My sister set off a mini-firestorm a few days ago amongst her email cohorts when she sent around a note regarding her experiences in a local restaurant. She was asked to leave because, presumably, her 2-year-old and her friend's 2-year-old were misbehaving. Now while I don't doubt the owner of the restaurant handled the situation badly (my niece had been sitting in her stroller quietly for 15 minutes when they were asked to leave towards the end of their meal, which doesn't really make any sense, and it sounds like he was very rude to her), I also have this opinion:
Kids have to eat. Parents have to eat. It's not always fun or possible to eat at home. So, I think that other patrons of a restaurant should, to an extent, deal with the fact that there are hungry little people in the world who aren't going to sit quietly at a table discussing ancient Greek philosophy. I also think it's the parents' responsibility to keep a child as well behaved as possible and to remove them if they become too much of a nuisance.
But my bottom line is this: If a restaurant doesn't have a children's menu, your 2-year-old doesn't belong there, even if they did once make her a grilled cheese sandwich.
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7 comments:
Totally agree. As a new parent I definitely can relate..... it's difficult to take a one year old out to eat but I figure if I am at a place that serves "kid food" than I have the right to be there just as much as the other folks..
Here from Micheles.
Cheers!
Heidi
Here from Michele's.
We never took our kids out beyond true "family friendly" places until we were confident they could a)behave and b)mind us if they started to act up.
This post hits home, because we recently had some bad experiences on vacation involving other travelers' children in the 5-8 year old range which were unbelievable to me.
Nice post.
Cheers.
I agree.
I think it's important that parents take their children out to eat so they can learn to how to behave at a restaurant. But you're right, it should be a restaurant where kids are expected.
It's unfair to expect a child to act like an adult. I don't begrudge children being loud or excited. I do begrudge children running through a restaurant without restraint, totally unsupervised by their parents (which doesn't happen often at all, most kids are well-behaved and they're just being kids).
I think it's OK for a restaurant to cater to an adults-only crowd just as much as it's OK for restaurants to be family friendly.
I have been kicked out of so many restaurants because of the behavior of the kids I was with I can't count! I used to travel in a pack of kids and moms and we were intolerable, although we did try to go to at off-peak times.
I like kids in restaurants when they are with me. When they are bad kids with other people -- get 'em out of here! That's the way of Americans.
I agree. It's funny, I don't mind it if a child is acting up or crying or what have you IF the parents are doing something about it. My heart goes out to them because I've been there. They are doing the responsible thing and if need be, they remove the child from the restaurant. But when the parents ignore the behavior/crying/running around/screaming/etc...THAT's when I get really annoyed.
Great post, Carli. I so relate on so many levels. We haven't been kicked out of any restaurants - which astounds me given how loud our kids can be - but we've also always been really careful to pick our restaurants.
We don't take them to swanky places with linen on the table. We go to family restaurants like Jack Astors and East Side Marios, where the background noise level is so high that no one really cares if your little folks pipe up a bit.
Good parenting means picking your spots. While we want to teach our kids how to behave in public, we also don't want to ruin anyone's romantic meal. Choosing the the right place can make all the difference in the world.
Carmi summates it well. Fast food restaurants and family oriented midlevel restaurants are great for kids. After that, a parent is taking chances...
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