That? Oh, Honey, that was er . . . a bunch of wet towels! Yes. Wet towels.
With horns.
Whoa, there, big fella, you’re getting dangerously close to suggesting that there are times and places where kids being present isn’t appropriate.
You mean you like to snuggle between 5-6 others and suck a titty?
Allllllllll righty, then. 
Seriously! How dare he! I can bring my precious little Angel into the strip club if I want to! Yeah, he might be running around knocking the “dancers” over and screaming in a manner that totally ruins your lap dance. But who cares? My Angel is happy!
There is a place for children in resturants. There is NO place for those children that misbehave. It’s up to the parents to remove them and deal with the situation. period.
Now for my tale of woe… Years ago, I was a professional “road warrior” and ate out 4-5 dinners per week, and lunch every day. One day, I went into a chain type place just about opening time (11:30AM) and was seated in an empty resturant. I opened my book, and relaxed, waiting for my lunch. Just as my lunch order arrived, the hostess seated a whole family full of screaming kids right next to me. I asked the waitress if I could move, and got a reply of “no,” as I looked around at the empty seats stretching out forever. At that I replied, “Ok, then I’ll just go elsewhere.” I picked up my book, and left, leaving the waitress dumbfounded. The manager hussled after me in the parking lot, asking why I was leaving. I explained, and he “claimed” that the other sections weren’t open yet. Oh well, their loss, I never returned to that location.
IMO it was unacceptable to place a screaming family next to a single diner with a book, especially in light of an empty establishment. I know they may have only had one waitress on duty at that time, but wouldn’t it have made sense to seat them at the other end of her area? Or allow me to move? I offered a reasonable suggestion, they refused. They lost the business. I’d do the same again in an instant.
Mrs. Butler and I have just had our first child (a girl, 3months as of yesterday, 7/4), and have taken her out for dinner when we were out with my in-laws. No crying, but we were ready to take her outside if she started, or deal with whatever she needed in a low key manner so as not to disturb the other diners. Seems pretty darn easy to me, though I have the most well behaved infant I’ve ever seen (and I’m from a family with 21 grandchildren, aged 5 through 34. I’m the oldest and have seen all types from that crowd, but NEVER had a problem in a resturant with any of them, as my aunts/uncles wouldn’t have bothered their fellow diners.)
-Butler
I hate to point it out, but you’ve misspelled “restraints.”
That’s certainly a better description than “Indigo Child”.
Hey–don’t knock it 'til you’ve tried it.
It’s been done:
“What are crystal & indigo kids?”
“They made a movie about Indigo children.”
Plus, it’s been discussed in lots of “Children Are the Devil’s Spawn” threads like this one.
In that case you were right to leave without paying. In the case of the toilet I’d threaten to call the local health department. And sure the owner can call the cops, but unless s/he has your name and address all s/he can do is give the police a physical description. No police department is going to waste investigative resources on a skipped tab. They will respond to an incident at the restaurant (customer refuses to leave, threatens a staffmember), that’s a different story.
Another update:
I got a letter from the regional office with an apology and a $50 gift certificate. I’ll probably use the gift certificate, but not at that particular location. I’ll not set foot in that place again.
Good deal. Hey, at least they bothered to reply. Still, one wonders if things will change at that place.
Another retard checking in…I just got back from Laughlin (a toasty 113 to 118 degrees, average). It was hard to enjoy the pool full of rowdy kids, but what else is there to do with young’uns in frikkin’ Laughlin? Yes, some hotels have arcades or babysitting centers and even nurseries, but they can’t stay in them all day.
A running kid nearly tripped our drink server in the buffet. Sheesh.
Whatever happened to the days when casino towns were made for adults’ entertainment?
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Well said.
That’s it. Period. It has nothing to do with nurse carmen’s complaint that (paraphrased) “that’s kids, and that’s how kids are…”.
No, that’s NOT kids and how kids are. That’s kids behaving badly, and their parents behaving even worse by not teaching them proper manners.
That’s what McDonalds is for. Not as someone was complaining about earlier (good point, sorry I don’t remember which poster said it), and that is, that McDonalds shouldn’t be for kids to just scream and scream like banshees and run around being little pains, but as a place for them to “cut their teeth” so to speak on the proper way to behave.
Like a lot of other parents here, I quickly removed my children from any place they were misbehaving. And in fact, drafted friends and family who were with me to take their turn being the “bad guy” as well. I’ve had to have my dinner boxed up and have had to leave a restaurant before because of my child misbehaving.
I remember it happening only two or three times for each of them, and then maybe another few times in other locals such as a grocery store. In fact, I set up “test outings” just for that very purpose so that I could teach them manners. That is, as another poster described her mom doing (in a previous hellspawn thread), I would go to the store when I really didn’t need to and if they misbehaved, we’d go home and have something not so fun or yummy for dinner with me saying "gosh, what a shame, if you’d behaved so that I could shop, we could have had spaghetti (Insert favorite dish of child here as appropriate).
Once they realize that you aren’t going to put up with nonsense, they won’t do it.
And yeah, sometimes when you get home, you get treated to even worse behaviour, but that’s part of being a parent, it’s beyond lazy and inconsiderate to simply not train your child and then to subject the rest of the world to their brattiness.
And last but not least, it’s really REALLY not good for kids to get to have every thing they want with no questions asked for their whole lives (regardless of what the indigo parents think). What happens to those kids when they grow up and get out into the real world is terrible. And in some cases, the Make up company heir (was it Max Factor?) is a good example, tragic.
Baby Boomers started having kids.
Or, perhaps more accurately, Baby Boomers’ kids started having kids.
My wife and I always get great service when going to restaurants with our daughter. Heck, we hit 5 joints during Restaurant Week 2005.
Of course, I had to point out to my wife the reason every male waiter and busboy in the restaurant is fighting to fill her water glass is because she’s breastfeeding
Yep. My son responds very well to The Look and always has. Thank Og he never called me on it though, because honestly, at the time (12 years ago when I was 18), I didn’t really know what “or else!” would be!
Now though, I’m older and wiser and have enough child managing hours under my belt. This technique is what I use, and I’ve found you only have to do it once or twice before The Look replaces it. Much more efficient. (The “naughty spot” in this case is either an obliging bench outside or the bed of my hatchback, kept open with me standing nearby, of course.) And, as I pointed out in another post in that thread, this technique even works with Indigo Children.
There’s nothing inherent in Indigo Child philosophy that demands bad behavior go unchecked. As far as I’m concerned, “Indigo Child” is simply a new term to describe children, who, throughout the years have been called “willful” “stubborn” “spoiled” “deviant” “oppositional” and a host of other negative terms. I do appreciate a philosphy that encourages parents to look through the eyes of their children and attempt to understand them in a positive way. What I don’t appreciate is the misguided idea that this means you should not try to teach your child how to get along in the world. That’s nonsense, “special” or no, and it’s not really a part of the Indigo Child philosophy. It is, however, a part of most idiots’ interpretation of the Indigo Child philosophy. But these are the same lazy and self-absorbed parents who would ignore their child’s poor behavior and not teach them even if they didn’t have a pretty label for it.
Yes, I believe in the inherint grace and self-worth of every child. I believe every child should be allowed to explore the world and grow into the wonderful being they are destined to be. But I sure as shit don’t believe they have to bother the rest of us while they do it. In fact I think a supported and well-disciplined child has a better chance at self-actualization, because they aren’t so damned anxious all the time.
CanvasShoes, McDonald’s is where I practice our “Restaurant Manners” with Littles. If they eat their meals in a respectable fashion, they then get to jump up and be a hellion in the Playland. But if they act up before the meal is complete, no Playland for them. Works fine as a training ground, though some other parents think I’m being too strict with them - it’s only McDonald’s, after all! :smack:
I had to leave a Chili’s once and sit outside while my fiancé waited for the check because Hellspawn’s first cousin was shrieking at a pitch that would shatter fine crystal and giving me a lovely little migraine to remember it by. Manager did not ask them to leave. That particular Chili’s is now getting all kinds of bad press from me and fiancé.
Six of one, half-dozen of the other. 