Unfriendly Families in Family Friendly Restaurants
I can very much understand this blog post by Violent Acres. We were recently in a so-called family friendly restaurant and there were kids running around between the servers with most of the parents not even bothering to correct them.
And my response to, “Oh well! She’s 4! That’s how she’s supposed to act!” is, “Oh well! You’re the adult! How you’re supposed to act is to make sure she doesn’t act like that in public!”
It is ironic that the server got 57 stitches from glass shards of what I’m assuming are Heinz ketchup bottles. Maybe the server should have found the mother and son who caused the accident and asked of her mangled face scared the little brat then!
So because of this particular accident you conclude that kids in restaurants are out of control maniacs that need to be on a short leash, and parents are lazy for not controlling their child at all times, correct? Well if you actually had young kids you would know that despite your best efforts as a parent, kids do have a mind of their own and can’t be controlled at every moment, much to the dissatisfaction of their parents. Families often dine out because they’re tired and don’t want to cook. That’s when the kids can also tap dance on the parents’ nerves as well. Sitting still for an hour is really hard even for many teenagers.
So the inevitable conclusions are: 1.) Keep kids out of public settings like restaurants, 2.) Give the kids activities to occupy their flightly little minds, or 3.) Recognize that kids have free will and can’t be controlled 100% of the time even by non-lazy disciplinarian parents. Despite the original author’s wishes, I would file #1 in my drawer of “things that will never happen, nor should they”. Number 2 is the urbane method of choice. Number 3 will probably only occur when the author takes on the responsiblity of raising kids themselves, rather than the irresponsiblity of ranting about something that seems so simple from afar.
It’s occasions like these that I wonder why people don’t sue in America. Considering how many frivolous lawsuits occur, this is one that I believe has every right to happen.
The part that bugs me most? Not that the kid caused the scars, but that the un-repenting bitch of a mother screamed at the injured worker for “scaring” her child. Absolutely pathetic.
Actually, the author of that post is in the process of raising several children. Perhaps you should read before you post, AJ. It is entirely possible to have well-behaved children in public. When I was young, my parents would tolerate nothing but proper behavior from me – tantrums, throwing food, and general misbehavior would get me taken home and banned from the establishment until I could show restraint again. There were a couple of years there where the mall was entirely off limits. The concepts of “use your inside voice” and “this is not the Y (MCA)” were cues that behavior was inappropriate.
Society has standards, and it’s a parent’s job to let the child know what those are in a firm, loving, and consistent manner. A person’s behavior affects everyone around them, and it’s my opinion that many children can learn this at a much younger age than many people think. Letting kids get exercise and play with other kids in an uncontrolled setting helps, too. Nothing helps you learn consequences like taking another kid’s play camera when they’re not looking then getting bit for the transgression
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