Banning Kids In Restaurants...

[welsummerchicks]

One of the main reasons I GO to restaurants is to enjoy watching people's kids run around, say hysterically funny things, and generally make a mess of their food; even if they are not doing those things(or as some people might put it, 'are well behaved'), they're fun to watch.

If a restaurant bans kids under 6, I just won't go there. Seeing kids is a big part of my fun in going out to eat.

However, I think it's absolutely fine if restaurants do that. A goodly number of people don't like dining in restaurants who allow kids as some parents will let them run rampant like savage, ravening beasts.

If one parent spoils it for everyone else by being irresponsible, oh well. There are other restaurants that allow kids in Pennsylvania.

I can understand restaurant owners doing it. Can you imagine the liability the restaurant owner would incurr if a kid got hurt at their restaurant????? If I was a restaurant owner I'd be under my bed screaming. The parents would come in, let their little Anti Christ run all over and then lawyer up if the kid got hurt.

The funniest thing I ever heard was my friend told her her 2 1/2 yr old daughter sits and reads the menus just like her parents do, and then says, 'please order something appropriate for me'.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

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No they have decided or believe that they are loosing more money because of the bad kids being there than they believe they will lose by not letting any kids in.

That doesn't make sense, because then you might aswell ban families all together. I know my family wouldn't go out to eat at a restraunt where my younger siblings weren't allowed, same reason they don't go out to eat at a bar. Other families might be different though, thats just mine.

 

[justuschickens59]

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That's because you spent more time training your dogs then they did their children,..

EXACTLY !!!

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Avalon- it is called having an "attractive nuisance". Swimming pools, trampolines, etc are all considered to be attractive nuisances. Even if you lock them up, padlock the gates, have no trespassing signs, etc. you can still be held liable if a child gets hurt. It's stupid, but how it is many places. Decades ago if a child got hurt playing somewhere that they had no business playing it was considered a learning experience. Now days it is a lawsuit.

I do not have kids. I do work with kids. I actually like most kids and find them to be immensely entertaining. However, I do not feel that I should be subjected to out of control children. It is not my job to parent those kids. It is not my job to make someone else's kids behave. If your child is acting like a little hellion you should be the adult and take the child out of the situation. It is called being the parent. Yes, it stinks that you might not get to eat at the nice restaurants for a few years, but that's the price you pay. Loud, obnoxious children make me nuts. Thus I do not go to Chuckie Cheese, McDonald's or any of the other kid friendly places. There are several local places that I do not frequent because they are family restaurants. I just know to stay away.

When I do go out to eat I expect that I will get to eat in peace. No children kicking my seat, running in the aisles, screaming like a banshee, flinging food or generally being a pest. Why shouldn't I be allowed a decent meal? I am paying good money for the experience. Why does some one's ill behaved beast get to ruin that experience?

Same deal on airlines should apply. I am all for a kid section and a non-kid section. After a 10 hour flight with a screaming toddler I am all for sequestering the screamers in the back.

While I agree that it was not the baby's fault for screaming, it was very definitely his parents' fault for not bringing food/drink/entertainment to keep him occupied. It was a completely miserable flight. A hundred people who paid hundreds of dollars for the flight were stuck listening to this kids screech for HOURS!!!! Even earphones with the volume up to full couldn't drown him out. Heaven forbid that you wanted to nap on the way home. It was horrible. At least at a restaurant you can get up and leave. On the plane you are stuck being kicked, poked and assaulted with unbearable noise with no way out. Put the under six crowd in the back of the plane and call it done. They board first anyway and take extra time to get off at the end. Plus it is closer to the bathroom. Win, win, win.

There are those raising well-behaved, intelligent children. I applaud you. Your kids are the ones I love. However, most people are not raising well behaved children these days. If a restaurant feels it serves their purposes to ban children, more power to them. I would happily eat there.

 

[gritsar]

OT - And what's so wrong about treating your animals as your children? The Boys, Jax and Kane, are my children. It's not hurting anyone for us to treat them in that manner and they are well behaved in public. They are my dogs and it's my money that spoils them. I'm able to do it without hurting anyone (well, except for the grown SDs that act jealous of the attention and money spent on the dogs), so why shouldn't I?

If my dogs were a nuisance they wouldn't be taken out in public.

 

[sourland]

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X 2 It all comes down to people taking responsibility for their childrens' actions. This was once the norm. Now, maybe not so much the norm.

 

[justuschickens59]

I actually like to watch the kids playing in the tubes and balls and things at McDonald's and Chik-Fil-A, etc. However, my husband and I go out to eat very seldom, so when we have a "date night" and we take the time to dress up and go to a nice restaurant and drop $100+ for a nice dinner, I do expect to be able to eat my dinner in relative peace and quiet.

I do wonder what would happen if the restaurant manager approached a family with unruly children and asked them to leave because they were disturbing the other diners. I wonder if the family would politely get up and leave, or create an even bigger disturbance? I also wonder how a "family" section in restaurants would work?

 

[redhen]

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Really, thats what the manager SHOULD be doing... but they dont ever DO it.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

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There is no perfect solution unfortunantly

 

[teach1rusl]

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Yep...the good ol' days.

Mom's paddle of choice was her shoes...lol. There were four of us, so I guess she figured her hand would suffer some abuse (plus she took good care of her nails, so I guess she didn't want to risk breaking one

), so she'd whip off a shoe (she always wore shoes with really thin soles that gave a good sting). No matter where you're going, you always have shoes on. I can still remember driving to my Aunt Linda's house; we kids acted up in the car, and she let us know that when we got there - we were going to get spankings. I don't know which was worse - the dread of knowing for the rest of the drive that it was going to happen, or the embarrassment of getting our butts spanked with a shoe upon our arrival...in front of our cousins and aunt.