Mom shamed for bringing baby to ballet speaks about ‘horrible’ experience
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The mother who was shamed for bringing her baby girl to the Indianapolis Ballet spoke exclusively with News 8 Thursday about her upsetting experience.
Noelle Kent said she brought her 1-year-old daughter Lauryn and her 16- year-old cousin to the Toby Theater during a matinee show of the Indianapolis Ballet on Sunday.
Kent said Lauryn is a fairly quiet baby.
“We’re talking about a child that goes to church and sits through the entire church service. She’s quiet as a bird, she’s clapping, she’s happy to be there,” said Kent.
The mother said she wanted to bring her family to experience the arts for the first time.
“I love art, I loved art since I was a child,” Kent said. “It started in elementary school and I loved it ever since and it’s something that I really wanted to instill in my child. My little cousin is 16. She’s never been to the art museum, she’s never been to ballet and I really thought it would be a great family experience.”
Kent said they were sitting on the main floor when suddenly they heard a verbal outburst from the next aisle.
“This man stands up and he’s like, ‘who’s got the baby that’s crying how dare you bring a baby in here!’ in that moment it was like if I can disappear I wanted to disappear. It was horrible. I just got up and left,” she said.
Kent said she’s not upset with the angry patron, but she was embarrassed.
Well-known local chef Neal Brown was at the ballet and witnessed the verbal outburst. He used Facebook to track the family down and promised dinner and tickets for another performance. Kent found Brown’s post after it was shared hundreds of times.
“I had wrote under his post. I’m like ‘hi I’m the mom at the ballet show.’ We then exchanged messages through inbox and he’s like ‘hi I’m Neal it’s nice to meet you.’ A very nice guy,” Kent said.
“I’m just really happy that we were able to connect and plan a day she and her family deserve,” Brown told News 8.
“They don’t really know how to be quiet, you can’t expect them to be quiet, you can’t expect them not to be happy to be there especially when they’re being exposed to those new scenes,” she said.
Kent and Brown are still working out a day and time to finally meet in person and to enjoy a better family outing.