njlauren
Posts: 1577
Joined: 10/1/2011
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quote:
ORIGINAL: LafayetteLady
quote:
ORIGINAL: tsatske
This is not a very child friendly country. The truth is, no one buys a plane ticket just so their infant can experience a plane ride. They do it because they need to get from A to B, and the child needs to be with them. You take your infant out because you want to have lunch out. If you had a grandma around willing to watch him, you'd have left him. Older kids need to go to resteraunts, not to learn to express themselves, but to learn how to behave. My children went to lots of sit down resteraunts, and they knew how to behave. I didn't appreicaite chicken nuggets on te menu, because the purpose of going to a resteraunt is to experience new foods, not more chicken nuggets that we could have gotten at McDs.
All that said, totally agree that there are adults only places that kids don't belong. I looked forward to my weekly night at the ceramics shop when my kids were little, because no kids were allowed. I feel the same way about munches. And if the kid is old enough to sit, he's too old and young to be in that enviroment.
Actually, I think it is quite the opposite. Too many people seem to think their children should be able to go anywhere and the other customers should tolerate it.
One of my best friends has a baby who is 6 months old. She lives in Germany. They just took a trip to Australia. That's what? About a 14 hour flight? Sorry, but if he had started crying on that plane and I was on it, I would have been annoyed. There was no reason they *had* to go to Australia now, other than wanting to. But there were no concerns about whether other people would be bothered should her baby become agitated on the flight (and believe me, he gets VERY agitated).
Here in the states, you are right, children need to be socialized, and they need to go to restaurants, etc. and learn how to behave. I don't blame the children, I blame the parents. When I waited tables, I work in a variety of places, from 5 star to diner. Now a diner is "kid friendly," however, that doesn't mean you let your kid run around the restaurant. Plenty of times I would loudly remind a child running in front of me when I had a tray that if they made me drop it and the hot food landed on them, I wouldn't be apologizing or worrying if they got hurt. Parents have an obligation to make their children sit down and behave.
Movies? Infants have no business in a movie theater. Younger children should be taken to see children's movies. When Harry Potter movies came out near me, there were showings for families with younger children, but also showings for those over 14 only, who would be quiet. That's reasonable.
Oh, and another thing. You want to take your toddler to a fancy restaurant? Do it at an appropriate time. Don't be trying to sit down to dinner at 9 o'clock with a two year old. They should be in bed at that time, and certainly should have already eaten. When my son was two, we went to Outback, a kid friendly kind of place. Well, after the appetizers, he decided he was done and began to act up. So we asked our waiter to pack everything to go, and we left.
When parents make sure their children behave, no one really cares if they are in a restaurant, and as a former server, there were times I complimented parents whose children behaved and even said please and thank you. That was far and few between though. Regardless, children belong at a munch about as much as they belong in an adult store while you shop for a new vibrator.
I hear what you are saying and I agree, we did the same thing with our son, and we in fact did leave places if he was in a bad mood, couldn't sit still, etc. We started taking him to concerts early, and we made sure to get seats that if we needed to leave, we would. It is called common respect and courtesy to others, and i see what others are talking about, kids running wild in a restaurant, in a market, and otherwise doing things they shouldn't and that is the parent's fault, there is no doubt.
What I am objecting to is automatically assuming the kid is a villain or making them feel unwelcome without giving them the chance, that is what bothers me and it is where i agreed with the other poster. I have seen a lot of obnoxious kids, kids out of control and so forth, and yes, I blame the parents for that, we were very conscious of that, and we didn't take our s out as a baby late night, we didn't take him to place he would be scared and so forth, and that is appropriate, it is just common respect and courtesy. I kind of wonder about parents who let their kids run wild like that, if they themselves never were socialized and simply think that is the way kids act.
To give you an idea of the other side, my sweetie was at a performance of a student orchestra, there was a mom with prob a younger sister (4 or 5) sitting right ahead of them. The kid was really getting into the music, swaying a bit, and was lightly humming the music. These two old biddies (mind you, this was a free concert, and other seats were available), kept looking back, staring at the child, and the mom felt bad and ended up leaving, because the girl loved the music. My sweetie said it wasn't disruptive at all (and she was right behind them), ad more importantly, from the way they talked *loudly*, neither of them could hear that well, they were simply being assholes. I was bad at her for a week after that one, I would have ripped both of them a new asshole for doing that...among other things, those kids are the next generation of audience, the next generation of parent, and guess what, they learn to be sociable, they will do it with their own kids, too. I guess the two old biddies must have been born by echo genesis or something:)
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RE: Kids at munch?? - 
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. My baby had her two week check up last Tuesday so I took my 8 year old with me and another friend so we could hang out for the 3 hours in between her appt and mine to check my incision from the C sect. So we went to Mc Donalds to let the 8 year old play and we could use the wi fi. I tried to sit in the corner but the wall next to me was glass so there was just no privacy. I covered as best I could when my baby got hungry. I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and some guy in the restaurant part sat at the table just behind me. I adjusted the blanket to make sure nothing was showing. My friend suddenly stood up and told me to move. I did and the guy took off, she told me he was recording me while I was feeding my baby. I knew he could not see much besides the top of her head but still EWE. YUCK. Really I can't believe some guy is that desperate he has to spy on playlands at Mc Donalds.
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