Dining Sans Whining

Nothing ruins a dinner out more than a crying baby.  Some babies are quiet by nature, and some kids are quiet and respectful because they were taught that by their parents.  Unfortunately, the growing trend is for parents to sit idly by as their children carry on like banshees.

Just  this week I was enjoying dinner out with family and friends when another family with various children and two children under two years old took over.  The (for lack of better term) mother had her back turned from the one child, whose only response was to cry incessantly.  What was worse was that none of the other ten people at their table looked concerned for the baby's well-being, tried to console the baby, or even looked ashamed at the spectacle they had become by disrupting everyone else!

It was a pizza buffet restaurant and on a fairly related note, I watched as a young guy behind the line helped separate a piece of pizza for a five or six year old from another party.  He was being helpful and kind and what did that entitled brat do to thank the man?  Nothing.  He just walked away to fill his face.

What's becoming of our culture?  Kids think everyone lives to serve them and parents think it's okay to disrupt the lives of everyone in a restaurant.

"Well, I have to put up with that screeching every day at home.  Why shouldn't you too?" 

It's sad but I really can picture that woman saying that to me had I said something to her.

But!  There's hope!

A restaurant in Pennsylvania (you know, those folks who cling to God and guns and antipathy toward people who don't look or sound like them) has issued a ban on children under six from entering the establishment.

If Vegas can do it, why not the rest of the country?  In an email to customers they said:

"We feel that McDain's is not a place for young children. Their volume can't be controlled and many, many times, they have disturbed other customers."
The owner of the "upscale, casual and quiet" restaurant explains to WTAE Local News, he's got nothing against kids in general, but their endless screams at public dinner tables are "the height of being impolite and selfish."

I find it appalling that we've come to the point where banning kids from restaurants is necessary to ensure a positive experience for the rest of the customers.  There's really no alternative to help in the short-term, though.  If in the long-term, parents start parenting again: punishing, providing time outs, teaching respect through their own example and other important lessons perhaps bans such as these will be temporary.  But when the parents need an education in the proper decorum, it certainly does not bode well for their offspring (or the rest the country that they are subjecting their families to).

One thing's for sure...now I know why Germans prefer to take their dogs out to dinner and leave their kids at home.