Ban Kids from Restaurants (Poll)
 

There is a lively thread discussing kids and restaurants, someone suggested a poll...

Sorry about the spelling error in option 4 ( I can't edit it -Don can you help?)

How will they learn how to behave in a fine restaurant?
 

I went to The Homestead last week with a couple who had two very lovely 10 year old grand daughters to whom they were teaching correct ways to behave. The said they would like regular menus for the girls and let them choose what they wanted to eat. They then spoke of the way that the foods were pronounced so that the girls learned filet mignon and bernaise etc. During the dinner we had several rounds of topics to which each contributed such as, "What could each of us do to help the world?" Donate to food kitchens, adopt an animal or child, donate a toy etc etc. We then did, "What do you like most about the lake." We had about four rounds of different topics in which BOTH adults and children were able to participate. Perhaps children get bored listening to adult conversation and eating french fries and burgers. Any way I thought it was a great idea and enjoyed the dinner immensely.

I am glad to see the numbers for Banning Children are low.

I understand that going out for a nice meal is important for people and that the atmosphere is part of the whole evening. Having a yelling screaming kid two tables away can certainly ruin the mode.

However as lucky1 notes how else are kids supposed to learn what is appropriate and what is not. Additionally who really is to blame when a kid acts up in a restaurant. I quite often don't believe it is the kids that need to be blamed. I am not trying to indicate that there is bad parenting involved. However what I do believe is that all to often the kids have not been prepared to go out to eat. Mom and Dad decided to go out for a nice meal and bring the kids, who have been playing outside and going crazy all day, and quite frankly are over tired. What do all of us do when we are over tired. We get cranky and sometime, raise or voice etc. Well it is no different for a kid.

Growing up, and when on vacation we almost never went out to a nice restaurant while on vacation. Sure we went out but it was always to appropriate places for family on vacations... the Local pizza joint, the local gressy spoon etc. We didn't go to place like Canoe, or the Woodshed, unless we had a down day, where we hadn't been busy, and had probably even taken a nap. So that while we where getting a treat and going somewhere nice, we where well behaved.

I now have two stepsons ages 9 and 10, I would take them to any restaurant with out hesitation, because their mother and I have distilled proper behavior into them. However I wouldn't try and take them to the Woodshed after a day on the water. It just doesn't work that way, they would be tired, and start to get board and misbehave. As a step parent or a parent I need to make sure I don't set my kids up for misbehavior.

Unfortunately, not all people think this way..... but I will state as I have often have stated, If a restaurant refuses to seat my family, they will loose my business. It is in my mind discrimination, and therefore not acceptable. Having empty tables in an "Adult only Section" and having a line at the door, of families with kids, is segregation, and demeaning. It appears as though these phrases, discrimination, and segregation, will not disappear, as people always need to have something to complain about, and blame.

ban the parrents
 

90% of the time kids are a problem it is a direct reflection of their parents parental skills or lack there of. I’d say make the parents leave and take their disruptive kids with them.
And these are probably the same parents that do things like talk on cell phones in restaurant and other public places where all of us have to listen to their meaningless conversations. This in turn is just what the kids will do because they learned it from their parents.

This really happened...
 

At one place I worked at, a family came in, ordered lunch, and seeing that they were the only ones remaining in the dining room after they ate their meal and the busboy had cleared their table... proceeded to change their baby's diaper on the dining table in the middle of the dining room! :eek:

Oh, and I'd like to point out that the GRANDPARENTS were standing right there beside them, handing over the powder and wipes.

The manager yelled at them and threw them out. Then proceeded to sanitize the table. I wonder what would have happened if he had not caught them doing that??

Also at this same place, when I glanced out the window of the kitchen, I saw a lone toddler heading down the dirt road into the forest -- I quickly retrieved and returned him to his - until then - oblivious parents. (And what? No tip...?? Next time, the kid becomes a statistic, I tell ya! :rolleye1:)

Parents are just as annoying
 

I get the poll, but am mixed. Kids and families are the biggest reason for such a thriving tourist season in the Lakes Region, so lets let some of the annoyances slide. At the same time, don't take your screaming, overtired child to the Woodshed where people are paying top dollar for fine dining. But if you are at Giusseppe's, and its loud anyway, I think that's acceptable.