and should just shut up and dine at a 5-star restaurant for a quiet ambience.

The thing is, it doesn’t matter where we eat – at a mamak place, by the roadside, or even at a Michelin-star restaurant – should we not ensure our children are in their best behaviour in order to show some respect to others?

Why in the world should the society be forced to tolerate the bad behaviour of someone else’s child?

The truth is, children and their behaviours can reveal quite a lot about their parents. Good parents with good parenting skills lead to well-mannered children while bad parents with lousy parenting skills lead to ill-mannered children. It is not rocket science, really.

Most Malaysian parents we see so often these days are so self-centered that they couldn’t care less of what their children are up to. When a child seeks attention, they grumble and pass them their gadgets, in an attempt to shut them off. At home, it doesn’t differ much – giving a child full control of the TV remote leaves the parents free to mind their own business.

How can parents nurture children if this is the way they are moulded?

I remember observing a mat salleh mother not too long ago during one of my trips overseas.

Just before boarding the plane, she brought her young son to the front of the hall and gave him a short pep talk.

“Can you see all these people? These are the people we will be sharing the flight with. Can you see there are some babies, some busy looking people and some tired looking elderlies?

“The baby might need some sleep, those people might need to work and the ones as old as your gramps might need to rest. They all need some peace and quiet. So can you do all of these good people a big favour by being in your best behaviour on the plane later?”

The boy nodded.

Now, why can’t we emulate that?

I’ll tell you why, because we are a society who tolerates every darn thing. As long as we continue to tolerate each other without politely demanding for some respect, we can continue to expect more shitty parents with shitty parenting skills and their ill-mannered children roaming around us. – January 11, 2018.

* Fa Abdul is a passionate storyteller and a resident agitator of the idiots in society. Well-known for her straight-talking sarcasm and occasional foul mouth, she juggles between her work as a writer, producer and director.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.