I was reminded of this while listening to a group of a half dozen women in the cafeteria, all with children, complaining about...other parents and their children. Lots of people here seem to think that its only the people without children who rag on parents, but parents do it too. On one of my last flights, the guy making the most obnoxious stink about a baby crying was flying with his own kids. I think someone else had it right, people just hate other people.

I think we are at population over-capacity, and anti-mommydom is an environmental chemical response. There are too many babies, and when they are real big-consumer babies, like the ones in the big strollers, all I see is more environmental destruction and degradation..There will be no wild animals left within 40 years..Humans consume everything absolutely everything..It is the historical record, and will be our future..the mommies in Park Slope just don't give a shit.

I mean, where are either the entitled moms or the anti-breeding oppressors everyone is ranting about? I have to confess that I don't run into either type. I am a parent and fraternize congenially with both other breeders and childless friends. I go out, I do things, and occasionally see people of all persuasions acting like entitled idiots. I am not saying 'it's all good' because I hate that phrase, and it's not, but I just think that the stereotyping going on by either group belies the fact that some people just tend, unfortunately, to get uppity about their particular place/role/perceived importance in life. Whatever.

Maybe you all are right. Anybody or anything that makes my travel take 2 seconds longer is an abomination! Take joggers and runners - sometimes I have to slow down to pass them safely - should I take your attitude and smack them with my front bumper or just the side mirror? As bicycle riders - should I put a 2x4 in my car to whack them with as I pass (my sons love this idea)? Or just bump them off the road? Oh! And those old people who stroll down the center lane in a grocery store, than stop to talk to another retiree - should I crash into their old asses with my carts or just walk up and toss them into the stacks of old-people-medicine? Speaking of grocery stores - what about those college students who cannot decide what to get, or the penny pinchers who stand in front of goods I WANT and try to figure out what's the better deal - should I flip them off, curse them out, or drive a pen into their ear?

Or maybe I should just accept that the world doesn't revolve around me and learn a little patience?

It's about a greedy desire to have everything in the world conform to your desires. A little bit of noise from a normal child having a normal bit of a tantrum, even if Mommy is controlling it well, is just too much for these types to deal with - the noise of a child assaults their frail sensibilities. Anything that gets in their way must be wrong somehow, and so they think that whatever is disturbing them should not be allowed.

They want children gone, there's no compassion for those who might be tired or otherwise need the seat THEY want to have, no willingness to move over to let a wheelchair have a space to turn around, complaints about someone talking too much to a friend, etc.

They forget that they were once a child, their mother carried them and appreciated any help she got from random strangers, that one day they will be the elderly person in need of a bit of help and consideration. Nope - the whole world should conform to their needs, and those on the fringes (near birth or death) should just go hide. A very old, intolerant, 50's vision of the world

You hit the nail on the head - our species is overbreeding itself into extinction and taking every other species on the planet down with us.

We're like hamsters in a cage who don't know when to stop breeding, and now we're all turning on each other's young.

Well, at least we're not actually eating our young... yet... that will probably come sometime after the last bluefin tuna and the last wild tiger have been wiped off the face of the earth...

In the meantime, Park Slope babies are just more locusts in diapers.

This article ends with the plea, "we want our paid leave and childcare." This type of entitlement, I believe, is the crux of the resentment.

Working life does not generally allow for three to six months of paid leave. In general, the only workers entitled to such paid leave are women who physically birth a child. Most employers do not provide extensive paid leave to either men or women who do not physically give birth to a child.

This ineqality creates resentment among those who have no opportunity to ever get a paid leave. More importantly, leave laws require employers to keep the mom's position available to her. These guaranteed reinstatment laws put extensive burden on the other employees who are not on leave to complete their own work plus the work of the employees on leave.

I am supportive of paid leave and guaranteed reinstatement, but I believe women need to acknowledge the burden it places on employers and co-workers. The sense of entitlement is real -- "I'm pregnant, so my managers and co-workers need to make accommodation to me and support me even as I do not work and get paid for months on end" -- and, it creates real resentment.

I believe that employers should address this resentment by creating a program that allows for one three month paid leave for every five or so years of work for whatever reason. Such policies, I believe, would go a long way toward reducing the resentment toward moms and babies.

One cannot accept the benefits of more generous leave and pay laws and policies while refusing to acknowledge the resentment that these laws and policies create. This article does not evey recongize the problem.