Dragonlady,
I can understand that things are diffrent if your child is autistic, and I would never be bothered if it was a case where the child is ill and it is not something that the parents can do something about. That has never been the case with any of the children that come into my office tho, they just run around like little monsters.
Most parents arent really ignoring the kids, they are just tired, embarrased and mortified.
I too am tired of having children throw fits in my office while I'm trying to help their parents and having the parents say nothing. If I make a mistake on the paper work and something happens I could get sued and sometimes it's hard to pay attention to what I'm doing when I have to stop and tell a child to not play with my files or to keep them from throwing them on the floor. It's even harder when I have a person that has 2/3 kids with him/her and they are all screaming and fighting with each other. Honestly if you can not keep your child from making a scene maybe you should consider leaving him/her at home until they learn to behave or you learn how to keep your child in check.
Lola