Banning children from restaurants?

nesf

See, in this world, and especially this country, there are a lot of idiots. These idiots are not only dumb, self-centered and obtuse, they have sucessfully managed to mate with other idiots and produced even more idiotic offspring. This results in a) Joe Duffy and b) kids with zero manners. The fact that it's children in the specific circumstance of being in a resteraunt that annoys you eth0_ is really missing the bigger problem...

That said, I find adults far more annoying in resteraunts. Give me 5 screaming toddlers with 10 pre-schoolers before the 'girls office party night out!' any day.

RainyDay

Any talk of banning is over the top, and possibly in breach of the Equal Status Acts. There was a case of a successful claim some years back from a woman who was excluded from a pub in Wicklow because she had her young son with her, iirc.

Our 3-year-old has been accompanying us to restaurants since shortly after her birth. Being an only child, she is probably less likely to end up running round and getting under people's feet. If she's getting restless, we'll take her outside or walk around and look out the windows between courses. She's eaten in Roly's (Ballsbridge & Dun Laoghaire), the fairly posh Fordes in Wexford, and many other restaurants. Italian restaurants are generally great with kids (though I was surprised to see a 'no prams' sign outside Pizza Stop in town, and the owner was berating the manager in Italian over the many families who had ignored the sign).

Personally, I wouldn't have a huge problem with restaurants instituting a no-kids rule, provided this was clearly stated when taking bookings.

Zynks

nesf wrote:

See, in this world, and especially this country, there are a lot of idiots. These idiots are not only dumb, self-centered and obtuse, they have sucessfully managed to mate with other idiots and produced even more idiotic offspring.

...and those characteristics are maintained as they grow BTW, Not referring to you nesF, but thanks for the lead

souter

I totally disagree with ghettoising kids in Macdonalds and such like crap - I started doing that when I had our 2yr old (now coming up for 4) in town during the day but soon wised up that I didn't like the food and it wasn't doing any favours to his palate or health.
So now we go to any of the ethnic restaurants in Parnell St plus whatever place I fancy trying, e.g. D7, Cavistons, etc.
That said this would be early lunch time, we would only have the one course and he is pretty well behaved. Hopefully the experience will stand in good stead when we go out later as well.

King of Kings

layke wrote:

Am I the only one who will tell parents to control their kid?

Grow some balls loike!

Although I'd never bring my child to a restaurant a night cos he gets tired at 7.30. His bad humour would annoy me more than others. I would bring him during the day for lunch and such.


However LAYKE -tell me to control my child and prepare for a torrent of abuse.
cos when as a dad when your kid is misbehaving in public it's stressful enough without some interfering so and so and somebody like you is just the perfect way to release that stress.
I've had this before in supermarkets and shops.

Ickle Magoo

I have two kids & I'd be quite happy to see some restaurants become child-free zones...in lieu of all parents being able to or wanting to control their children in public places.

I don't think many people, parents or not, want to have a night out that they paid good money for ruined by someone elses unruly kids - regardless of whether it is down to shoddy parenting or whether bemoaners should have the balls to confront the parents rather than bravely whining about it annonymously on a forum...

Originally Posted by Geek Nose
Did anyone notice how most kids you see in restaurants behave unruly, yet everyone in this topic who has a kid, just coincidentally happens to be the well-behaved ones? Amazing...

I'd make a stab in the dark that the kind of parents who let their kids run amok in a restaurant - or anywhere else for that matter - & who are oblivious to the anger & frustration this causes others are unlikely to be the kind of parent who thinks they can garner any information or offer any support on a parenting forum...I think the majority of parents who use this topic are fairly well balanced, sensible parents who would not let their kids run amok unchallenged. I'd also agree that the fact we tend to only notice badly behaved/loud people/kids in general would add to the illusion that all children in all restaurants are badly behaved.