I just started painting my first Tabletop-Miniatures (Hordes - Trollbloods), and was proudly presenting first results at my local clubstore. Dont get the wrong idea, compared to what most veterans paint, my stuff probably looks horrible, but I was proud of my work anyway. I made the fatal error of going to the club around noon, which is prime-time for random passerbys to enter the store. While I was talking to one of the guys a woman enters with her two kids, one was around 14 and would just look at the shelves and read some armybooks, the other was around 10 (at least he looked that way) and just ran around looking at everything. Usually I put my stuff on high tables or shelves so kids cant reach it (Advice I was given early on, as people told me horror stories of Kiddies breaking their stuff.), but I was distracted so the little one got his hands on my Axer.
The Mini starts out in parts and has to be glued together, as the Axe is pretty big and dual wielded, I had to glue it together by assembling arms and weapon first, and afterwards bending it a little to get it onto the main body. It held, but was somewhat delicate to handle. If you pull at the axe a bit too hard the whole thing could break. Naturally, I didnt want the kid to just play around with it, so I asked nicely if he could put it back. No reaction. I tried again two or three times, the mom could clearly hear me, she was standing not far away texting on her Phone.
Eventually, the kid not only breaks the weapon off, but also bends the handle out of shape and chips some of the paint. I never touch or even come close to other peoples kids (Since thats pretty much a minefield of bad stuff that could happen), so I just barked at him once, which prompted him to drop the stuff back on the table and run crying back to mom. Needless to say, NOW she reacted, which ended in a big argument. Eventually the storeowner had to get involved, I recevied compensation for the figure (But not the work I put in) and mom left, announcing she would never come there again. (Youre not gonna break stuff at our store anymore? Dear god, why?)
I wanted to blow off some steam on my skype conversation, like I usually do. One of my friends there is a mom herself tough, and scolded me for treating the child that way, and arguing with the mother. "Having to look after children can be stressful, dont be so mean just because she didnt watch them for a second."
Its not just in situations like this, but appearantly being a parent excuses about everything Kiddo does in public. Not only that, but as I stated above its pretty much a walking bomb. I like kids, I really do. But I only interact with them if its the kids of friends or family, as thats the only situation you can do it safely without anyone accusing you to be either a pedophile, or a child-beater. A friend of mine had to deal with a situation like this for weeks. He works in retail and tried to find a kids mom, since the little one was crying, he tooks his hand while searching. Mommy lost her shit when she finally returned and would threaten legal action. Not the only story I know, but I pretty much stay clear of kids as much as I can, which makes me look like an antisocial derp.
Seriously, you just cant win. Its either weird looks, or "Why do you hate children so much you monster!". Its really grating.
Extra bit:
Aaand my first time playing ended up gloriously too. My Opponent brought his Girlfriend to play, which is fine, some spectators are cool and there's really not many women playing the hobby. But she drops into a sexism rant half way into the game, after seeing the Witch-Elves I deployed. Basically, its a unit of female Dark Elves wearing not too many clothes. You could argue if the unit is really sexist, but theres a Lore reason they are not wearing a lot of armor. Personally, I dont care about the subject and avoid discussions, since its a big can of worms and goes nowhere.
So, after 5 minutes of ranting, I asked nicely if we could continue playing. She looked angry, and from what I can tell i earned the title "sexist" now as well. Im probably just gonna wear a shirt saying "Im appearantly a horrible person" from now on, so people at least cant complain about not being warned.