Tips for dinner with kids

Your Monday Moms page recently included some dos and don’ts for parents with young children in restaurants.

In the last week, we experienced some unpleasant disruptions by children who were out of parental control.

Here are some suggestions to parents who feel they must go out to dinner with their offspring:

Make sure your children are well rested, healthy, and old enough to handle the wait at a restaurant.

Bring enough activities for the children to be occupied, distracted, quiet, and out of the way of servers and other customers.

Make sure that you can give your children your attention so they do not seek it elsewhere.

If these are not possible, go to a restaurant more suitable for your children’s needs, or hire a sitter and have an adult evening out.

Ralph Seligman
Kansas City

Comments

[NoMoreMrNiceGuy]

I can not speak on this sibject from a childhood perspective, we were on foodstamps most of my younger years (I thought that's what you bought food with) and I though everyone had them. I will say at home though I had to sit the table, not play with my food, not chew with my mouth open and when i was finished i had to ask to leave the table. If I failed to do any of these things I got the living crap beat out of me by my step father.

[solomon]

jack(louie),

The difference between us and the young lady named big dreamer is the difference in America we see everywhere.. If someone asked her politely to attend her child she'd possibly comply, but we knew what was expected. No way did we ever get to the point that a stranger would have to ask our parents anything.

[big dreamer]

closed minded, selfish, ignorant fools all of you. You expect children to learn to behave but lets not take them out in public. Lets lock all kids behind closed doors and see how that works. It seems this country has more and more windbags who want to tell everyone else how to run their life but if someone says a word to you, you get huffy. Come down off the high horse and enter the world of reality. I take my 3 year old to dinner when I go. she is part of the FAMILY and eating out for my FAMILY is a special event. She is as well behaved as a 3 year old can be and no she doesn't jump on stuff or scream real loud. But then, I can't count on fingers and toes the number of times I have heard adults cussing at dinner, talking about inappropriate topics at dinner, etc. If you do not want children in restaurants the perhaps there should be a few rules written about what you can talk about. Hey, I know....lets just close all public places since they are all dangerous now...never know when a psycho will show up to carry out their hatred on you.

Grow up folks...kids deserve the opportunity to experience life as well. Blame the parents...be BIG enough to address them directly not snidely....If someone said something to me about my daughter in a polite way they may be surprised how reasonable I am...but do not, i repeat DO NOT tell me how to raise my child. The government sticks their big noses (all levels of government) into that enough....

[jack]

When I was a child, going out to dinner involved a suit and tie (clip-on, of course). Rigid behavioural rules were in place. When I was a teen my mother looked at me in my hippy jeans and t-shirt and said, "You aren't going to the store dressed like that!"

The formality of the past served several purposes. One was curtesy. The "relaxed" atmosphere of my generation has led directly to a lessoning of politness.

BTW: To those who have trouble getting the family together for dinner at home. There was a saying heard by a large percentage of the children when I was young. It goes, "When 5:30 is here, SO ARE YOU!" Worked quite well, really.

[GentleCritic]

Some years ago I was sitting in a nice restaurant having lunch with my coworkers. Two mothers with several 4 or 5 year old children were then seated in the booth behind me and allowed their kids to jump up and down banging on the window and screaming. These women did nothing to stop it as they chatted about what they wanted to order. I politely stated in a loud voice as I turned my head in that direction, that since many places were now being required to offer no smoking sections, perhaps it would serve the patrons well if there was also a no children section so that we wouldn’t be subjected to such rude behavior by unconcerned parents.

To our delight, within 5 minutes after hearing my comment and uttering their disgust, these mothers packed up their children and left for which I thanked them as they walked out the door. My coworkers and I left an extra special tip for the waitress for her having lost those customers.

That was nearly 25 years ago….and nothing has changed since then with the lack of regard that some people have for others.

[NoMoreMrNiceGuy]

Now now now, we must di everything "for the children". Remember it takes a village.
So long as these parents are spedning the mandated monetary requirements, they are free and clear of any other parental requirement. Parenting is not about controlling your kids, fostering a conducive environment, teaching them the true meaning of responsibility, manner, etiquette in public, or values. Remember the ONLY component judged by society as to whether you are a good responsible parent is money. Little Johnny is allowed to do whatever little Johny FEELS entitled to. Remember, we are in an entitlement thinking society.

[ScooterJ]

Yesterday at lunch a toddler in the booth next to me banged its fork against its plate nonstop for the entire hours I was there. The parents did nothing. CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG! for an entire hour!

A couple of weeks ago I saw a kid slap and hit its mom repeatedly in a restaurant. The mom did nothing until it finally hit her so hard that the mom's chair fell over into a person sitting at the next table.

Recently I was at the Ameristar buffet when some family with its spawn was deposited in the booth behind me. The kids looked like they were 2 and 4. One of them kicked the back of my seat for most of the meal, the parents did nothing. Then, to make matters worse, the parents would get up AT THE SAME TIME to go to the buffet, leaving their brats unattended in the booth. The older one would then stand up in the seat and lean over the back of the seat (over my head), jumping up and down and shrieking at the top of its lungs "WATCH ME BOUNCE MOMMY!!! MOMMY WATCH ME!!!! WATCH ME MOMMY!!!! MOMMYYYY!!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

If you can't or won't control your offspring in public, then either leave it with a sitter or dine at Chucky Cheese. Please.