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Kids in family friendly restaurants
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Anonymous
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If you are eating at a family friendly restaurant - do you still try and keep your child quiet or do you assume family-friendly = noise?
I was a family restaurant with my my family including grandmother and my brother. When we sat down the family at the next table had just been served their food. They had a child - I'm guessing aged 18-24 months who was in meltdown mode. He screamed, cried, howled and screamed some more. There were lots of kids and general kid noise in the restaurant but this kid was LOUD! We couldn't really even talk at our table. Parents at the other table tried kind of halfheartedly to get the child to quiet down but he was beyond being appeased with food or toys. So parents just ate, kind of pretending their wasn't a screaming child at the table (I'm guessing he cries a lot as it didn't seem to faze them in the least). They also had another child with them - maybe 3-4ish. Just as they were finishing their meal the crying child fell asleep. If you were those parents..what would you do? If your food has already arrived do you just stay and eat it? If you know the child is melting down - would you let him howl or would one parent take him out while the other stayed to eat with the older child? I'm just curious what other parents would do. |
cuzimawesome
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| I would remove my child from the restaurant. Plain and simple. |
Anonymous
Ditto. Doesn't matter the type of restaurant, even McDonalds. I would remove the kid. |
Anonymous
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Family friendly or not it's still a restaurant and a public place.
If ignoring didn't stop the meltdown after a few minutes, I'd leave until they calmed down then return. Or, I'd ask for our food to go and leave. It'd depend on if I had all the kids by myself or not. If the crying child fell asleep I'd assume part o the reason for the meltdown was being overtired/done eating/ready to go home. I wouldn't keep them there if that was the case and I tend to avoid going places if I know the kids are overtired - that's setting up for a meltdown. |
Anonymous
| Pick the kid up and leave. |
Anonymous
| I would remove the child instantly. We would come back in once he calmed down. |
Anonymous
| OP here - that is what I would do too. I could see they were weighing food is already here, older kid already eating versus leaving and they went with staying. I don't know why one parent didn't take the child out...a harder situation I guess if it had been a single parent but with two parents there, I would have expected one to stay and eat with the older and the other to leave with the meltdown child. |
Anonymous
| We eat in shifts when this happens and luckily DH is super helpful. Sounds more like the parents were having some kind of stand off (at everyone else's expense). |
Anonymous
| I would have removed child from the place. I don't think its fair for the other's there - even if it means a cold or take out dinner for me. We've done it and I feel much better about leaving then I do with staying. |
Anonymous
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I agree with PP -- it sounds like the parents were having a standoff -- could have been "one of those days" but it doesn't mean the rest of the place needs to deal with it!
I 100% understand "normal noise" at a family restaurant. But if things get out of hand, the "teacher" in me comes out. Several months ago we were at a local family joint when 3 moms and 9 kids came in (3rd and 4th grade boys, and one little girl) They sat at seperate tables and the boys were literally laying on their backs over the booths trying to trip and poke the waitress as she walked by. Screaming, throwing napkins onto other tables etc. Several tables asked to be moved, I saw one older couple leave all together. And as I walked out I politely told the parents they should keep a better eye on their children. You would have thought I was the devil himself. However, the waitress and manager both thanked me. There is a difference between a 24 month old having a temper tantrum and parents trying to "ignore it" so the toddler learns it will not get its way. and 3 mothers blatently ignoring their children. |
Anonymous
Very similar story here. We were eating at a local place and were seated next to two couples who were sitting at the same table. Perpendicular to their table sat 4 children-maybe 2 10 year old boys, 7 year old boy, and a 6 year old girl? Well, for the first few minutes of our dinner was fine, but it soon got very rowdy. All of the kids were yelling, throwing food at each other, and generally being really rude. The parents of the kids did nothing. at. all. Just a few pathetic "please be quiets" and "eat your dinners." The two couples continued to drink and ignore their kids. Several people complained on the way out of the restaurant. |
Anonymous
| I would not have gone to a restaurant with a toddler I knew to be way too overtired to handle the situation. The parents are selfish and figured they were getting their meal out at any cost. |
Anonymous
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i would take the kid out immediately.
while my dd is the absolute center of my earth and the smartest, sweetest, most wonderful child alive, she (and WE) are not allowed to ruin other people's evenings out. even if its chuck e cheese. |
Anonymous
| I hadn't considered the stand-off possibility. I couldn't figure out why they would stay - it ruined our lunch but really it ruined theirs too as no one enjoys eating with a crying child. It was mostly dad dealing with meltdown boy so maybe mom had gone on strike for the day or maybe he usually responds better to dad...who knows! Neither parent or the older sibling seemed overly bothered by it so maybe they often eat with him screaming and so this was the status quo or they have learned to tune him out! |
Anonymous
| All they had to do was have one parent take the kid out. Its just so rude when people do this. Loud restaurant or not, no one needs to hear a child have a full out tantrum. |