You Think Your Loud Kid Isn’t Disrupting Everyone? Let’s Talk.

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Matt Walsh Show

Episode: You Think Your Loud Kid Isn’t Disrupting Everyone? Let’s Talk.
Air Date: March 7, 2026
Host: Matt Walsh (The Daily Wire)

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Overview

In this episode, Matt Walsh addresses a surge in online debate about the etiquette of bringing loud children into public spaces—particularly churches, but also restaurants and other venues. Triggered by a church’s “loud children policy” that welcomes noisy kids, Matt articulates a firm stance: parents must not allow their children to disrupt others in public. He shares personal anecdotes, responds to listener comments, and discusses where he draws the line between tolerance and responsibility, keeping his trademark direct and uncompromising tone.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The “Loud Children Welcome” Church Policy

• Church in York, PA posted a policy inviting all families, including those with loud kids, presenting it as heartwarming and inclusive.
• Matt’s Opposing View:
  • Parents should not permit their children to disrupt church (or other public spaces).
  • If a child is unruly, parents should remove them.
    • "Your children should not be allowed to disrupt a church service or any other public gathering. If they are being unruly, remove them." (00:40, Matt Walsh)

2. False Dichotomy in Church Culture

• Challenging the Either-Or Mindset:
  • Criticizes the idea that churches must choose between “old and quiet” or “young and noisy.”
  • Advocates for young, vibrant churches where children are still expected to behave during services.
    • "You want a church that is young and vibrant... But also during the church service, kids are quiet and well-behaved. And if they're not, you take them out." (03:56)

3. Handling Loud Kids: Personal Experience & Practical Tips

• Anecdote: Matt describes his own experience as a father of a big family who has often removed his own children from services or restaurants when they were disruptive.
  • "I've done this so many times. I'm not asking anyone to do anything I haven't done." (04:37)
• Restaurant Example:
  • Patience for a few moments of crying, but frustration builds when parents refuse to remove disruptive children.
    • "You just sit there and let your kid totally disrupt and irritate an entire room full of strangers." (01:22)

4. What About Airplanes?

• Unique Context:
  • More sympathy for parents, since they can’t remove a child mid-flight.
  • But stresses preparation and doing everything possible to minimize disruption.
    • "On planes I do sympathize...because yeah, in that case there’s nothing you can do." (07:04)

5. The Internet “Agreement Disguised as Disagreement” Phenomenon

• Listener Comments: Many opposing comments actually agree in substance (e.g., removing kids if they’re disruptive), but react emotionally.
  • "This happens all the time where I say something and people disagree even though they agree." (09:03)
• Matt pushes back on the narrative that asking parents to manage disruptive kids is driving families from church.
  • "If your kid’s being loud, remove them. And you’re saying, yeah, Matt, you’re running them off...then what are we talking about? Sounds like we're on the same page." (09:03)

6. Taking Feedback & Entitlement

• Matt’s increasingly unsympathetic response to parents who feel “unwelcome”:
  • Suggests if parents repeatedly hear complaints about their kids, perhaps it’s justified.
    • "Maybe instead of that, maybe take the feedback, maybe consider that actually your behavior needs to change." (11:32)

7. Training Expectations & Avoiding Rewards for Bad Behavior

• Training Through Consequences:
  • Discourages parents from “rewarding” bad behavior—no toys, no snacks, no leaving the room for fun if a child is removed.
    • "You’re not going to go back in the lobby and run around like it’s a playground...no toys...no snacks..." (14:39–15:29)
  • Removing kids should not become an escape for them, but a consequence.
    • "If you’re disruptive, now you’re going to have less fun. You were bored before, now you’re going to be even more bored." (15:39–15:48)
• Discipline as a Sacrifice:
  • Parents need to accept personal inconvenience for the good of the community.
    • "Guess what? You pay for the meal, it’s going to be cold. Sorry. I guess your night is ruined. That’s the way it goes...That’s the sacrifice you are expected to make." (16:49–17:14)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Public Spaces:
  • "If your kid’s going to be annoying in public, fine, I get it. But you should make it so that it’s only annoying for you and not for anyone else." (06:30)
• On Planes:
  • "I'm not going to say that families with kids under a certain age should never fly anywhere. I think that's unreasonable, too." (07:33)
• On Parental Sacrifice:
  • "That’s the sacrifice you are expected to make so you can raise kids who will be, eventually, productive members of society." (17:14)
• On Parenting Entitlement:
  • "Get your kid under control. Don’t force the rest of us to deal with your parenting inadequacies. Stop acting entitled, and have a nice day." (17:24)

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Important Timestamps

• [00:32–01:22] – Matt introduces the church policy and states his position on disruptive children.
• [03:07–04:24] – Discussion of the false dichotomy and his own experiences in young families at church.
• [04:27–06:36] – Anecdotes about removing his children from church and restaurants, plus expectations for handling public disruptions.
• [07:01–07:55] – Sympathy for parents on airplanes, with emphasis on preparation.
• [09:03–10:06] – Responding to listener pushback about making families unwelcome; describing his lack of sympathy for perpetual complainers.
• [13:54–15:29] – Strategy for disciplining children, avoiding reward for disruptive behavior, and using consequences.
• [16:45–17:14] – Sacrifice, entitlement, and responsibility as a parent in public spaces.

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Conclusion

This episode holds a consistent, unapologetic message: parents are obligated to manage their children’s behavior in public for the good of everyone. Matt Walsh balances practical advice with blunt critique of what he sees as modern parenting entitlement, repeatedly underscoring that consideration for others trumps convenience. The debate is painted as commonsense—hardly controversial in his view—but nevertheless sparks emotional reactions online. Through personal stories, sharp retorts, and clear standards, Walsh articulates both the stakes and responsibilities of raising children in shared spaces.

Transcript

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[Co-host 1]

Experian okay, this week we talked about

[Co-host 2]

the issue of loud children in public. We talked about a a church in York, Pennsylvania that was getting a lot of getting, getting some good press because they posted a loud children policy where they were inviting families to bring their loud children to church and saying that all children are welcome and all this sort of thing. This is supposed to be heartwarming. I said, I'm actually against it. Talked about on the show. I put, I'll show you what I what I posted on X. I said I don't love it. I'm actually considerably less tolerant of loud kids in public now than I was before I had my own your children should not be allowed to disrupt a church service or any other public gathering. If they're being unruly, remove them. If they're old enough to know better, take them out and discipline them.

[Co-host 1]

If they're too young to control themselves,

[Co-host 2]

then again, remove them. I've had to do this many times in many situations. It blows my mind when parents just

[Co-host 1]

sit there and let their kids totally

[Co-host 2]

disrupt and irritate an entire room full of strangers.

[Co-host 1]

A lot of comments, a lot of

[Co-host 2]

conversation around this this point. And I'll read some of the comments now. This comes from Matthew Cordes, who says, oof, you've already lost me, Matthew. You've already lost me as a grown man typing the word O.

[Co-host 1]

Think about what you're doing. You're a grown man typing the word. Not even oof but o f so oof. You're typing the word oof as a grown man. That's, that's problem number one.

[Co-host 2]

Problem number two is the rest of this.

[Co-host 1]

Should your children be obedient and well behaved?

[Co-host 2]

Yes, as much as possible.

[Co-host 1]

There's a difference between being unruly and making a little noise.

[Co-host 2]

If you have children, you know that under a certain age, different for each child, they do not have any recognition

[Co-host 1]

of appropriate noise level.

[Co-host 2]

There. There are two unmistakable sounds that signify

[Co-host 1]

a healthy church One, crying babies as

[Co-host 2]

they represent new life and families.

[Co-host 1]

Two, singing men as they represent joyful

[Co-host 2]

and loving leadership and not stodgy piety.

[Co-host 1]

Bring your sometimes noisy kids to church.

[Co-host 2]

Help them learn to participate in the service appropriately, but don't be ashamed when they act like kids.

[Co-host 1]

This is one of those things people

[Co-host 2]

do where I say something and then they react like they totally disagree, but then you read what they're saying or you listen to it and they're basically agreeing with you. Should your children be obedient and well behaved? Yes, as much as possible. That's kind of what I'm saying. It. It's good. Yeah. You want a church that is young and vibrant. Young families. Young families in a church are.

[Co-host 1]

Are what you want to see.

[Co-host 2]

That's a very good thing. That's a beautiful thing. I have a young family. I have a young, big family. I bring my family to church and that's. That's what you want to see. When I walk into a church and the average age of the congregan is 70, I know that this is a church that is in every sense dying. Right. This is not a vibrant church community, and that's not what you want.

[Co-host 1]

But this is a lot of the

[Co-host 2]

responses I'm getting, getting to my point. It's kind of this, where you set up this false dilemma, this false dichotomy,

[Co-host 1]

where either we have old, dying, quiet

[Co-host 2]

churches or churches that are loud and boisterous and the kids are constantly crying and making noise.

[Co-host 1]

I'm saying that you can actually have the best of both worlds. Like, there's a third option where it's a church that is young and vibrant, energetic, but also during the church service, during the mass, kids are quiet and well behaved. And if they're not, you take them out. Like the crying, the crying baby thing in particular.

[Co-host 2]

Like, when I. When I hear babies crying in church,

[Co-host 1]

that's what blows my mind the most because that.

[Co-host 2]

You just. You.

[Co-host 1]

You take the. I don't blame a baby for crying. We've had six babies.

[Co-host 2]

Okay. At different times. Well, twice we had two at the same time. No one gets.

[Co-host 1]

I don't get mad at a baby for crying. That's what babies do. They don't have the other way to communicate. Take them out. Take them out while they're crying. I've done this so many times. I'm not asking anyone to do anything I haven't done. Your baby's crying in church. Take them out, calm them down where other people can't hear it, and then bring them in. Your baby's crying in a restaurant again. I don't like the first couple of moments of the baby crying. I don't. I don't hold that against you. That's not your fault. It's not the baby's fault. It's not your fault. But you're just sitting there and letting the baby cry and dis. And disrupting everyone else's time. What you're saying is, okay, yeah, the baby's crying, and guess what? This is gonna be all of your problems now. So now I can't enjoy the church service or I can't enjoy my meal and sound. So now none of you will. I'm going to make it so that none of you can enjoy it.

[Co-host 2]

That's what I don't get.

[Co-host 1]

We were in a restaurant the other day, just a couple. Couple weeks ago, I was with my

[Co-host 2]

wife, and there was a. A family that came in and they had a baby. And the baby starts crying.

[Co-host 1]

And like I said, for the first time, I don't know, a minute or something, I'm not getting annoyed because I get it.

[Co-host 2]

Like, I don't. I don't blame you for bringing. You want to go out to eat, you have a baby.

[Co-host 1]

There's no reason why you can't do that in theory, but the minutes drag on and they're not taking the baby out. Like, they're just sitting there and letting the baby cry so that the rest of us have to hear it. Take him out. Leave the. Go back into the lobby. There are things you can do here. There are solutions. There are at least solutions that will make this only annoying for you and

[Co-host 2]

not for the rest of us. That's the point.

[Co-host 1]

If your kid's going to be annoying

[Co-host 2]

in public, it's understandable.

[Co-host 1]

I get it. But you should make it so that

[Co-host 2]

it's only annoying for you and not for anybody else. I don't know why that's so hard. I don't know why it's so hard. I really don't. Mr. Yano says, I agree in all situations where it's possible to remove them somewhere. Like a plane. I think is different now. Obviously, me and my spouse would try every possible thing to keep the child quiet. Fortunately, I'm past that phase. But I sympathize with young parents, especially on planes.

[Co-host 1]

Yeah, on planes I do. On planes.

[Co-host 2]

I. I do sympathize with the. I mean, it is annoying to hear a baby crying on a plane, but I don't get mad at the parent. I actually feel. I feel really bad for the parent in that situation because yeah, in that case there's nothing you can do. That's just the way it is. You can't obviously leave the plane while it's in the sky. And I'm not going to sit here and say that families with kids under a certain age just should never fly anywhere. I'm not going to say that. I think that's unreasonable.

[Co-host 1]

I'm talking about just being reasonable. It's unreasonable to say that if your

[Co-host 2]

baby cries on a plane you should like jump out of the plane. It's unreasonable to say that you should never fly if you have a baby. I think that's unreasonable too.

[Co-host 1]

So I think, I think you should come prepared. You should be as prepared as possible.

[Co-host 2]

If you're going on a plane, you should have everything ready to try to keep your children entertained and satiated so that they don't cry. But if it happens, it happens.

[Co-host 1]

But in situations where you can remove

[Co-host 2]

the child then that's what you should do. I mean that's it.

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[Co-host 1]

day says of course Matt, run off

[Co-host 2]

people in the church with families and kids. Churches are shutting down the doors because they can't keep get people to come any come anymore.

[Co-host 1]

Now I have a four year old

[Co-host 2]

and I don't let her disrupt church and I do remove her. If she gets carried away or starts talking loudly during prayer then why are you disagreeing with me? That's all I'm saying. This happens all the time where I say something and people disagree even though they agree. All I'm saying is if your kid's being loud, remove them. And you're saying yeah Matt, you're running them off.

[Co-host 1]

Mean if my kids being loud I remove them. Okay, then what are we talking about? Sounds like we're on the same page. What's, what's the debate here? Yet if I go to a church

[Co-host 2]

and they make a comment about my child being loud when I obviously try, then I won't feel welcome. To me a sanctuary is exactly that, should be treated as such. But don't forget that children being brought up in church is our future and the only way Christianity survives. I don't know. I, I, like I said, I, as I said, we've talked about this earlier in the week. I actually weirdly have become less sympathetic of these, to these complaints by parents now that I am a parent. And the longer that I am a parent, the less sympathetic I become to it. It's sort of, so it's, it's maybe the inverse of what you would expect. But when you have parents that say, I felt so unwelcome because people said

[Co-host 1]

my children were being loud, you know,

[Co-host 2]

the first thing I think now is like, yeah, well, they were probably being loud.

[Co-host 1]

I mean, it's, Look, I, I,

[Co-host 2]

I, There have been a few times in my life when we had kids out in public, maybe at church, maybe somewhere else, and I think that they were legitimately being like really well behaved and not loud at all. And somebody made a comment and I felt that like, actually that's unfair. You know, it seems like you just have a problem with kids being around you at all.

[Co-host 1]

So that, that's happened a few times, but it's pretty rare.

[Co-host 2]

I mean, my, my actual experience as

[Co-host 1]

someone who's has a lot of kids,

[Co-host 2]

a big family, my experience in actuality is that when you're out with a lot of kids and they're, and they're really being well behaved, you're much more likely to hear people praising you for it.

[Co-host 1]

I mean, you're much more, if anything, the annoying thing is the patronizing praise

[Co-host 2]

you'll get from other people. And I don't think they mean it as patron patronizing. So I don't, I don't get mad about it, but I think you're more likely to hear people remarking on how well behaved your kids are. And if you never hear that in public, but instead you hear unfair comments about how your kids are loud.

[Co-host 1]

Probably your kids are loud.

[Co-host 2]

That's probably what they're doing. And so maybe you should just listen to the feedback. You ever consider that? I mean, if you go to a church and you know, afterwards you, someone talks to you about how the fact that your kid's kid was disruptive rather

[Co-host 1]

than saying, I feel unwelcome, this is not fair, everyone's being unfair to me. Maybe instead of that, maybe take the feedback, maybe consider that actually your pay,

[Co-host 2]

maybe your behavior needs to change.

[Co-host 1]

You ever thought about that?

[Co-host 2]

I mean, I don't know.

[Co-host 1]

It's something to consider. Teaching says bad take, awful take, stupid take.

[Co-host 2]

Wow, Remember my take that just said, if your kid's being loud, remove them and. And then when they quiet down, come back in.

[Co-host 1]

The most reasonable thing on the planet.

[Co-host 2]

This is how it works on the Internet.

[Co-host 1]

You could say the most reasonable thing ever. It gets not controversial. I'm not taking an extreme position here. Bring your kids to church.

[Co-host 2]

If they're being loud, take them out, calm them down, bring them back in.

[Co-host 1]

And I can say that. And the response is terrible. Oh, that's the worst take I've ever heard.

[Co-host 2]

What?

[Co-host 1]

This is. This is shocking. I can't even believe anyone would say that, really.

[Co-host 2]

But what's even the other option?

[Co-host 1]

Like, what's the other take, aside from

[Co-host 2]

the one that I expressed?

[Co-host 1]

Nearly two hours in a quiet service

[Co-host 2]

is a long time for very small kids, and you have to train them to be quieter and reverent when they're older.

[Co-host 1]

We started that for all five of

[Co-host 2]

our kids when they were about one or two, and by about four, they're perfect angels for the entire service. We've always gotten a lot of good compliments out of on them, but it was only because we were allowed to keep them in the service for the first few years of their life. And they were very noisy. Well, I'm sorry, that's just unacceptable. Very noisy. So you let your kids be very noisy in church for years. So then it's. Then it's just everybody else's problem is what you're saying.

[Co-host 1]

You just expect everyone else to put up with it.

[Co-host 2]

Sorry, I don't like.

[Co-host 1]

It doesn't work.

[Co-host 2]

It doesn't work for me. If your kid's being noisy, then you take. And this is an important point. Part of it too, though, if your kid's being disruptive in public, not. We keep just talking about church. It's not just church. It's anywhere. Grocery store, restaurant, movie theater, anywhere in public where you can take them out. So it's pretty much anywhere but a plane. If they're being noisy, you remove them. But an important part of that is

[Co-host 1]

that it can't be a reward because

[Co-host 2]

in some cases, like, they're bored in church. And so if you take them out, you're rewarding them. And so you just have to make sure that it's not a reward and that that's where consequences come in. That's where punishments come in, depending on the. The age of the child. You're not going to punish a baby, but as the kids get a little bit older, there's punishments, there's consequences.

[Co-host 1]

So we, what we have Done with

[Co-host 2]

church and the way that we've gotten it so that now we're our youngest kids are three, and they can both almost make it through an entire church service. We usually have to take them each out, like, once. And I think by the time they're

[Co-host 1]

four, you know, by the time they're for all of our, we'll be good to go.

[Co-host 2]

We'll be past all this, and all of our kids will be fine, and we have to worry about it anymore. But the way that we do it is that if I got to take you out and I got to take you back into the lobby or something, you're not going to go back in the lobby and, like, run around like it's a playground. You're not going to get to go have fun. We're not going to, you know, we're not bringing toys for you to calm you down, because then we're rewarding. Because then you've learned that, okay, if I want to get a toy, I just have to be loud and disruptive. So there's no toys. Okay. There's no snacks. You see, parents, they bring snacks and toys for their kids. And if they want to keep them quiet, terrible move, bringing a tablet or something, even worse. Because not only are you forming, in that case, the tablet habit, but also you're training your kid that if they

[Co-host 1]

want to get a fun treat, all

[Co-host 2]

they have to do is be disruptive. So it's got to be the opposite. It's like, no, if you're disruptive now, now you're going to.

[Co-host 1]

You weren't having fun before, now you're

[Co-host 2]

going to have less fun.

[Co-host 1]

You were bored before, now you're going to be even more bored.

[Co-host 2]

And so what I've done when it comes to church is I take them back and. And we go to the back of the lobby, I say, okay, you see that little square right there? That little tile stand right there. You're going to stand right there in that spot. You're not running around, you're not talking. You're not having a fun time. You're going to stand right there and. And that's it. And if there's got to be consequences when we get home, then there's gonna be consequences there, too. The problem is that parents don't want to do this because it's annoying for them. That's what so much of this is about. Parents bring their. Their noisy kids. They don't take them out, they don't have punishments, they don't have consequences. Because for the parent it's annoying. It's cumbersome. The parent doesn't want to miss out. When we were listening to the crying baby in the restaurant. Well, it's because those parents, they wanted to eat their meal and they didn't want to have to miss out on their meal. If one of them has to get up and take the baby out, then

[Co-host 1]

their food's going to get cold.

[Co-host 2]

And now they got to miss out

[Co-host 1]

on the food that they paid for.

[Co-host 2]

And they don't want to do that. And so they stay there and make everyone else deal with it. Well, that's just not acceptable. Like, it's your kid. Sorry, you're going to have to miss your meal. Yep. Guess what? You pay for the meal, it's going to be cold. Sorry.

[Co-host 1]

Sorry.

[Co-host 2]

I guess your night is ruined. That's the way it goes. That's the way it goes. That's the. That's the. That's the deal we make. You know, that's the sacrifice you're supposed to make so that you can raise kids who will be, you know, eventually productive members of society. That's the sacrifice you are expected to make. So, in conclusion, get your kid under control. Don't force the rest of us to deal with your parenting inadequacies. Stop acting entitled and have a nice day.

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