A Little Coffee with your Kindness?

I'm having thoughts this evening about how to raise kind children. How to be kind myself, how to spread kindness in the world. I had an incident a week ago that really made me think about this. The cubs and I went to Pacha for breakfast. I have been going to Pacha semi-regularly for around four years. I bought food and coffee and sat down to eat with the girls. While there U and F started getting really excited and running around my table and doing that happy screechy little girl sound. Now, I realize it is a small coffee house and that people are trying to study or talk or....So I asked the girls to stop and when they didn't I got down on one knee and put my arms around each of them to talk to them and ask explain to them why loud noises were best reserved for outside the coffee shop. As I was trying to talk to the girls the owner of the shop started saying loudly to me from behind the counter "You can't scream in here like that, they can't scream in here, they can't scream in here." She kept saying it over and over as if I was an idiot or lackey mother letting my children run around wild. Taking absolutely no notice that I was down on my knees trying to talk to my girls about the situation she came out from around the counter still chanting her refrain "You can't scream in here like that" Yeah, really lady..."Hey you notice me down trying to talk to my children." She loomed over us with her arms folded looking at me as if scolding me. I was so angry and dumbfounded all I could do was look at her like she was crazy. Seriously there are several ways she could have handled that situation and she chose the most ridiculous and unkind one. She could have noticed that the mother was trying to deal with it and instead of scolding us, come over and talked to us like we are human beings. Instead of looming over the girls, she could have gotten down to their level. She could have conveyed the same message with a soft unaccusing tone. Then she would have maintained me as a customer. I'm not a customer who goes in and nurses one coffee for two hours. I buy food and am usually out immediately. I'm just so tired of how anti-children our society really is. Even other parents do it. Looking at other people's children who may be making a little noise as if they are hooligans. The same people who would never bat an eye at a table of loud laughing adults, send dirty looks to a table of joyfully giggling children. What have adults forgotten that they were children once? Is it that difficult to stop and assess a situation and your reaction to it? I am making it my commitment to cultivating the ability to see things from anothers perspective in myself and my children. I will start by giving the owner of Pacha the benefit of the doubt...perhaps she had a bad day, her dog died, her boyfriend left her and she closed her finger in the door...I know we all react poorly sometimes. But I will definitely keep this event as a reminder in my heart that a little kindness can go a long long way. And kindness costs less than a latte.