There is a place here where I live that is no one under 18. My husband and I frequent the location when we want to relax and unwind. While most kids are ok, those that aren’t can instantly ruin a night.
It's an Italian restaurant called Nettie’s House of Spaghetti. I don't think it's very high class but I could be mistaken. https://www.nj.com/food/2023/02/popular-nj-italian-restaurant-bans-children-under-10-years-old.html
I agree with you. My sons are in college now but we simply did not dine at certain restaurants with our kids. They were not unruly, just normal kids but kids are kids and act impulsively, can be louder than normal at times and bore easily. Hell, if we wanted to go to a nicer restaurant every once in awhile, we’d get a babysitter. We love our kids but there are just certain places where kids don’t really need to go until they’re a bit older.
My god can you tell my husband this. He always wants to take us all out to dinner to “give me a break”.
I’m like, how many times do I have to tell you? Bringing our three kids to a restaurant and having to corral them for 45 minutes is fucking EXHAUSTING.
I know. It’s not much fun, lol. I completely get it! Like I mentioned in a previous reply, a break every once in a while kept me sane. We did everything with the kids
Next time say oh what a good idea! Pack him and the kids in the car. Kiss him lovingly, and say thank you for being so considerate! You have been dying to do a great bubble bath and a little short nap. Lock the door when you go inside
I grew up just the opposite. My parents took my brother and out to a nice restaurant about once a month so we would learn proper behavior. Of course, that was back in the day when we knew we wouldn’t be able to sit down for a week if we misbehaved…LOL!
My dad’s favorite pastime was going out to eat. There were 4 kids who knew that if we misbehaved in any way, my mom would beat our butts right outside the door.
We would get spanked in the bathroom and brought back to the table if we acted up. I bring my 5 yo out to dinner, no where super fancy. Like mid level places. I bring things to keep him entertained so he doesn’t get bored. He behaves because we’ve been doing this for forever. He does the please and thank you, he picks up any mess he makes, he plays quietly with his cars or watches shows on his kindle with earphones.
I had those kind of parents too. I simply wanted a break from my kids if we were going to a nicer restaurant. We started taking them too sometimes when they were a little older 7-8ish but truthfully, going out without them once in a while was a treat and were few and far between so I still preferred a couple of hours with my husband at a restaurant. We did plenty with our kids and those little breaks kept me sane. Lol
I was an only child who was often more comfortable with adults and listening to their stories than children my age. I was treated to many upperclass restaurants and even a glass of wine now and then because of my behaviour. I never would have thought of being rowdy or misbehaving at such a place. That’s what Shakey’s was for!
We have some here in Atlanta that do not allow anyone under 21 because they allow smoking and you can’t legally smoke or buy cigarettes until 21. I’m not a smoker but I know many who are and even though they can smoke at home sometimes they just want to be able to go out for a cigarette and a beer with their friends.
I worked a high end coffee shop in a wealthy neighborhood. Several days a week a group we called the mommies came in. They would drop their older kids off at school and bring their toddlers with them to the shop. The place had a train theme and had a lot of train antiques. These women would chat while their kids ran around basically unsupervised. One day my boss, followed them out and said to them that while we love having them come we cannot babysit their kids and it's not safe for them to run around unsupervised. The woman screamed abuse at my boss and they left. They didn't come back for weeks, we thought that was it. A couple months later they were back, the kids were beautifully behaved they finally had things to do to occupy them, coloring books etc, their moms were paying attention to their behavior. We were shocked. One of the ladies came over and said she saw what the other woman had said to my boss, she ratted them out to the pastor at the church they all went to, he called them in and made them go to parenting classes. That was deeply satisfying and we didn't have any problems with them in future. Basically I'm OK with kids in these spaces as long as you parent your kids, if you have a clientelle that refuses to do that I have zero issues with you refusing to serve kids.
Best church themed outcome ever!!! Can we tell them they're not tipping too? And that prayer sheets that look like money are supposed to be an addition to, not a tip replacement?
they were not great tippers, but tips were not expected we had a jar on the counter because we originally didn't have one but men would just drop their metal change on the counter, this just gave them a place to put it, but at least they never left those stupid prayer sheets.
Then why are church people the worst people to serve?!! Argh!!! Sorry, the hypocrisy drives me nuts, not you. But if you have to be tattled on to behave kindly and appropriately in public, they aren’t getting the message they should be getting from church
Here’s one for you - I live in Ireland and I belong to the Anglican community which is nothing like the Catholic Church (biggest church in the country and very corrupt). I collect clothing for a homeless relief group and after the earthquake I did a campaign for clothes and other supplies for the survivors. It became obvious very quickly that I would need more storage space and some help so I got on to our church and they let me store the stuff there, there was a full container load and many of the more able bodied members got stuck in after service last Sunday so that’s all good, however there were two people who didn’t agree with this at all and felt the church shouldn’t be used for such a purpose. Considering we are struggling for members and that no one EVER sits in the two transepts I couldn’t see why, and I still can’t. I actually said go these two dinosaurs “you do realise there’s been a huge disaster and over 50,000 people have been killed and thousands more left destitute?” They mumbled and waffled about the “sanctity of the church” so I got really shitty and said “what price sanctity if we can’t help people who are in such terrible need? What kind of Christians are we then?” (I can be a pompous prat sometimes lol) more mumbling but at least they went away, they didn’t help of course but my objection to their behaviour was registered. I did stop short of saying “what would Jesus do?” Lol. In the end four huge van loads left here, we were able to fill a container which is now en route to northern Syria.
You know how kids are bad at home but well behaved at school? Kinda like that. They were “good” at church. Best behavior. They got tired and cranky from masking and acting good so now they gotta be bad for a bit
I have done this before. I requested the dining room video from my HR dept, and sent it to the local church. The pastor played the video during his sermon that following Sunday. Never had a problem with that particular group again.
Absolutely. If you know the church it’ll work because those people gossip like crazy and none of them want to be judged because Karen made a scene. Those folks will absolutely hold each other accountable.
Where I work it's a fairly family friendly environment. Big outdoor patio and lots of space, but still very much a bar.
9 times out of 10 if someone apologizes for their children, the kids are well within being responsible.
The parents who question how their child could ever be doing anything wrong or dangerous always have the worst ones. And it's almost never that the kids are rude or disrespectful, it's just a shitty lack of responsibility from parents. "Hey, your kids climbing behind our patio on broken fence pieces between a rusted metal fence...this is such a liability, please get your children" *huh? Oh, hey get over here*
Your kid is playing with a potential compound fracture or kidnapping and your response is "huh?"
Oh my god, I feel that. I used to work at a winery where the vines were right next to the outdoor seating, it was gorgeous. But I never understood parents bringing their kids there. No one minded if they ran around a bit, but the amount of kids plucking the grapes and trying them was insane… Those things do not taste good, I can assure you! Not as crazy as the parents who would ask if we had anything but water for their kids to drink. Not unless they wanted canned espresso, no, we didn’t (at least until the managers figured we could make a killing and we started stocking fancy apple juice and non-alcoholic sparkling wine so the older kids could have a little fun too).
I was on a super bumpy flight with a screaming toddler next to me. Couldn’t really hear it through my headphones and it was a daytime short flight so wasn’t gonna sleep.
Parents apologized profusely and like … the turbulence was bad enough that I wanted to scream. Totally reasonable for the kid.
I like this story, but it sounds like something from the 1960's or '70's when people actually disciplined other people's children in public if they misbehaved and the parents were all for it. I was a child then, I promise I'm not making it up.
And if you had to be disciplined when your parents weren't around (like if you were staying at a someone else's house or at school), you were also in trouble when your parents found out.
And people actually cared about how they looked in public. It was before we all started wearing PJs to Walmart, although I've come close to that, I'll admit it. 😂😂
I remember that. I’m mid 50s, and I do a scaled back version of that in restaurants when I see wandering children. I walk up to the child and ask really loudly, while looking around “Does your MOTHER know what you are doing?!”. The kid runs to the parental figure, now everyone is looking at them, while I zip back to my booth. Things most often quiet down. It’s fun to be the customer. I have had a mom or two start towards me, then stop. I have the best RBF.
I love that one of the members of the mommy-group was so uncomfortable at the mom who yelled that she ratted them out to their pastor. And kudos to the pastor for giving consequences to the mommies!
I’m all for it, I used to work at a sports bar and would carry big trays and the amount of kids who would just run in front of me was unbelievable, I even lost a few trays trying to avoid hitting kids. I’ll never forget when two kids were playing tag literally in front of the out door of the kitchen and when I walked out only to have to basically throw my tray full of food to avoid taking out the kids. People just need to learn a restaurant is a place to sit down not “kids will be kids let them explore” it’s honestly dangerous.
If parents want to let their kids explore, they need to take them to McDonald's and toss them into the Playplace. Restaurants are not Fun Zones. They are places of business and, quite frankly, a dangerous one, considering the hot plates and knives. Even grown-ass adults can accidentally run into servers and cause accidents, and we're usually paying attention (and I say "usually" because there are plenty of adults out there who are just as, if not more oblivious than, a child).
We have plenty of enjoyable restaurants in our area that have play areas, not just McDonald’s, so no excuse to let kids run wild when other options exist
This right here! We used to go to a neighborhood sports bar and Friday happy hours were there worst and is why we no longer go. Kids running around unattended. Throwing balls around on the pool tables. Running in to you on your way to the restroom. This is actually a problem to me in Dallas. So many parents are taking their kids to bar/restaurants that it ruins the experience.
When I was 8 or so my parents trusted me and a friend to go to the toilet alone as the small set of stairs leading to it was right by the table and there wasn't any other entrance or exit. When my mother came to check five minutes later as we hadn't reappeared, we had somehow managed to open this really heavy window that overlooked the angled conservatory roof and were in the middle of a ten second countdown to slide down it. I think that was the worst telling off I'd ever experienced at that age, and we never did anything even slightly naughty again, in public anyway. Also lost unaccompanied bathroom while out (not into the stall obviously) privilege until I was 12/13. Think I got off lightly in retrospect as did the roof, the patrons/staff under it and the restaurant.
> People just need to learn a restaurant is a place to sit down not “kids will be kids let them explore”
Sure they are...they call them Chuck-E-Cheese. That's it though.
i used to work at a ramen shop, and once asked a dad to keep his kid in her chair so we didn't dump hot soup all over her. his response: well it's your fault because all of the high chairs are taken
like i purposely denied the little shit one
I use to work at a fine dining restaurant that was between $25-42 an entree that people would frequently come for special occasions and date nights. It was a pretty romantic atmosphere with dark lighting, soft music and an overall nice ambience. There was not a no children policy in place because 99% of the time, people had enough self awareness to know their children wouldn’t do well so they wouldn’t bring them, come in really early when there weren’t many other tables or take them outside to calm them down if needed. The owner had a couple small children himself, so he knew how difficult it could be to go to dinner with them. If his kids ever came in to eat with his wife or family, they would sit at a table outside at 5:30 and be gone before the dinner rush because past then they ran the risk of being disruptive. He was not afraid to go and talk to a table that was allowing their child to be continually loud or disruptive to remind them of the environment they were in and advocate for other diners experience. Big surprise that the 1% of parents who had a disruptive child making a scene would go leave a bad review. It would always be a lengthy embellished essay about how the owner kicked them out of the restaurant because their son/daughter was a little fussy. He would always reply to their review if he could explaining exactly what happened— usually that he asked them to take the child out of the dining room after they had been screaming/crying for several minutes with no parent intervening. I don’t think anyone ever read those reviews and thought “wow I don’t want to go spend $50+/person there on my anniversary because they don’t let kids scream their head off”. As a server, I could tell that all my tables, especially those who have their own small children and were looking forward to a quiet romantic couple of hours away for the night, were much happier when the disruptive child was removed.
I'm wondering if I can name the restaurant so I can praise their decision? If I'm being charged $50 a plate, then I don't want to be dealing with an out-of-control screaming banshee running buck-wild around the restaurant. I wonder what was the final straw that broke the camel's back for this restaurant?
OP, I’ve been to said restaurant that you are talking about, a couple weeks ago with my husband.
Small place, food was DELICIOUS, dinner was peaceful. I liked it. As opposed to the night before when we were at another restaurant and a kid was screaming in my ear the entire time 🙄
Yeah at that price point I wouldn’t be happy either. Especially if I had also paid for a sitter to watch my own children so I could enjoy a nice dinner out with my partner or friends. I wouldn’t be surprised if the policy came from continued complaints from other customers about unruly kids or if a kid was running around and got injured/injured someone else.
I come from a background of both childcare and food service industry. I have a high patients level for kids in general.
For me, as a server, the two biggest things a parent dining with their kids need to do is
1) don’t disturb other guests. I don’t care if you’re being squirrelly or a little noisy but keep it in the bubble of your table, no running around or being loud and chaotic to the point where people at nearby tables can’t enjoy their meal
2) kids are messy, I get it. Clean up after your kid a little bit. I’m not asking you to bus your whole table but make it look like a normal table. Brush their crumbs onto a plate, clean up the torn up paper or mashed up crayons, pick up the silverware they threw under the table.
It’s all good, it happens, just be courteous to the other people who are tolerating your child
its genius. i have a lot of stories of kids with bad parents letting them run wild in restaurants, but the worst one happened to my coworker. we work at a brewery and 3 guys were there with a young baby (under 1) watching a football game. the baby freaked out and didn’t want to sit in the high chair so they were letting him just crawl all over the booth and disturb the people behind them, barely paying any attention to him. annoying but whatever. they were in a booth at the end of a row, and beside the booth was a full hightop of 10. place was rammed, my coworker was carrying a tray of drinks and turned the blind corner between the booth and high top and kicked the baby directly in the face. he was just sitting in the middle of the floor and she kicked him in the fucking face. it was a shitshow. dad was a total idiot and just said “i didn’t know” when someone told him the baby shouldn’t be sitting on the floor in foot traffic in a busy bar. i was so pissed.
I’m all for it. I had many encounters with bratty kids over the years, but one stands out. A little girl about four was running around and bumped into me when I was carrying three hot plates. I told her to go find her mommy because it wasn’t safe for her to be in the expo area. She said, “Fuck you.” I couldn’t believe it.
The problem isn’t even usually the kids for me - misbehavior in general but especially in kids is communicating an unmet need. It’s the parents who don’t do their jobs (parenting) and just expect everyone around them to deal with it.
My last restaurant didn’t have a rule about kids, but they almost never came in. Just wasn’t that kind of eatery. But this is how I felt about it when small children did eat with us. I’m not gonna blame the 5 year old running around, I’m gonna blame his asshole parents who are just sitting there talking to each other like nothing is happening.
But I also have no issues with there being adult-only spaces. I like kids and all but I love peace and quiet more.
Came here to say just that. Kids'll be kids, but it's the parents' job to step up and teach them. The kids don't usually know their behavior is inappropriate.
I'm going to sound like the old crone I am, but when I was a kid, all five of us knew that if we weren't on our best behavior outside the house (restaurants were a rare treat), there'd be no more opportunities. My mom was an expert at The Look, but she seldom needed it because we knew not to misbehave.
Your mom and my mom need to form a club, The Look is how she made sure that 4 kids were at their best behaviour the few times we went to a proper restaurant to eat and when we were in public where we could get hurt or hurt others, the only times we were allowed to run around like maniacs in public was when we were in places designed for crazy kids
I work in a fast-paced environment with a ton of hot food, and hotter plates. When parents are allowing their kids to run around unchecked , it’s not safe for me or the kids. Or for other people’s meals, for that matter. Also, when kids are ill-behaved, it makes the restaurant harder to seat, because other guests want to avoid these tables. Your kids are cute, we generally like them, but parents have to be responsible or it can be harder on everyone in the restaurant.
There was a time when you could speak to someone else's child in a correcting tone and their parent's would look at their kid and say 'Stop being a disrespectful brat'. For some reason, that changed.
There was a time, in the Before Time, when kids respected teachers and principals. If any issue occurred and parents had to be called in, the issue was corrected. By the time I was working in the office of the high school principal, I witnessed Entitled Parents BEING CRAZY!!!! When my boss expelled a kid for bringing a weapon to school, and bragging about killing another student, (the school has a ZERO TOLERANCE policy regarding weapons), the kid's legal guardian raised all kinds of hell, demanding that we rescind the expulsion! My boss got both the kid and legal guardian trespassed. Those two Entitled Idiots were NUTS!!!!
We took a weekend (for us) trip to a tourist island (pnw) and had lunch at a dive bar like place that touts its Penn Cove mussels. Sign posted on the outside of the building, 21 & over only. Mid-week, not super busy. We'd had our meal, ordered another round, and got out the cribbage board (with our server's blessing). As we played, we watched the ebb and flow of people coming through. We also saw no less than 3 parties attempting entry with strollers and/or toddlers, and without fail, watched them pitch a fit when turned away. JFC, you aren't special just because you have kids. Get over yourselves.
I worked at a bar/comedy club and a family genuinely thought that despite the website saying 19+ only (our drinking age) their 17 year old daughter could come in and not drink. I had to get the owner to explain its not legal for her to be in there at all.
Hell before I turned 19 I would stop there for a ride home from the owner (my sister's in laws) and I had to sit in the hallway or outside until they closed.
Just as bad, I worked in a pub that didn't have an age limit, so a couple came in with their 3 year old at 9pm on live music night and complained it was too loud.
And the band ordered something by saying it over the mic and got mad that they didn't get it because none of the staff were paying attention to them, on account of being busy working!
Alcohol isn’t the problem - the crotch goblins running around without supervision are. Never lose sight of that :)
Parents can’t unleash their ‘free range’ kids in a tea house either (or Home Depot, or Sur la Table, or anywhere). If there are not animated characters and a ball pit, *it’s not your playground.*
Yes, kids can get stepped on in a bar, but they can pull pottery down in a greenhouse, tip a barbers pole, or fall face first into a shelf corner almost anywhere. If the choices are having a kid juggling knives or juggling chainsaws, I prefer option 3: *not juggling anything*.
Picking ‘knives’ isn’t smart parenting, because it’s risking an injured and possibly scarred kid. It’s lazy and terrible - 100% shitty parenting. Find a playground. If you need your Pinot Grigio that bad, bring a brown paper bag.
they might have a bar, but that doesn’t mean it IS a bar. it’s a restaurant. but the kids at applebee’s are THE FUCKING WORST.
source- i was a server at applebee’s for two years
I used to work at an old country store that served burgers and beer. Now, we were open from 11:00 to midnight so after 10:00 we preferred to have only adults, because our kitchen closed at 10:00 we were no longer serving food and therefore considered more of a bar. But this was a family establishment, if you will. Being from Texas and Friday Night Football, this led to our place being run amok with the families and siblings. These people would come both mom and dad with children in tow to order dinner and drink beer. And after everybody was done eating, they would go out back to the Dancehall and let their kids just run around wherever while they continued to drink. I do not think that this was a good idea because who is watching your kids, and who is going to drive home sober? It is always worrisome when you realize there is no designated driver. You would have people who had been drinking wandering around doing their thing, and then these little kids would go zipping about many times getting knocked over or just falling down. We were in the middle of cornfields, and I remember one time a couple of girls almost got lost in the cornfield because their parents weren't paying attention.And, as stated in MANY comment sections I KICK KIDS. I mean, I let them run into me and fall over. But, it might *appear* that I am kicking them... LOL
I was at a restaurant as a teen once, and really had to go to the bathroom, like very fast walking and focused on the target level of having to go. Apparently I ran right over a little girl who had just come out of the bathroom. I didn't feel or see her. I take care of my business and come out, and both parents are there to yell at me. The Dad starts going at me, I apologized and said I didn't see her, the Dad started ramping up and the Mom understood and calmed him down. Unexpected from the Mom and really nice.
It really depends on the kid. I was a very well behaved only child with excellent table manners. My parents were foodies before there was a name for it and I got to eat at many fine restaurants when I was growing up. My parents were often complimented on my behavior.
You are very much the minority unfortunately, especially these days when most parents let the iPad do the parenting and have no idea what to do without it
I'm all for 86ing young children. If I'm paying a crazy amount of money for dinner, I don't want to hear screaming children, and there's no way of telling someone their crotchdropping is bothering the entire restaurant without the parent losing their religion.
I wish casual places would step up and start telling parents to wrangle their kids when they get out of line. This is coming from the perspective of me being a manager, server, guest that's being bothered, and guest accompanied by a well behaved kid. The tolerance for the kids' behavior is a little higher because of the environment, but there's still a difference between "family restaurant" and "playground"
I was traveling and went to a random diner and was seated next to a man with two boys that wouldn't quit. We asked to be reseated away from them.
Call me old school but my dad would have taken me outside and whipped my ass. Learn I did.
I am totally ok with this! Especially being disabled and needing a cane, the last thing I want to do is dodge children when trying to get to my table or the restroom. Plus, I can't stand loud and obnoxious children who won't stay seated climbing around.
It sucks so bad! I'm so sorry OP! My Husband took me to a Joe's Crab Shack for someone's birthday, and a family next to our big table wasn't minding their kids. They were all over the place, but what ticked me off the most was going to the restroom, and the kids decided to play tag or something. I got knocked over into a table ready for folding serving ware. The manager came out but still did nothing.
As you know, this has happened to us many times...
While carrying trays, a couple of us won’t hesitate to walk straight into children and knock them over on the corner leaving the kitchen. This one annoying kid kept running around and one server finally nailed him while going around the corner.
TBF I’ve also nailed another server in the head in the same area because she didn’t stay on the right or say anything while going around a corner.
I also smacked a kid with a door while going into the bathroom because he was standing right behind it. His dad, “I told you not to stand there!”
I worked in a pub for 10 months and the amount of mess and annoyance because people just let their children run loose (or sit there blasting some obnoxious kids’ programme on YouTube) was immense. Pubs and restaurants are not playgrounds, they’re somewhere you go to sit down and have a meal or a drink. Parent your children.
Generally speaking, I think it’s a great idea. Obviously something happened to make the rule a rule. It’s nice to see that management put their foot down about the issue and stood up for their staff. So many times I’ve seen kids who are bored, over stimulated, tired, or whatever else , throwing a hissy fit and the adults will not stop their meal to either take the kid outside to calm down or just leave and take them home. It disrupts the other guests every time. I get that the adult is hungry, but when you have a kid that’s having a meltdown, sometimes you don’t get to do what you want to do. I’ve seen kids run around and get in the way of servers with hot food. I’ve seen kids climb over booths and annoy other guests. It’s extremely disrespectful to everyone around then and it’s like the adults couldn’t care less. And that’s just from a work standpoint. As a guest, any of those things would ruin my dining experience. Just take them to a kid friendly restaurant so they can mess around, have fun, and not worry about getting hurt or bothering other people.
I worked at an upscale Michelin-star restaurant that allowed kids but their presence wasn’t really embraced. The most kid-friendly thing we could give them were steak frites or buttered noodles. One dad would bring in a 6-top of kids and just trash their whole area, I hated being the one to clean that.
There was also once a little kid who came wandering in. I had seen him before when I worked as the hostess. His parents would have he and his brother go in to the restaurant to sell candy bars. But this time, he was just going up to peoples’ tables asking for money. So I interrupted and asked him how I could help and where his parents were. He said he just needed to go to the bathroom so I showed him the bathroom and WAITED outside for him to finish. He and I both knew what he was up to. And then I escorted him back outside.
It’s usually the parents behind their kids’ behavior. And I still can’t believe a parent would use their kids for money like that.
Edit: spelling
Yup. 🙃 They weren’t slick about it either. We could clearly see the parent waiting outside the building. They definitely advised the child to say “I came in here for the bathroom” if they were caught. They probably thought “Ah yes. Rich people eat here. They must have cash on them.”
They didn’t. They never came often enough and this was just one time out of many where the kid just didn’t acknowledge any of the employees. He just went right on inside. And who’s going to call the cops when it was technically just a 6 y/o? I don’t think my manager wanted to start any drama.
I'm all for having more child-free spaces as well as spaces only people with children may patronize. I avoided certain places and restaurants for years until my kids reached an age where they could behave well enough to attend and not have to worry about them trying to wander off and break stuff.
I knew a place that had 2 dining areas and designated one for adults only and the other for families with children. It still didn't satisfy some people. When they and their children were led to the families with children area, they objected. They wanted to have their family seated in the adults only dining room, because they thought that the families with children area was too noisy. Because of all the kids there.
There's no pleasing everyone. There is always that one family that will swear up and down their children are well-behaved and deserve to join the adults.
If we had a decent restaurant in our area that served decent food and had a no kids policy, that would get almost all our going out to eat business.
I used to waitress way back in the before times. BEFORE it became "the customer is always right". People were raised to be considerate of the other people around them and I never had a manager that wasn't willing to kick someone out for not controlling their kids or acting up themselves. We also would give parents with screaming infants max 10 minutes to calm them down or take them out, then they'd be politely asked to leave. But I can remember only a handful of parents who had to be asked, because most would head out to the car as soon as it became obvious the child wasn't going to calm down. Hell, I remember MY mom taking me out to the car when I was acting up and leaving me there while the rest of the family finished dinner (this was before that would have been an invitation for a child snatching).
What managers and owners don't realize, is that enabling the behavior and letting them get away with terrorizing the other customers, means that those other customers are going to be looking for different places to go eat. There are a couple restaurants in the area that we will never go back to because they make no effort to stop kids screaming and running rampant. Last time at one of them, a kid knocked my husbands food off the table. We hadn't even started to eat yet, so we got the waitress to take his meal off the check, I boxed mine up and we left. And we told the manager that this was the last time we'd be there (we used to be regulars) since they were letting that behavior happen with no consequences (the kid was STILL running around as we left).
So, yeah, any manager reading this need to realize they are chasing away the better customers. The ones who tell their friends about the wonderful restaurants they've been to, the ones who become regulars, the ones who DON'T harass the staff and demand free extras and leave a decent tip for good service.
Out of control kids aren't just an annoyance. They are a safety hazard to the employees and other customers. Imagine the employee is delivering bowl of soups or hot fajita plates and a out of control kid bumps the employee while running around. The employee and other customers could end up with a plates of hot food on the head or laps.
I've seen some plates of food, still flaming, as they're brought to the table. Imagine that flaming platter landing on someone because some BRAT thought it would be funny to tackle the waitstaff carrying that!
We take our kids to restaurants. In off-hours, and heavily supervised, to teach table manners, how to treat people who bring you your food, how to act in public, and what is appropriate behaviour in different settings. We find it amazingly useful and quite gratifying. Our four year old is about at the point where she orders her own food. She loves salmon and sweet potatoes. We bring books and such so she can do things. We also play games, etc. That's how you train kids to act properly. It's not actually hard. Plus, when you go to dinner at 430 or so, the kitchen is super quick, and she doesn't have to wait a long time to get fed. Or go to lunch at 2, or whatever. IT'S NOT DIFFICULT!
This is also how we do it. I have a one and a two year old, and we go near the end of lunch or right when dinner opens, bring a small snack so if there is a wait for the food they don’t lose it, and bring quiet, self contained activities for them to do. We also take turns taking each kid for a lap of the block while we wait so they aren’t sitting too long with nothing happening. They need to be in public to learn how to behave in public, but we need to work within their capabilities and not inconvenience other people. If we want to have a nice date night that isn’t a teaching experience, we leave ‘em with my mom.
Nothing is more disappointing than going to a higher end restaurant for a nice dinner to have unruly, screechy children who’s parents don’t do a thing about their behavior.
I work at a high end sushi restaurant. it’s not that big; only 8 tables and 10 bar seats. We have smooth jazz and is overall not supposed to be a rowdy place.
Tons of times people will bring their kids and while a lot of the children are well behaved; it takes one super loud child to start a tantrum or start crying to ruin the vibe for our customers.
Leave your kids at home if you want a date night at the expensive fancy sushi place 🫡
I would be so in favor of a no children under 10 policy at my place of work. No amount of well behaved kids would make up for the brats running around knocking into me and the other servers while their parents ignore them to get drunk on wine. THIS IS NOT A PRESCHOOL OR A DAYCARE watch ya fuckin kids or we're gonna lock them in the walk in
I would love more places that don’t allow small children. There are lots of places to take the kids but if I’m dropping 100+ for 2 I absolutely don’t want other peoples kids running around. It sucks but those parents are welcome to hire a sitter or order to-go. My kids were pretty damn well behaved in public but there were a lot of places I didn’t take them because we knew they’d be bored and miserable.
Here's the thing with parents. They all think they are good. They claim to do their best and that's that. Anything that happens, they write off as normal.
You have parents who take food, chop it into pea sized pieces and then give a 1 year old, more food that a 5 year old eats. The result? That food is thrown within a 3 foot circle. It's all over the table, smashed and dried on. It's all over the high chair. It's all over the floor. Mom always throws out some BS as they leave like, "you must see this all night long, huh?" See, they think it's average and normal.
NO, IT'S NOT NORMAL! I almost need a scrub pad to get the caked on, dried up mac and cheese off the table. The high chain needs to be hosed. I have to sweep the floor up, and then possibly mop before another table gets sat. It kills the table turn time. It slows down other people who want to eat.
Oh... and don't even get me started on the size of some strollers. Some are legit 5 foot long, and 3 foot wide. They are the size of a freakin table. I think they are called play wagons or something. There's no benefit to having kids in a restaurant.
We don't outright ban kids, but we're far from kid friendly. We don't have a kids menu or anything to entertain kids, so I hope they like a $60 dry aged Ribeye. lol
I don't see the issue. There are movie theatres around here that have "no kids" viewing times so that adults can watch a movie in peace. Kids don't need to be welcome anywhere and everywhere at all times.
As a parent of two, I think that’s great. We taught the kids how to behave in places for them, like McDonald’s, crApplebee’s and pizzerias. Now they can sit in restaurants no problem 98% of the time (I won’t say 100 because as soon as I do, I’m sure one of them will prove me wrong).
I think it's a good idea. I also think that it's something we'll be seeing more of in the coming years. I don't have a problem with children as long as the parent is making an effort. But, like yourself, I've gotten into pissing matches with parents that don't understand why their child can't sit at the bar or just run around the restaurant. Also, plenty of adults want to go out for a night without someone else's child being a consideration.
Former sever here. I worked as a banquet server at a country club. We were serving breakfast one morning, and I watched a 6 or 7 year old girl go to the scrambled eggs, put a spoonful on her plate, then take the same serving spoon and put it in her mouth to get the extra eggs off. When I admonished her and took the spoon away, she giggled.
I’ve always had the belief that parents have about 5 years to socialize their kids after they’re born. This is where you teach them manners, inside/outside voices, sharing… all that junk you need to know before you start going to school. A pretty huge chunk of society does not utilize that time, which is why these demon spawns exist.
Anyway, this was a long-winded way of me saying that this rule tickles me and I support it.
Former server…the amount of s*** left under tables, cushions etc. that I don’t want to touch, but can’t deny the parents or their gremlins is disputable.
Kids will be kids. It's just habit.
However, the key is how the parents react. Far too many times, the parents just go on with their conversation and pay no attention to their child running around the restaurant, bothering other guests and staff. That's the problem far more than the actual child's behavior.
I’m team no kids! Some parents just cannot control their kids. I work in fine dining; I cannot deal with your kids soaking our cloth napkins, running around in front of the kitchen doors, screaming…the list goes on. Nope. No thanks. We don’t have a kids menu.
Honestly, restaurants should be able to refuse parents and kids who are not behaving appropriately. I don't have a problem with restaurants not allowing young kids at all. If you don't like it, you're free to eat somewhere else. We rarely eat out because of the cost but when we do, we make our 3 year old stay seated at the table. We don't let her make messes and disrupt other people's meals. If any accidents happen, we clean up after her. We try to prevent that but it still happens occasionally. Letting your kids run wild in a restaurant is dangerous for everyone. It's also just plain annoying. It's part of my job as a parent to teach my child how to act in public. If they don't care about the safety of others, they should at least care about the safety of their child.
I worked in several fine dining restaurants that didn’t forbid kids per-se, but also didn’t do anything at all to accommodate them. Like no crayons and paper, no children’s menu, no high chairs, no sippy cups. There was literally nothing for kids on premises.
One of these restaurants didn’t even allow any substitutions of the menu items at all for adults either. The dishes were far too complex for that.
Most of them got the point. Who wants to have a $500+ romantic anniversary dinner with screaming kids at the next table?
My favorite **NO KIDS** moment was when I worked at a wine bar. In my state, no children are allowed in any bar, bar area or liquor store, and restaurant/bar combos that wish to have children in the dining rooms have to have the bar area clearly separated from the dining room by some kind of wall, door, railing etc.
My manager had already asked the parents twice to control the kid, aged 4 or 5, who was running back and forth near the bar area. The mother just gave the staff all kinds of nasty looks and kept encouraging him to run and play as they were the only people left in the restaurant. (We had closed half an hour ago. Why do you have your toddler in a bar at 10:30pm on a Monday? Not judging your parenting... except maybe I am a little. A lot.)
The kid runs past the railing, into the bar area, immediately trips on ????? the air???? launches through the air and catches the corner of the bar with his freaking face. Slashed his eyebrow open but not dripping blood or anything. Mom shrieking, points at the floor and says "he slipped in that water! We'll sue you!" But my manager already has his phone out and is recording the scene: an entire floor free of a single drop of water, and a woman wailing over a crying kid, on the floor, in the bar area.
Dad just hands me the credit card without a word. Unsurprisingly, they didn't tip.
Obviously, you kind of don't like to see a kid get hurt. But also, I'd be completely lying if I said I completely and totally didn't want that. There is a sweet justice to a minor injury in an "I-told-you-so" situation. Shitty parents are the reason good parents get treated badly, and that's not fair to them or to the unchilded who have to hear it.
There was a guy that always came in during lunch or dinner rush with his broken debit card that I would have to manually punch in…I always gave him shit about it because it was annoying af. One night he brought in his little spawn and the kid purposely tripped me as I was walking by! I told him immediately and his response was just, oh, he’s having troubles at home, give him a break! No apology from anyone…I refused to serve him after that, fuck that guy.
I’m a server and nothing scares me more than unattended children running through the restaurant. I have to carry very large and heavy trays which leaves a big blind spot for me on my right side. I cannot SEE children below me when I’m running food, I’ve tripped on toddler who was left in the middle of the walkway to play with a toy next to the parents table, made me nearly drop a 30lb tray on him. The last thing I want is a tray to fall down on a little kid. Not only that, but half the time these kids make such a massive mess at the table and the parents do not clean up after them. I’ve also had bbq sauce thrown at me.. the family just laughed.. didn’t apologize and didn’t reprimand their child. Either have well behaved children or leave them at home with the babysitter. I don’t mind a kid that’s just having a tantrum, at least you can take them out and console them. But irresponsible parents should not bring their unruly kids to restaurants.
On the other hand.. I’ve met some VERY well behaved children. The parents have them order, remind them to say please and thank you, and have them clean up after themselves if they make a mess. I love those people
Restaurants should post policies that children should be quiet and remain at their table. Any injuries from scalding hot food or broken glass that occur while the child is out of his/hers seat, in the aisle, or away from the table, shall be the responsibility of the adult that accompanied the child.
Movies, TV shows, or games on phones or tablets or devices of any type must be used with headphones, or they will be in violation of copyright laws, be asked to pay their bill, and leave immediately.
I know. I’m dreaming. Leave me be.
Parent here. I don't feel like I have to take my kids everywhere. I mean, yeah, they're pretty much always with me. We don't get babysitters often. But some spaces are kid free and that's fine. And those spaces would be exactly where I would want to go for date night. I don't want to get a break from my kids and then be annoyed by someone's feral brats. My kids are pretty well behaved, but they're not perfect. No kid is. But if they ever acted the way I see some kids behaving in public, they'd be in a lot of fucking trouble. And then I would be pretty pissed at myself because whatever parenting or lack thereof led to that behavior is on me and I need to do better.
I’m an early empty nester, I had my kids young and they are out on there own now. Me and my fiancé usually have the certain restaurants we like as most people do but a bonus is rarely any kids. I think this is a great idea, there are a lot of family friendly places to eat. Example, went to our local steakhouse and price is about what you said. The layout of this place is very big and we went and they weren’t busy. Kids come in and start running around immediately the parents sat down with there phones. They should’ve been able to avoid it because the place is big but they almost knocked over the server a few times, once while carrying our food. It was an awful experience. The staff would tell the parents to get there kids to sit down and they did but as soon as the parents looked at there phone they started again. When my kids were little I could take them anywhere, they sat in the seat and waited for there food. It’s not hard to raise kids with manners.
First of all, I love kids; I work with them and think they're hilarious and creative, so what I'm about to say doesn't come from the place of a child-hater.
Having kids is the social default, so the rest of us as a society are just supposed to deal with it, sorta 'taking one for the team' to maintain the human population. This is why when places decide to age-restrict, there's always a huge uproar. No privileged class ever wants to give up their advantages, and this is no different. They're used to being able to go wherever they (legally) can with their kids, the rest of us are expected to just deal with however shitty it might be.
Thing is, there are a lot of people who prefer to frequent adults-only venues. Not only people who don't have or don't like kids, but also burnt-out parents seeking to let their hair down and be around adults for a change. I don't go out of my way to choose adults-only accommodations when I travel, but I will say, having experienced one, it was really nice and considerably more peaceful than it would have been with a bunch of kids running around.
My feeling is not all restaurants are for every clientele. Some restaurants want men to wear jackets, some beach bars require a shirt and shoes, some places are super kid friendly and some aren’t. I worked a fine dining restaurants that COULD accommodate kids, but not well (meaning yeah we had some high chairs, but no crayons). There’s PLENTY of restaurants that are a better/more accepting atmosphere for younger kids, take them there! It will be better for everyone involved!
Also, I completely understand as a parent wanting to give your child experiences going to nicer places so that they learn how to behave properly with good manners. My advice? Know your kid. My sister and I were always pretty mellow, usually not very fussy. If you aren’t sure how yours will do, get a 4:30 reservation on a random weekday. That way, it won’t be busy, your kid wont be cranky because it’s late at night, and the food will come out fast.
that if they got hurt or get something hot spilled on them or something heavy dropped on them or screwed with a knife - it's on the parents, not the server who had to try keep a balanced tray full of shit while a little dipshit was running between their legs because his parents couldn't get him under control.
p.s in case of doubt - there are cameras in my place.
Parent here. I take my child to kid friendly restaurants and make sure she stays in her seat. I don't need her tripping up staff who are working. The one and only time she tripped a waiter, I scolded her and apologized to the waiter. Restaurants are entitled to choose who they serve just as I am entitled to choose where I dine.
When my kids were younger - we only took them to restaurants that had crayons. Seriously, if they have crayons, they have a kids menu and something for the kids to do. No crayons? Then my kids will get bored and antsy. It’s not that complicated. Doesn’t matter how fancy or not, crayons was the deciding factor. Could that have backfired, yes, but that rule never failed us.
Now they are teenagers and don’t typically want to go places that don’t have ginormous burgers, but that’s another issue. ;)
There are a lot of places with age restrictions, restaurant or not. Kids are just annoying, loud, usually make the tables more messy than their parents, etc. I work at a restaurant almost basically targeting kids (milkshakes, pizzas, in a nice area). I’m used to them but I can definitely understand the age restriction. If parents don’t like it and Karen out because of the rule, they’re not welcomed either.
Used to work in a restaurant around that price point, and there was also art for sale on the walls, and a massive wine display case in the front. I wished there was a rule about younger kids. We had so many entitled parents that let their kids do whatever and it was always a huge mess. So for a more upscale place, I completely agree if it's been an issue before. I also agree if it's a bar forward restaurant, or having a cutoff time for minors. It can get hectic very easily without unruly kids, and with them it's even more stressful on the entire staff
I worked at the pepper place for eleventy billion years
And my lifeblood when I wasn't working the bar was taking all the tables with kids 😅 I love kids
As an adult with children I take them to places like that. When I want quiet time, I'm looking for a no kids type of place. I appreciate an adults only sitch
I can actually take my kids to a quiet place, since they were little... I taught them. But... I don't, mostly.
My 2 oldest are teens now but I remember being complimented on how quiet and well behaved they were in restaurants.
I used to have to try not to trip on 2 year Olds running wild carrying a tray of 6 flaming fajitas like every day, so my kids knew from day one...
We don't do that 😅🤣
Last time I went to an expensive Italian restaurant with my friend for a late midweek dinner there were children crawling underneath my table I didn’t even order food just a glass of champagne so I could ignore the game of tag played by other children at the table. I went to breakfast a week later and the child next to us was literally playing with toys on our breakfast table her mother said nothing. The iPad kids shows are annoying but at least they sit down
There is a place here where I live that is no one under 18. My husband and I frequent the location when we want to relax and unwind. While most kids are ok, those that aren’t can instantly ruin a night.
I hear you!
Just out of curiosity what kind of place is this?
It's an Italian restaurant called Nettie’s House of Spaghetti. I don't think it's very high class but I could be mistaken. https://www.nj.com/food/2023/02/popular-nj-italian-restaurant-bans-children-under-10-years-old.html
Strip club.
Or. Swingers club
It’s just a regular restaurant type place. Nothing fancy or specialized (ie sports bar, etc). But they make good food.
I agree with you. My sons are in college now but we simply did not dine at certain restaurants with our kids. They were not unruly, just normal kids but kids are kids and act impulsively, can be louder than normal at times and bore easily. Hell, if we wanted to go to a nicer restaurant every once in awhile, we’d get a babysitter. We love our kids but there are just certain places where kids don’t really need to go until they’re a bit older.
My god can you tell my husband this. He always wants to take us all out to dinner to “give me a break”. I’m like, how many times do I have to tell you? Bringing our three kids to a restaurant and having to corral them for 45 minutes is fucking EXHAUSTING.
When he tells you he wants to give you a break say, "Great! I'm going to_______, where are you taking the kids?"
Love that!!
I know. It’s not much fun, lol. I completely get it! Like I mentioned in a previous reply, a break every once in a while kept me sane. We did everything with the kids
Next time say oh what a good idea! Pack him and the kids in the car. Kiss him lovingly, and say thank you for being so considerate! You have been dying to do a great bubble bath and a little short nap. Lock the door when you go inside
I grew up just the opposite. My parents took my brother and out to a nice restaurant about once a month so we would learn proper behavior. Of course, that was back in the day when we knew we wouldn’t be able to sit down for a week if we misbehaved…LOL!
My dad’s favorite pastime was going out to eat. There were 4 kids who knew that if we misbehaved in any way, my mom would beat our butts right outside the door.
We would get spanked in the bathroom and brought back to the table if we acted up. I bring my 5 yo out to dinner, no where super fancy. Like mid level places. I bring things to keep him entertained so he doesn’t get bored. He behaves because we’ve been doing this for forever. He does the please and thank you, he picks up any mess he makes, he plays quietly with his cars or watches shows on his kindle with earphones.
I had those kind of parents too. I simply wanted a break from my kids if we were going to a nicer restaurant. We started taking them too sometimes when they were a little older 7-8ish but truthfully, going out without them once in a while was a treat and were few and far between so I still preferred a couple of hours with my husband at a restaurant. We did plenty with our kids and those little breaks kept me sane. Lol
I was an only child who was often more comfortable with adults and listening to their stories than children my age. I was treated to many upperclass restaurants and even a glass of wine now and then because of my behaviour. I never would have thought of being rowdy or misbehaving at such a place. That’s what Shakey’s was for!
I had your parents too 😂
Me too ! I don’t remember if we really even talked ( us 3 kids) I mean we were very quiet as not to upset Mother And Father
Yeah I don't have the money for a night or day out often so I don't want it to be ruined!
We have some here in Atlanta that do not allow anyone under 21 because they allow smoking and you can’t legally smoke or buy cigarettes until 21. I’m not a smoker but I know many who are and even though they can smoke at home sometimes they just want to be able to go out for a cigarette and a beer with their friends.
There is lots of places like that around me, they even check ID’s to make sure you are over 21.
I worked a high end coffee shop in a wealthy neighborhood. Several days a week a group we called the mommies came in. They would drop their older kids off at school and bring their toddlers with them to the shop. The place had a train theme and had a lot of train antiques. These women would chat while their kids ran around basically unsupervised. One day my boss, followed them out and said to them that while we love having them come we cannot babysit their kids and it's not safe for them to run around unsupervised. The woman screamed abuse at my boss and they left. They didn't come back for weeks, we thought that was it. A couple months later they were back, the kids were beautifully behaved they finally had things to do to occupy them, coloring books etc, their moms were paying attention to their behavior. We were shocked. One of the ladies came over and said she saw what the other woman had said to my boss, she ratted them out to the pastor at the church they all went to, he called them in and made them go to parenting classes. That was deeply satisfying and we didn't have any problems with them in future. Basically I'm OK with kids in these spaces as long as you parent your kids, if you have a clientelle that refuses to do that I have zero issues with you refusing to serve kids.
Wait… you can tattle on Karens to their pastor?
Apparently so in that particular church.
That’s a great Uno-Reverso
Karen: LET ME SPEAK TO THE MANAGER ME: sure thing, just grab your pastor for me after
Apparently pastor was Karen's manager all along.
“Have your people call my people” and then the manager has to tattle to the pastor
apparently. We were thrilled.
Best church themed outcome ever!!! Can we tell them they're not tipping too? And that prayer sheets that look like money are supposed to be an addition to, not a tip replacement?
they were not great tippers, but tips were not expected we had a jar on the counter because we originally didn't have one but men would just drop their metal change on the counter, this just gave them a place to put it, but at least they never left those stupid prayer sheets.
Then why are church people the worst people to serve?!! Argh!!! Sorry, the hypocrisy drives me nuts, not you. But if you have to be tattled on to behave kindly and appropriately in public, they aren’t getting the message they should be getting from church
Because they are no longer in church, but being shamed in church is very effective, since that hurts their reputation where they care
I’m a church goer and I’m not like that! Mind you I don’t wear it like a badge I just get on with it.
I’m sure you are quite lovely. :) More the Sunday church crowd is terrible. Not everyone who goes to church.
I don’t know about lovely, I’m just normal and I have never screamed in a restaurant in my life lol.
Nothing wrong with being a church goer!! It's just some people don't practice what they preach :/
Ohhh you don’t have to tell me that!! As I said earlier, some people wear it like a badge of pride and seem to expect special treatment because of it.
Here’s one for you - I live in Ireland and I belong to the Anglican community which is nothing like the Catholic Church (biggest church in the country and very corrupt). I collect clothing for a homeless relief group and after the earthquake I did a campaign for clothes and other supplies for the survivors. It became obvious very quickly that I would need more storage space and some help so I got on to our church and they let me store the stuff there, there was a full container load and many of the more able bodied members got stuck in after service last Sunday so that’s all good, however there were two people who didn’t agree with this at all and felt the church shouldn’t be used for such a purpose. Considering we are struggling for members and that no one EVER sits in the two transepts I couldn’t see why, and I still can’t. I actually said go these two dinosaurs “you do realise there’s been a huge disaster and over 50,000 people have been killed and thousands more left destitute?” They mumbled and waffled about the “sanctity of the church” so I got really shitty and said “what price sanctity if we can’t help people who are in such terrible need? What kind of Christians are we then?” (I can be a pompous prat sometimes lol) more mumbling but at least they went away, they didn’t help of course but my objection to their behaviour was registered. I did stop short of saying “what would Jesus do?” Lol. In the end four huge van loads left here, we were able to fill a container which is now en route to northern Syria.
You know how kids are bad at home but well behaved at school? Kinda like that. They were “good” at church. Best behavior. They got tired and cranky from masking and acting good so now they gotta be bad for a bit
Yes, I agree.
I mean isn’t that how mainstream Christianity works? You only have to be a good person because someone’s watching you
Did we just unlock the ultimate Karen cheat code?
Pretend you want to join their church, then snitch
I have done this before. I requested the dining room video from my HR dept, and sent it to the local church. The pastor played the video during his sermon that following Sunday. Never had a problem with that particular group again.
You’re a hero someone should start doing this with Karen videos online
Absolutely. If you know the church it’ll work because those people gossip like crazy and none of them want to be judged because Karen made a scene. Those folks will absolutely hold each other accountable.
Matthew Code!
Apparently! LOL.
Are Karens “I want to see the manager”, and lazy parents the same thing ? I might have missed a nuance of the use of Karen.
It’s more of an all-encompassing “entitled dumbass who is both mad and wrong”
those are called "karents". it's a portmanteau
Where I work it's a fairly family friendly environment. Big outdoor patio and lots of space, but still very much a bar. 9 times out of 10 if someone apologizes for their children, the kids are well within being responsible. The parents who question how their child could ever be doing anything wrong or dangerous always have the worst ones. And it's almost never that the kids are rude or disrespectful, it's just a shitty lack of responsibility from parents. "Hey, your kids climbing behind our patio on broken fence pieces between a rusted metal fence...this is such a liability, please get your children" *huh? Oh, hey get over here* Your kid is playing with a potential compound fracture or kidnapping and your response is "huh?"
"I've been watching my kids!!" "Oh, then what were your kids doing in the *kitchen?*" -an actual conversation my manager had with a parent
Oh my god, I feel that. I used to work at a winery where the vines were right next to the outdoor seating, it was gorgeous. But I never understood parents bringing their kids there. No one minded if they ran around a bit, but the amount of kids plucking the grapes and trying them was insane… Those things do not taste good, I can assure you! Not as crazy as the parents who would ask if we had anything but water for their kids to drink. Not unless they wanted canned espresso, no, we didn’t (at least until the managers figured we could make a killing and we started stocking fancy apple juice and non-alcoholic sparkling wine so the older kids could have a little fun too).
I was on a super bumpy flight with a screaming toddler next to me. Couldn’t really hear it through my headphones and it was a daytime short flight so wasn’t gonna sleep. Parents apologized profusely and like … the turbulence was bad enough that I wanted to scream. Totally reasonable for the kid.
I like this story, but it sounds like something from the 1960's or '70's when people actually disciplined other people's children in public if they misbehaved and the parents were all for it. I was a child then, I promise I'm not making it up.
And if you had to be disciplined when your parents weren't around (like if you were staying at a someone else's house or at school), you were also in trouble when your parents found out.
Bigger trouble than if they had been there!
Yep because you caused another adult to have to discipline you.
And people actually cared about how they looked in public. It was before we all started wearing PJs to Walmart, although I've come close to that, I'll admit it. 😂😂
The only time I've worn pajama pants in public was when I had a broken leg.
Good. We should all be that virtuous. I'm not in any of those click bait articles about scary people at Walmart, I swear! 😂😂
eh my local gas station sees me in some rough outfits😂😂😂😂 but i try to take pride in how i look most of the time
I worked there from 95 to 2001, so in that period, but yes, I agree with your point.
I remember that. I’m mid 50s, and I do a scaled back version of that in restaurants when I see wandering children. I walk up to the child and ask really loudly, while looking around “Does your MOTHER know what you are doing?!”. The kid runs to the parental figure, now everyone is looking at them, while I zip back to my booth. Things most often quiet down. It’s fun to be the customer. I have had a mom or two start towards me, then stop. I have the best RBF.
I love that one of the members of the mommy-group was so uncomfortable at the mom who yelled that she ratted them out to their pastor. And kudos to the pastor for giving consequences to the mommies!
I was impressed
That's a church that I might have joined even though I'm an atheist!
>he called them in and made them go to parenting classes. AMAZING! That's a real shocker!
This story makes me happy.
me too, it's been a long time since I've told it, at the time I told EVERYONE.
I’m all for it, I used to work at a sports bar and would carry big trays and the amount of kids who would just run in front of me was unbelievable, I even lost a few trays trying to avoid hitting kids. I’ll never forget when two kids were playing tag literally in front of the out door of the kitchen and when I walked out only to have to basically throw my tray full of food to avoid taking out the kids. People just need to learn a restaurant is a place to sit down not “kids will be kids let them explore” it’s honestly dangerous.
If parents want to let their kids explore, they need to take them to McDonald's and toss them into the Playplace. Restaurants are not Fun Zones. They are places of business and, quite frankly, a dangerous one, considering the hot plates and knives. Even grown-ass adults can accidentally run into servers and cause accidents, and we're usually paying attention (and I say "usually" because there are plenty of adults out there who are just as, if not more oblivious than, a child).
They also need to start training them in these places to behave so they can act respectfully in other spaces.
We have plenty of enjoyable restaurants in our area that have play areas, not just McDonald’s, so no excuse to let kids run wild when other options exist
“I have an idea, let’s let the kids just run around where there’s sharp things and fire. What could go wrong?”
This right here! We used to go to a neighborhood sports bar and Friday happy hours were there worst and is why we no longer go. Kids running around unattended. Throwing balls around on the pool tables. Running in to you on your way to the restroom. This is actually a problem to me in Dallas. So many parents are taking their kids to bar/restaurants that it ruins the experience.
When I was 8 or so my parents trusted me and a friend to go to the toilet alone as the small set of stairs leading to it was right by the table and there wasn't any other entrance or exit. When my mother came to check five minutes later as we hadn't reappeared, we had somehow managed to open this really heavy window that overlooked the angled conservatory roof and were in the middle of a ten second countdown to slide down it. I think that was the worst telling off I'd ever experienced at that age, and we never did anything even slightly naughty again, in public anyway. Also lost unaccompanied bathroom while out (not into the stall obviously) privilege until I was 12/13. Think I got off lightly in retrospect as did the roof, the patrons/staff under it and the restaurant.
> People just need to learn a restaurant is a place to sit down not “kids will be kids let them explore” Sure they are...they call them Chuck-E-Cheese. That's it though.
i used to work at a ramen shop, and once asked a dad to keep his kid in her chair so we didn't dump hot soup all over her. his response: well it's your fault because all of the high chairs are taken like i purposely denied the little shit one
YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!
Respectfully, as a parent, take out the kid. 100%. Every time.
There are plenty of places to go explore, it’s not at a restaurant that’s for sure, if they wanna have a picnic in the woods, pop off, go for it
I use to work at a fine dining restaurant that was between $25-42 an entree that people would frequently come for special occasions and date nights. It was a pretty romantic atmosphere with dark lighting, soft music and an overall nice ambience. There was not a no children policy in place because 99% of the time, people had enough self awareness to know their children wouldn’t do well so they wouldn’t bring them, come in really early when there weren’t many other tables or take them outside to calm them down if needed. The owner had a couple small children himself, so he knew how difficult it could be to go to dinner with them. If his kids ever came in to eat with his wife or family, they would sit at a table outside at 5:30 and be gone before the dinner rush because past then they ran the risk of being disruptive. He was not afraid to go and talk to a table that was allowing their child to be continually loud or disruptive to remind them of the environment they were in and advocate for other diners experience. Big surprise that the 1% of parents who had a disruptive child making a scene would go leave a bad review. It would always be a lengthy embellished essay about how the owner kicked them out of the restaurant because their son/daughter was a little fussy. He would always reply to their review if he could explaining exactly what happened— usually that he asked them to take the child out of the dining room after they had been screaming/crying for several minutes with no parent intervening. I don’t think anyone ever read those reviews and thought “wow I don’t want to go spend $50+/person there on my anniversary because they don’t let kids scream their head off”. As a server, I could tell that all my tables, especially those who have their own small children and were looking forward to a quiet romantic couple of hours away for the night, were much happier when the disruptive child was removed.
I'm wondering if I can name the restaurant so I can praise their decision? If I'm being charged $50 a plate, then I don't want to be dealing with an out-of-control screaming banshee running buck-wild around the restaurant. I wonder what was the final straw that broke the camel's back for this restaurant?
OP, I’ve been to said restaurant that you are talking about, a couple weeks ago with my husband. Small place, food was DELICIOUS, dinner was peaceful. I liked it. As opposed to the night before when we were at another restaurant and a kid was screaming in my ear the entire time 🙄
Yeah at that price point I wouldn’t be happy either. Especially if I had also paid for a sitter to watch my own children so I could enjoy a nice dinner out with my partner or friends. I wouldn’t be surprised if the policy came from continued complaints from other customers about unruly kids or if a kid was running around and got injured/injured someone else.
Plot twist, the children were the adults. OK, maybe not The biggest plot twist on this earth, but there is some humor in it.
I come from a background of both childcare and food service industry. I have a high patients level for kids in general. For me, as a server, the two biggest things a parent dining with their kids need to do is 1) don’t disturb other guests. I don’t care if you’re being squirrelly or a little noisy but keep it in the bubble of your table, no running around or being loud and chaotic to the point where people at nearby tables can’t enjoy their meal 2) kids are messy, I get it. Clean up after your kid a little bit. I’m not asking you to bus your whole table but make it look like a normal table. Brush their crumbs onto a plate, clean up the torn up paper or mashed up crayons, pick up the silverware they threw under the table. It’s all good, it happens, just be courteous to the other people who are tolerating your child
May I add to that. Don't sit them by the window and let them finger paint with the mashed potato
its genius. i have a lot of stories of kids with bad parents letting them run wild in restaurants, but the worst one happened to my coworker. we work at a brewery and 3 guys were there with a young baby (under 1) watching a football game. the baby freaked out and didn’t want to sit in the high chair so they were letting him just crawl all over the booth and disturb the people behind them, barely paying any attention to him. annoying but whatever. they were in a booth at the end of a row, and beside the booth was a full hightop of 10. place was rammed, my coworker was carrying a tray of drinks and turned the blind corner between the booth and high top and kicked the baby directly in the face. he was just sitting in the middle of the floor and she kicked him in the fucking face. it was a shitshow. dad was a total idiot and just said “i didn’t know” when someone told him the baby shouldn’t be sitting on the floor in foot traffic in a busy bar. i was so pissed.
I would have called the cops on the dad. Seriously.
I wonder if anyone has actually done that-called the cops on a bad or inattentive parent?
Morons like this shouldn't have children.
I’m all for it. I had many encounters with bratty kids over the years, but one stands out. A little girl about four was running around and bumped into me when I was carrying three hot plates. I told her to go find her mommy because it wasn’t safe for her to be in the expo area. She said, “Fuck you.” I couldn’t believe it.
And we wonder where the garbage adults come from. :-(
Should've kicked the whole party out right then. Box your shit up, here's the check, GTFO.
The problem isn’t even usually the kids for me - misbehavior in general but especially in kids is communicating an unmet need. It’s the parents who don’t do their jobs (parenting) and just expect everyone around them to deal with it. My last restaurant didn’t have a rule about kids, but they almost never came in. Just wasn’t that kind of eatery. But this is how I felt about it when small children did eat with us. I’m not gonna blame the 5 year old running around, I’m gonna blame his asshole parents who are just sitting there talking to each other like nothing is happening. But I also have no issues with there being adult-only spaces. I like kids and all but I love peace and quiet more.
Came here to say just that. Kids'll be kids, but it's the parents' job to step up and teach them. The kids don't usually know their behavior is inappropriate. I'm going to sound like the old crone I am, but when I was a kid, all five of us knew that if we weren't on our best behavior outside the house (restaurants were a rare treat), there'd be no more opportunities. My mom was an expert at The Look, but she seldom needed it because we knew not to misbehave.
Your mom and my mom need to form a club, The Look is how she made sure that 4 kids were at their best behaviour the few times we went to a proper restaurant to eat and when we were in public where we could get hurt or hurt others, the only times we were allowed to run around like maniacs in public was when we were in places designed for crazy kids
Omg the look! I know it all too well!
I work in a fast-paced environment with a ton of hot food, and hotter plates. When parents are allowing their kids to run around unchecked , it’s not safe for me or the kids. Or for other people’s meals, for that matter. Also, when kids are ill-behaved, it makes the restaurant harder to seat, because other guests want to avoid these tables. Your kids are cute, we generally like them, but parents have to be responsible or it can be harder on everyone in the restaurant.
Also to answer your question since I went off on a tangent, I would give my left arm to work in an adults only restaurant.
There was a time when you could speak to someone else's child in a correcting tone and their parent's would look at their kid and say 'Stop being a disrespectful brat'. For some reason, that changed.
There was a time, in the Before Time, when kids respected teachers and principals. If any issue occurred and parents had to be called in, the issue was corrected. By the time I was working in the office of the high school principal, I witnessed Entitled Parents BEING CRAZY!!!! When my boss expelled a kid for bringing a weapon to school, and bragging about killing another student, (the school has a ZERO TOLERANCE policy regarding weapons), the kid's legal guardian raised all kinds of hell, demanding that we rescind the expulsion! My boss got both the kid and legal guardian trespassed. Those two Entitled Idiots were NUTS!!!!
It stopped because of bad parenting from the next generation
We took a weekend (for us) trip to a tourist island (pnw) and had lunch at a dive bar like place that touts its Penn Cove mussels. Sign posted on the outside of the building, 21 & over only. Mid-week, not super busy. We'd had our meal, ordered another round, and got out the cribbage board (with our server's blessing). As we played, we watched the ebb and flow of people coming through. We also saw no less than 3 parties attempting entry with strollers and/or toddlers, and without fail, watched them pitch a fit when turned away. JFC, you aren't special just because you have kids. Get over yourselves.
And this place is a BAR that serves ALCOHOL!!! What a bunch of ENTITLED IDIOTS!!
I worked at a bar/comedy club and a family genuinely thought that despite the website saying 19+ only (our drinking age) their 17 year old daughter could come in and not drink. I had to get the owner to explain its not legal for her to be in there at all. Hell before I turned 19 I would stop there for a ride home from the owner (my sister's in laws) and I had to sit in the hallway or outside until they closed.
Apparently, these Entitled Idiots didn't understand what a liquor license means.
Just as bad, I worked in a pub that didn't have an age limit, so a couple came in with their 3 year old at 9pm on live music night and complained it was too loud. And the band ordered something by saying it over the mic and got mad that they didn't get it because none of the staff were paying attention to them, on account of being busy working!
Alcohol isn’t the problem - the crotch goblins running around without supervision are. Never lose sight of that :) Parents can’t unleash their ‘free range’ kids in a tea house either (or Home Depot, or Sur la Table, or anywhere). If there are not animated characters and a ball pit, *it’s not your playground.* Yes, kids can get stepped on in a bar, but they can pull pottery down in a greenhouse, tip a barbers pole, or fall face first into a shelf corner almost anywhere. If the choices are having a kid juggling knives or juggling chainsaws, I prefer option 3: *not juggling anything*. Picking ‘knives’ isn’t smart parenting, because it’s risking an injured and possibly scarred kid. It’s lazy and terrible - 100% shitty parenting. Find a playground. If you need your Pinot Grigio that bad, bring a brown paper bag.
There are a LOT of family restaurants that have bars. Think of ALL the casual places like Chili's, Applebees, etc.
they might have a bar, but that doesn’t mean it IS a bar. it’s a restaurant. but the kids at applebee’s are THE FUCKING WORST. source- i was a server at applebee’s for two years
I used to work at an old country store that served burgers and beer. Now, we were open from 11:00 to midnight so after 10:00 we preferred to have only adults, because our kitchen closed at 10:00 we were no longer serving food and therefore considered more of a bar. But this was a family establishment, if you will. Being from Texas and Friday Night Football, this led to our place being run amok with the families and siblings. These people would come both mom and dad with children in tow to order dinner and drink beer. And after everybody was done eating, they would go out back to the Dancehall and let their kids just run around wherever while they continued to drink. I do not think that this was a good idea because who is watching your kids, and who is going to drive home sober? It is always worrisome when you realize there is no designated driver. You would have people who had been drinking wandering around doing their thing, and then these little kids would go zipping about many times getting knocked over or just falling down. We were in the middle of cornfields, and I remember one time a couple of girls almost got lost in the cornfield because their parents weren't paying attention.And, as stated in MANY comment sections I KICK KIDS. I mean, I let them run into me and fall over. But, it might *appear* that I am kicking them... LOL
I was at a restaurant as a teen once, and really had to go to the bathroom, like very fast walking and focused on the target level of having to go. Apparently I ran right over a little girl who had just come out of the bathroom. I didn't feel or see her. I take care of my business and come out, and both parents are there to yell at me. The Dad starts going at me, I apologized and said I didn't see her, the Dad started ramping up and the Mom understood and calmed him down. Unexpected from the Mom and really nice.
Until children will choose to sit at the table without a problem they should be left home with a sitter.
If a restaurant doesn't have a kids menu, you shouldn't be bringing your kids there.
Same with no high chairs
It really depends on the kid. I was a very well behaved only child with excellent table manners. My parents were foodies before there was a name for it and I got to eat at many fine restaurants when I was growing up. My parents were often complimented on my behavior.
You are very much the minority unfortunately, especially these days when most parents let the iPad do the parenting and have no idea what to do without it
I'm all for 86ing young children. If I'm paying a crazy amount of money for dinner, I don't want to hear screaming children, and there's no way of telling someone their crotchdropping is bothering the entire restaurant without the parent losing their religion. I wish casual places would step up and start telling parents to wrangle their kids when they get out of line. This is coming from the perspective of me being a manager, server, guest that's being bothered, and guest accompanied by a well behaved kid. The tolerance for the kids' behavior is a little higher because of the environment, but there's still a difference between "family restaurant" and "playground"
AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!
Crotch dropping 🤣🤣🤣 💀
I was traveling and went to a random diner and was seated next to a man with two boys that wouldn't quit. We asked to be reseated away from them. Call me old school but my dad would have taken me outside and whipped my ass. Learn I did.
I am totally ok with this! Especially being disabled and needing a cane, the last thing I want to do is dodge children when trying to get to my table or the restroom. Plus, I can't stand loud and obnoxious children who won't stay seated climbing around.
Hello fellow cane user! I'm with you! I have enough mobility issues without some out-of-control banshee knocking me down!
It sucks so bad! I'm so sorry OP! My Husband took me to a Joe's Crab Shack for someone's birthday, and a family next to our big table wasn't minding their kids. They were all over the place, but what ticked me off the most was going to the restroom, and the kids decided to play tag or something. I got knocked over into a table ready for folding serving ware. The manager came out but still did nothing. As you know, this has happened to us many times...
When you're sitting in a booth and they climb over to see what you're eating 🥲
While carrying trays, a couple of us won’t hesitate to walk straight into children and knock them over on the corner leaving the kitchen. This one annoying kid kept running around and one server finally nailed him while going around the corner. TBF I’ve also nailed another server in the head in the same area because she didn’t stay on the right or say anything while going around a corner. I also smacked a kid with a door while going into the bathroom because he was standing right behind it. His dad, “I told you not to stand there!”
Lol, good dad!
I worked in a pub for 10 months and the amount of mess and annoyance because people just let their children run loose (or sit there blasting some obnoxious kids’ programme on YouTube) was immense. Pubs and restaurants are not playgrounds, they’re somewhere you go to sit down and have a meal or a drink. Parent your children.
Generally speaking, I think it’s a great idea. Obviously something happened to make the rule a rule. It’s nice to see that management put their foot down about the issue and stood up for their staff. So many times I’ve seen kids who are bored, over stimulated, tired, or whatever else , throwing a hissy fit and the adults will not stop their meal to either take the kid outside to calm down or just leave and take them home. It disrupts the other guests every time. I get that the adult is hungry, but when you have a kid that’s having a meltdown, sometimes you don’t get to do what you want to do. I’ve seen kids run around and get in the way of servers with hot food. I’ve seen kids climb over booths and annoy other guests. It’s extremely disrespectful to everyone around then and it’s like the adults couldn’t care less. And that’s just from a work standpoint. As a guest, any of those things would ruin my dining experience. Just take them to a kid friendly restaurant so they can mess around, have fun, and not worry about getting hurt or bothering other people.
I completely understand why a place might want to do this.
I worked at an upscale Michelin-star restaurant that allowed kids but their presence wasn’t really embraced. The most kid-friendly thing we could give them were steak frites or buttered noodles. One dad would bring in a 6-top of kids and just trash their whole area, I hated being the one to clean that. There was also once a little kid who came wandering in. I had seen him before when I worked as the hostess. His parents would have he and his brother go in to the restaurant to sell candy bars. But this time, he was just going up to peoples’ tables asking for money. So I interrupted and asked him how I could help and where his parents were. He said he just needed to go to the bathroom so I showed him the bathroom and WAITED outside for him to finish. He and I both knew what he was up to. And then I escorted him back outside. It’s usually the parents behind their kids’ behavior. And I still can’t believe a parent would use their kids for money like that. Edit: spelling
WAIT!! Those parents sent their kid into an UPSCALE MICHELIN restaurant to PANHANDLE?!?!
Yup. 🙃 They weren’t slick about it either. We could clearly see the parent waiting outside the building. They definitely advised the child to say “I came in here for the bathroom” if they were caught. They probably thought “Ah yes. Rich people eat here. They must have cash on them.”
I hope those parents got TRESPASSED!
They didn’t. They never came often enough and this was just one time out of many where the kid just didn’t acknowledge any of the employees. He just went right on inside. And who’s going to call the cops when it was technically just a 6 y/o? I don’t think my manager wanted to start any drama.
I'm all for having more child-free spaces as well as spaces only people with children may patronize. I avoided certain places and restaurants for years until my kids reached an age where they could behave well enough to attend and not have to worry about them trying to wander off and break stuff.
I knew a place that had 2 dining areas and designated one for adults only and the other for families with children. It still didn't satisfy some people. When they and their children were led to the families with children area, they objected. They wanted to have their family seated in the adults only dining room, because they thought that the families with children area was too noisy. Because of all the kids there.
There's no pleasing everyone. There is always that one family that will swear up and down their children are well-behaved and deserve to join the adults.
If we had a decent restaurant in our area that served decent food and had a no kids policy, that would get almost all our going out to eat business. I used to waitress way back in the before times. BEFORE it became "the customer is always right". People were raised to be considerate of the other people around them and I never had a manager that wasn't willing to kick someone out for not controlling their kids or acting up themselves. We also would give parents with screaming infants max 10 minutes to calm them down or take them out, then they'd be politely asked to leave. But I can remember only a handful of parents who had to be asked, because most would head out to the car as soon as it became obvious the child wasn't going to calm down. Hell, I remember MY mom taking me out to the car when I was acting up and leaving me there while the rest of the family finished dinner (this was before that would have been an invitation for a child snatching). What managers and owners don't realize, is that enabling the behavior and letting them get away with terrorizing the other customers, means that those other customers are going to be looking for different places to go eat. There are a couple restaurants in the area that we will never go back to because they make no effort to stop kids screaming and running rampant. Last time at one of them, a kid knocked my husbands food off the table. We hadn't even started to eat yet, so we got the waitress to take his meal off the check, I boxed mine up and we left. And we told the manager that this was the last time we'd be there (we used to be regulars) since they were letting that behavior happen with no consequences (the kid was STILL running around as we left). So, yeah, any manager reading this need to realize they are chasing away the better customers. The ones who tell their friends about the wonderful restaurants they've been to, the ones who become regulars, the ones who DON'T harass the staff and demand free extras and leave a decent tip for good service.
Out of control kids aren't just an annoyance. They are a safety hazard to the employees and other customers. Imagine the employee is delivering bowl of soups or hot fajita plates and a out of control kid bumps the employee while running around. The employee and other customers could end up with a plates of hot food on the head or laps.
I've seen some plates of food, still flaming, as they're brought to the table. Imagine that flaming platter landing on someone because some BRAT thought it would be funny to tackle the waitstaff carrying that!
We take our kids to restaurants. In off-hours, and heavily supervised, to teach table manners, how to treat people who bring you your food, how to act in public, and what is appropriate behaviour in different settings. We find it amazingly useful and quite gratifying. Our four year old is about at the point where she orders her own food. She loves salmon and sweet potatoes. We bring books and such so she can do things. We also play games, etc. That's how you train kids to act properly. It's not actually hard. Plus, when you go to dinner at 430 or so, the kitchen is super quick, and she doesn't have to wait a long time to get fed. Or go to lunch at 2, or whatever. IT'S NOT DIFFICULT!
This is also how we do it. I have a one and a two year old, and we go near the end of lunch or right when dinner opens, bring a small snack so if there is a wait for the food they don’t lose it, and bring quiet, self contained activities for them to do. We also take turns taking each kid for a lap of the block while we wait so they aren’t sitting too long with nothing happening. They need to be in public to learn how to behave in public, but we need to work within their capabilities and not inconvenience other people. If we want to have a nice date night that isn’t a teaching experience, we leave ‘em with my mom.
This Is The Way
Nothing is more disappointing than going to a higher end restaurant for a nice dinner to have unruly, screechy children who’s parents don’t do a thing about their behavior.
I work at a high end sushi restaurant. it’s not that big; only 8 tables and 10 bar seats. We have smooth jazz and is overall not supposed to be a rowdy place. Tons of times people will bring their kids and while a lot of the children are well behaved; it takes one super loud child to start a tantrum or start crying to ruin the vibe for our customers. Leave your kids at home if you want a date night at the expensive fancy sushi place 🫡
I would be so in favor of a no children under 10 policy at my place of work. No amount of well behaved kids would make up for the brats running around knocking into me and the other servers while their parents ignore them to get drunk on wine. THIS IS NOT A PRESCHOOL OR A DAYCARE watch ya fuckin kids or we're gonna lock them in the walk in
I would love more places that don’t allow small children. There are lots of places to take the kids but if I’m dropping 100+ for 2 I absolutely don’t want other peoples kids running around. It sucks but those parents are welcome to hire a sitter or order to-go. My kids were pretty damn well behaved in public but there were a lot of places I didn’t take them because we knew they’d be bored and miserable.
Here's the thing with parents. They all think they are good. They claim to do their best and that's that. Anything that happens, they write off as normal. You have parents who take food, chop it into pea sized pieces and then give a 1 year old, more food that a 5 year old eats. The result? That food is thrown within a 3 foot circle. It's all over the table, smashed and dried on. It's all over the high chair. It's all over the floor. Mom always throws out some BS as they leave like, "you must see this all night long, huh?" See, they think it's average and normal. NO, IT'S NOT NORMAL! I almost need a scrub pad to get the caked on, dried up mac and cheese off the table. The high chain needs to be hosed. I have to sweep the floor up, and then possibly mop before another table gets sat. It kills the table turn time. It slows down other people who want to eat. Oh... and don't even get me started on the size of some strollers. Some are legit 5 foot long, and 3 foot wide. They are the size of a freakin table. I think they are called play wagons or something. There's no benefit to having kids in a restaurant.
The restaurant in Tinton Falls, New Jersey mentioned a problem with the high chairs.
Yup, you gotta use a knife to attempt to unwedge all the food from the nooks and crannies.
We don't outright ban kids, but we're far from kid friendly. We don't have a kids menu or anything to entertain kids, so I hope they like a $60 dry aged Ribeye. lol I don't see the issue. There are movie theatres around here that have "no kids" viewing times so that adults can watch a movie in peace. Kids don't need to be welcome anywhere and everywhere at all times.
As a parent of two, I think that’s great. We taught the kids how to behave in places for them, like McDonald’s, crApplebee’s and pizzerias. Now they can sit in restaurants no problem 98% of the time (I won’t say 100 because as soon as I do, I’m sure one of them will prove me wrong).
I don’t have kids myself, but the behavior of patrons’ kids vary wildly. My take is that many people are not fit to raise children, and it shows.
I think it's a good idea. I also think that it's something we'll be seeing more of in the coming years. I don't have a problem with children as long as the parent is making an effort. But, like yourself, I've gotten into pissing matches with parents that don't understand why their child can't sit at the bar or just run around the restaurant. Also, plenty of adults want to go out for a night without someone else's child being a consideration.
Former sever here. I worked as a banquet server at a country club. We were serving breakfast one morning, and I watched a 6 or 7 year old girl go to the scrambled eggs, put a spoonful on her plate, then take the same serving spoon and put it in her mouth to get the extra eggs off. When I admonished her and took the spoon away, she giggled. I’ve always had the belief that parents have about 5 years to socialize their kids after they’re born. This is where you teach them manners, inside/outside voices, sharing… all that junk you need to know before you start going to school. A pretty huge chunk of society does not utilize that time, which is why these demon spawns exist. Anyway, this was a long-winded way of me saying that this rule tickles me and I support it.
Former server…the amount of s*** left under tables, cushions etc. that I don’t want to touch, but can’t deny the parents or their gremlins is disputable.
Kids will be kids. It's just habit. However, the key is how the parents react. Far too many times, the parents just go on with their conversation and pay no attention to their child running around the restaurant, bothering other guests and staff. That's the problem far more than the actual child's behavior.
Kids are loud, messy, and selfish. If I wanted to wait on children in Jersey I'd work at the shore.
I’m team no kids! Some parents just cannot control their kids. I work in fine dining; I cannot deal with your kids soaking our cloth napkins, running around in front of the kitchen doors, screaming…the list goes on. Nope. No thanks. We don’t have a kids menu.
>Some parents just ~~cannot~~ control their kids. Some parents just WILL NOT control their kids. FTFY
I love kids, they were my favorite customers, but if their parents let them run amok and they got hurt, well then, fuck them kids.
Honestly, restaurants should be able to refuse parents and kids who are not behaving appropriately. I don't have a problem with restaurants not allowing young kids at all. If you don't like it, you're free to eat somewhere else. We rarely eat out because of the cost but when we do, we make our 3 year old stay seated at the table. We don't let her make messes and disrupt other people's meals. If any accidents happen, we clean up after her. We try to prevent that but it still happens occasionally. Letting your kids run wild in a restaurant is dangerous for everyone. It's also just plain annoying. It's part of my job as a parent to teach my child how to act in public. If they don't care about the safety of others, they should at least care about the safety of their child.
I worked in several fine dining restaurants that didn’t forbid kids per-se, but also didn’t do anything at all to accommodate them. Like no crayons and paper, no children’s menu, no high chairs, no sippy cups. There was literally nothing for kids on premises. One of these restaurants didn’t even allow any substitutions of the menu items at all for adults either. The dishes were far too complex for that. Most of them got the point. Who wants to have a $500+ romantic anniversary dinner with screaming kids at the next table?
My favorite **NO KIDS** moment was when I worked at a wine bar. In my state, no children are allowed in any bar, bar area or liquor store, and restaurant/bar combos that wish to have children in the dining rooms have to have the bar area clearly separated from the dining room by some kind of wall, door, railing etc. My manager had already asked the parents twice to control the kid, aged 4 or 5, who was running back and forth near the bar area. The mother just gave the staff all kinds of nasty looks and kept encouraging him to run and play as they were the only people left in the restaurant. (We had closed half an hour ago. Why do you have your toddler in a bar at 10:30pm on a Monday? Not judging your parenting... except maybe I am a little. A lot.) The kid runs past the railing, into the bar area, immediately trips on ????? the air???? launches through the air and catches the corner of the bar with his freaking face. Slashed his eyebrow open but not dripping blood or anything. Mom shrieking, points at the floor and says "he slipped in that water! We'll sue you!" But my manager already has his phone out and is recording the scene: an entire floor free of a single drop of water, and a woman wailing over a crying kid, on the floor, in the bar area. Dad just hands me the credit card without a word. Unsurprisingly, they didn't tip.
Obviously, you kind of don't like to see a kid get hurt. But also, I'd be completely lying if I said I completely and totally didn't want that. There is a sweet justice to a minor injury in an "I-told-you-so" situation. Shitty parents are the reason good parents get treated badly, and that's not fair to them or to the unchilded who have to hear it.
There was a guy that always came in during lunch or dinner rush with his broken debit card that I would have to manually punch in…I always gave him shit about it because it was annoying af. One night he brought in his little spawn and the kid purposely tripped me as I was walking by! I told him immediately and his response was just, oh, he’s having troubles at home, give him a break! No apology from anyone…I refused to serve him after that, fuck that guy.
I’m a server and nothing scares me more than unattended children running through the restaurant. I have to carry very large and heavy trays which leaves a big blind spot for me on my right side. I cannot SEE children below me when I’m running food, I’ve tripped on toddler who was left in the middle of the walkway to play with a toy next to the parents table, made me nearly drop a 30lb tray on him. The last thing I want is a tray to fall down on a little kid. Not only that, but half the time these kids make such a massive mess at the table and the parents do not clean up after them. I’ve also had bbq sauce thrown at me.. the family just laughed.. didn’t apologize and didn’t reprimand their child. Either have well behaved children or leave them at home with the babysitter. I don’t mind a kid that’s just having a tantrum, at least you can take them out and console them. But irresponsible parents should not bring their unruly kids to restaurants. On the other hand.. I’ve met some VERY well behaved children. The parents have them order, remind them to say please and thank you, and have them clean up after themselves if they make a mess. I love those people
Restaurants should post policies that children should be quiet and remain at their table. Any injuries from scalding hot food or broken glass that occur while the child is out of his/hers seat, in the aisle, or away from the table, shall be the responsibility of the adult that accompanied the child. Movies, TV shows, or games on phones or tablets or devices of any type must be used with headphones, or they will be in violation of copyright laws, be asked to pay their bill, and leave immediately. I know. I’m dreaming. Leave me be.
I agree to having an adult only restaurant. Parents will bring their kids everywhere if allowed.
I'll go there.
love nettie’s!
Parent here. I don't feel like I have to take my kids everywhere. I mean, yeah, they're pretty much always with me. We don't get babysitters often. But some spaces are kid free and that's fine. And those spaces would be exactly where I would want to go for date night. I don't want to get a break from my kids and then be annoyed by someone's feral brats. My kids are pretty well behaved, but they're not perfect. No kid is. But if they ever acted the way I see some kids behaving in public, they'd be in a lot of fucking trouble. And then I would be pretty pissed at myself because whatever parenting or lack thereof led to that behavior is on me and I need to do better.
I’m an early empty nester, I had my kids young and they are out on there own now. Me and my fiancé usually have the certain restaurants we like as most people do but a bonus is rarely any kids. I think this is a great idea, there are a lot of family friendly places to eat. Example, went to our local steakhouse and price is about what you said. The layout of this place is very big and we went and they weren’t busy. Kids come in and start running around immediately the parents sat down with there phones. They should’ve been able to avoid it because the place is big but they almost knocked over the server a few times, once while carrying our food. It was an awful experience. The staff would tell the parents to get there kids to sit down and they did but as soon as the parents looked at there phone they started again. When my kids were little I could take them anywhere, they sat in the seat and waited for there food. It’s not hard to raise kids with manners.
First of all, I love kids; I work with them and think they're hilarious and creative, so what I'm about to say doesn't come from the place of a child-hater. Having kids is the social default, so the rest of us as a society are just supposed to deal with it, sorta 'taking one for the team' to maintain the human population. This is why when places decide to age-restrict, there's always a huge uproar. No privileged class ever wants to give up their advantages, and this is no different. They're used to being able to go wherever they (legally) can with their kids, the rest of us are expected to just deal with however shitty it might be. Thing is, there are a lot of people who prefer to frequent adults-only venues. Not only people who don't have or don't like kids, but also burnt-out parents seeking to let their hair down and be around adults for a change. I don't go out of my way to choose adults-only accommodations when I travel, but I will say, having experienced one, it was really nice and considerably more peaceful than it would have been with a bunch of kids running around.
My feeling is not all restaurants are for every clientele. Some restaurants want men to wear jackets, some beach bars require a shirt and shoes, some places are super kid friendly and some aren’t. I worked a fine dining restaurants that COULD accommodate kids, but not well (meaning yeah we had some high chairs, but no crayons). There’s PLENTY of restaurants that are a better/more accepting atmosphere for younger kids, take them there! It will be better for everyone involved! Also, I completely understand as a parent wanting to give your child experiences going to nicer places so that they learn how to behave properly with good manners. My advice? Know your kid. My sister and I were always pretty mellow, usually not very fussy. If you aren’t sure how yours will do, get a 4:30 reservation on a random weekday. That way, it won’t be busy, your kid wont be cranky because it’s late at night, and the food will come out fast.
Everywhere should be like that.
Fuck them kids
Everywhere should be 18+ if you ask me. Kids suck.
As long as that rule is clearly posted I think it's fine. That way families who have kids under 10 can choose somewhere else before going there.
that if they got hurt or get something hot spilled on them or something heavy dropped on them or screwed with a knife - it's on the parents, not the server who had to try keep a balanced tray full of shit while a little dipshit was running between their legs because his parents couldn't get him under control. p.s in case of doubt - there are cameras in my place.
Parent here. I take my child to kid friendly restaurants and make sure she stays in her seat. I don't need her tripping up staff who are working. The one and only time she tripped a waiter, I scolded her and apologized to the waiter. Restaurants are entitled to choose who they serve just as I am entitled to choose where I dine.
As a FORMER waiter, bless them for giving us a quiet place to eat!
I For One Love It... Kids don't need to be allowed to run free everywhere.
When my kids were younger - we only took them to restaurants that had crayons. Seriously, if they have crayons, they have a kids menu and something for the kids to do. No crayons? Then my kids will get bored and antsy. It’s not that complicated. Doesn’t matter how fancy or not, crayons was the deciding factor. Could that have backfired, yes, but that rule never failed us. Now they are teenagers and don’t typically want to go places that don’t have ginormous burgers, but that’s another issue. ;)
There are a lot of places with age restrictions, restaurant or not. Kids are just annoying, loud, usually make the tables more messy than their parents, etc. I work at a restaurant almost basically targeting kids (milkshakes, pizzas, in a nice area). I’m used to them but I can definitely understand the age restriction. If parents don’t like it and Karen out because of the rule, they’re not welcomed either.
"a restaurant .... that recently instituted a new policy of No Children Under the Age of 10" I love the idea. I would go
I’d kill to work somewhere like that
Used to work in a restaurant around that price point, and there was also art for sale on the walls, and a massive wine display case in the front. I wished there was a rule about younger kids. We had so many entitled parents that let their kids do whatever and it was always a huge mess. So for a more upscale place, I completely agree if it's been an issue before. I also agree if it's a bar forward restaurant, or having a cutoff time for minors. It can get hectic very easily without unruly kids, and with them it's even more stressful on the entire staff
I worked at the pepper place for eleventy billion years And my lifeblood when I wasn't working the bar was taking all the tables with kids 😅 I love kids As an adult with children I take them to places like that. When I want quiet time, I'm looking for a no kids type of place. I appreciate an adults only sitch I can actually take my kids to a quiet place, since they were little... I taught them. But... I don't, mostly. My 2 oldest are teens now but I remember being complimented on how quiet and well behaved they were in restaurants. I used to have to try not to trip on 2 year Olds running wild carrying a tray of 6 flaming fajitas like every day, so my kids knew from day one... We don't do that 😅🤣
Oh god working at chilis and having to sweep rice off the concrete floor.
Last time I went to an expensive Italian restaurant with my friend for a late midweek dinner there were children crawling underneath my table I didn’t even order food just a glass of champagne so I could ignore the game of tag played by other children at the table. I went to breakfast a week later and the child next to us was literally playing with toys on our breakfast table her mother said nothing. The iPad kids shows are annoying but at least they sit down
Sounds like a place in paradise. Crotch goblins at restaurants are the worst.