The 31-year-old father from Weiden became overwhelmed when the tearful tykes let lose the waterworks in concert on Sunday night.
Unluckily for the Bavarian man, the babies’ mother wasn’t there and he couldn’t reach her by phone as his two five-month old twins and their two-year old sister let loose with a torrent of tears.
Having failed to reach his wife by phone and unable to calm his babies down, the father desperately started looking for a helping hand, or in this case the long arm of the law.
The “Friends and helpers”, as the German police motto reads, heard out the father’s sob story and offered some helpful babysitting tips, leaving the pitiable papa to his parent trap.
I’m, not entirely sure what the poor man wanted to do with the kids … charge them with disturbing the peace? Give them a night in the lock up?
It’s hilarious stuff.
But as I was guffawing to my friend, she reminded me that I took my 8 day old son back to the hospital because he was crying so much. Surely there had to be something wrong. It was as though he was a digital camera I couldn’t quite work out.
‘Nothing wrong with this baby,’ the nurse said kindly, ‘They do cry, sometimes a lot, but good on you for checking he’s all right.’
.
So now I feel sorry for that Bavarian bloke. A bit. I’d feel even sorrier for him if I hadn’t read that he’d repeatedly tried to CALL HIS WIFE before calling the police. The poor fraulein was out, probably cutting loose with a beerstein and a wurst for the first time in months!
All right, she’s more likely to have been at an appointment, the supermarket or even stuck in traffic – either way, she was enjoying, for a few hours, the pure joy of NOT BEING IN CHARGE.
In October, another friend – a mum from my kids’ school took off with a couple of gal pals on a trip to Japan. She’d only left the house for a few hours when her 5 year old son tumbled off the back of the couch and broke his arm in several places.
Despite the fact that the boy’s Dad had every opportunity to call her before her plane took off, he waited until she was sipping sake in Tokyo, the kid’s arm was set, and his painkillers were working a treat before the call was made. My friend enjoyed her holiday and her husband enjoyed the adoration of every woman he’s ever met.
If Bavarian dad was panicked, worried about his kids and his ability to cope – he did absolutely the right thing in calling for help – even the police. Kids’ safety is no joke. But if he was just fed up and looking for someone to sort them out so he could go back to watching competitive folk dancing (or whatever they watch in Bavaria) in peace then sorry, that’s just not on.
Listening to crying babies and whinging toddlers is torturous. I’d be surprised if recordings are not used as torture in Guantanamo Bay. But it’s the soundtrack to the lives of primary carers around the world and there are no magic fixes, other than headphones. When it comes to noisy kids, the police are as powerless as the rest of us.
Do you think the Dad overreacted in calling the police?
