Not Doing Too Much Thinking Upstairs

(I work at a library with five floors. The fourth floor is for adults, and the fifth floor is for children. Kids being kids, it sometimes gets noisy, especially after school lets out, but most of our patrons take this in stride. One homeless dude I call ‘wannabe-scot-guy’ because of this green cap he wears on his head is not so accommodating.)

Wannabe-Scot-Guy: “You know, you guys really should consider moving this floor upstairs.”

Me: “Okay… and why would that be, sir?”

Wannabe-Scot-Guy: “It gets annoying, hearing the kids screaming from upstairs. I mean, we’re adults; we deserve better than this.”

Me: “Uh… well, I guess I could forward that to my boss, but I don’t think there’s a lot we can do about that, sir. I apologize.”

Wannabe-Scot-Guy: *sighs* Fine. But you really should tell the kids to pipe down sometime. Thought you ought to know.”

(Of course, having dealt with too many other overprivileged adult patrons that day, what I really wanted to tell him was ‘Yes, sir. I agree completely. I will be very careful to tell my boss we should close this library for 10 weeks and spend more than $30,000 of taxpayer money just so you can hear the kids scream at you from below instead.’ But my job security is pretty low as it is.)