Shayla Smith
3/5
I enjoy taking my kids to this library, especially on hot days where they need a place to play. Some of the staff are very friendly and helpful and I appreciate the selection of bilingual books.
However, I have been really disappointed at the way some of the staff handle the kids area. Almost every time I’ve been there, they have come over and been very strict about the noise level, either with me or with other parents. For example, my older son pushed over my younger son and he started crying. I was stressed about the situation and the middle of trying to discipline my son when a worker came over and told me we needed to be quiet. I tried to calm my son, give him a pacifier, snack, etc. but he was still lightly crying so another person came over (all of this in a span of about 2 minute). Honestly we were not making a lot of noise, but it’s a big slap to the face when another person tries to make me feel ashamed (obviously not intentionally) for little noises a kid makes that parents can’t always control. We did not feel welcome and left the library, and I started crying. Day ruined. These workers had no idea how hard I was trying and had been trying on an already tough parenting day. Other times I have been there and they have made insensitive comments to other parents doing their best to care for their children. Pretty much every time I go, it seems like the workers are sitting around just waiting for the next noise to quiet down. And of course you get lots of those in the kids section ?Just yesterday, there was a mom with a 2 yr old making some frustrated noises while she was trying to help her older daughter with homework. Several different people came over to tell her she needed to calm down her child. She was honestly doing her best and it hurt me to see the way their strictness was getting in the way of them having sympathy towards her situation. They eventually asked her to leave the library. She stood her ground and would not leave. I should add that the noise level her kid was making was not at all distracting and very normal for a kid his age. They were in the kids area too and none of the parents and children there even noticed until the library workers made a big deal of it. The situation escalated to the point that the employees called the police to come escort her out. By the time police arrived, her kid was happy and no longer making any noise. It seemed very unnecessary to go to such extreme measures given that she and her family were no longer a “distraction.” It brought this mother to tears, and though she ended up saying some very unkind things to the library workers, which was absolutely unfair, I felt for this mom because I had been in her shoes before on some stressful days in the library where parenting was taking everything out of me and the shameful comments from the library workers tipped me over the edge. It honestly seems like *many* of the library workers do not have children or any experience around what a normal and acceptable noise level is. I totally get wanting to keep the library a peaceful place, but it seems the standards this particular branch places on that are unreasonable. My experiences at every other library I’ve been too have been the opposite- people are very kid friendly and excited to have us there reading books with our kids. I sincerely hope this branch can reevaluate the way they handle these situations, because I honestly get nervous every time I walk in the doors that I’ll be publicly humiliated by these people for things outside of my control. I was lucky my kids were well-behaved yesterday ?
