It’s small but it’s designed as a proof-of-principle or pilot study, not a large scale epidemiological one. Basically you run a small study to see if your hypothesis holds water and then scale up if it does (like experimenting on animals or ex vivo before doing a human study).

It’s not about handling 20-40 seconds of distraction, it’s about so many mothers thinking they are entitled to bring their “perfect” kids whever they chose without consideration to others. Kids are kids. You can’t expect them to reasonable sit still without getting fussy or restless for 12 hours straight. Is one a…

If something needs to be finished by a certain date, and that person can’t do it, then someone else will have to pick up the slack. I don’t know where these people are working, but I’ve never had a boss that would be okay with that.

No - it’s about understanding actions have reactions. My CHOICE to have a baby shouldn’t make me entitled to bring the baby wherever I chose. I understand this choice will come with consquences like having to occasionally turn down amazing career opportunities such as last minute invites to attend or speak at industry…

Right. Clients of a BigLaw firm are spending a ton of money for productivity to stay up. Productivity can’t decline at an accounting firm, no matter what size, during tax season. Delaying publication of a magazine due to lapsed productivity would cost millions. Products need to hit the market. Deadlines are real. If…

Well, I’m glad you’re perfectly happy to do that. I’ll take that as my cue to comment through the next movie you’re seeing and never turn off my cell phone. It’s only a couple minutes, right?

I didn’t act like it’s a ‘terrible act of selfishness’ at all. I don’t think it’s terrible in the slightest. Just don’t pretend you’re doing yeomen’s work.

Oh, gotcha, so only parents can judge the behavior of parents. Is this like the ‘thin blue line,’ but for parents?

What??? Okay, calm down. The comparison was not of babies to pets. Did you not read? I was talking about the tendency us humans have to never think we are part of the problem at hand. And you could stand to ease up on the condescension here. You kinda sound like you want a medal for being a parent.

Probably because of the outraged mother who took her baby to the theater, and when people complained about the baby’s noise, she went into a rant online about how her child is a cancer survivor, yada yada yada, and deserved to be wherever she wanted to take it. No, no, it does not. She ruined the movie for all the…

My boss brought her kid in a few times when it was an infant. It was quiet but it was a huge distraction.

Exactly. What the fuck are “baby peeps?” That’s intentionally making the noise sound cute, which might not be everyone else’s interpretation of the noises your precious bundle is making. If they were loud enough to be heard by the speaker, they weren’t that cute.

I could not disagree more. There are places you go with the expectation that kids will be there: the zoo, the bus, the library, the children’s museum, various public places. The office, the opera, the movies and a seminar where you have to listen to stuff are not on that list. I do a local Burning Man event every year…

If you’re running a conference with large numbers of attendees, it’s not a risk you’re willing to take. I don’t care how quiet you say your kid is - it doesn’t belong in my accounting lecture.

Oh yeah, I see those people out and about. We were at the vet’s office with our very, very sick cat on Monday and there was an older toddler just shrieking. Not crying - shrieking just for funsies or something. I have no patience for kids in public who are causing a ruckus and whose parents are just ignoring them. I…

Yes! Some moms are really good at tuning this out. And let’s face it, don’t you guys kind of have to in order to survive at home? :) But you can’t act like you do at home when you’re out. I don’t know. I’ve seen my fair share of inconsiderate parents. I have a friend who thought it was hilarious to let her 3 year old…

I can’t really debate this if you’re comparing the coffee maker to a baby...

I don’t know. And I get that day care is expensive and we need to fix that. But that doesn’t give parents a carte blanche to just bring their babies around wherever they want. The other day the aesthetician that was doing my waxing had her toddler in the room across the hall; he kept crying and at one point she had to…

This is my reaction as well. My problem with bringing infants into the workplace is due solely to noise. Babies make noise: happy noise, upset noise, healthy baby noise. Why am I a bad feminist if I can’t concentrate around this and ask that it not be in my workspace?

I don’t have kids yet. Let’s get that out of the way. While reading this article I kept noticing how the author kept mentioning how quiet her baby was. That’s great, -if it’s true. But let’s not forget that we all tend to be biased towards our own. People never think their dogs will bite someone, or that their kids…