Chicago cafe owner takes a stand against boisterous children!

[smacksim]

Originally posted by aneeshm
I don't get the outrage over this . If somebody thinks that a bawling child will do the ambience of his establishment harm , what is wrong in his asking parents to make sure that their child does not spoil the ambience ?

Probably that most of us know a few people that would fit the description of the entitled parents. Nothing more overly sensitive than a new parent, and when you combine that with stupid ideas of entitlement or just simply mistaking a private business for an annex to the yuppie fiefdom, well, you get trouble.

The 'outrage' by the parents is so familiar: "How dare you tell me what to do with my kid! We have every right to be here!.......this business serves the public doesn't it? I can't believe this guy hates children so much......" blah blah blah. But the thing of it is, these parents are like a lobby. If they decide to boycott places that don't cater to their "I don't want to see a sign about my kid behaving.....what do you think I am, a dumb insensitive.....oh......well anyways, these places that are so anti-child are just evil", a boycott will hurt business. But the lemming factor has always been a problem in the service industry.....its just that this would be a particularly idiotic way to de-chic a neighborhood.......

[MOBIUS]

Re: Ah, a subject near and dear to my heart.

Totally agree with the last four posters on this.

Originally posted by Six Thousand Year Old Man
Yes, parenting is a tough job, no question. It's also a choice. You'd have to be exceptionally naive to think that having a child won't affect what you can do, where you can go, and how others view you. And I'm truly sorry, but I don't believe that your having a child entitles you and your child to an exemption from the standards and responsibilities that the rest of us have to maintain.

Sums it up perfectly!

The whole point is that the business isn't even banning kids - he just wants them to behave. Is that too much to ask parents of young kids these days?

The guy is now a pariah among some sections of the community just for asking for reasonable behaviour at his business and place of work.

Perhaps it is the parents themselves that should be looking closer to home because it is their failure to control their kids that causes all this bad blood in the first place and I guess they just don't want to admit they're bad parents, hence this hypocritical backlash...

[molly bloom]

Re: Re: Ah, a subject near and dear to my heart.

Originally posted by MOBIUS


The whole point is that the business isn't even banning kids - he just wants them to behave. Is that too much to ask parents of young kids these days?

I don't think so- I can remember being pleasantly surprised when some people in a cafe commented on how well-behaved our niece and nephews were (we'd taken them out for the day to an adventure park).


Then I thought- isn't it sad that respectful behaviour is notable enough to warrant commenting on ?


Children who learn respect, give respect. They also learn that eating out for free in restaurants can be an enjoyable experience.

Spoilt brats misbehave and ruin an otherwise pleasant environment.

[Flubber]

Re: Re: Re: Ah, a subject near and dear to my heart.

Originally posted by molly bloom



I don't think so- I can remember being pleasantly surprised when some people in a cafe commented on how well-behaved our niece and nephews were (we'd taken them out for the day to an adventure park).


Then I thought- isn't it sad that respectful behaviour is notable enough to warrant commenting on ?

Its nice when you can hear positive as well as negative as a parent but I agree that there SHOULDN'T be anything particularly exceptional about a child being well behaved

Originally posted by molly bloom


Spoilt brats misbehave and ruin an otherwise pleasant environment.

Agreed in all respects

[MOBIUS]

Actually the best behaved kids I have ever met were those of a poster on this very site...

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Agreed that well behaved children are not a problem. And the expectations have to be reasonable on both sides. If you're at a Pizza Hut, you can pretty much expect there to be kids there, and for them to possibly be noisy (there are limits here).

If you're at Tundra or Centro or some other nice restaurant, I don't think it's unreasonable at all to expect there to be no children there at all, no matter how well behaved.

[Az]

I'll summarize it with some thumbs up/thumbs down for me:

People having kids
People not teaching their kids to behave in a civil manner

[Lorizael]

I haven't read this entire thread, but I've seen a lot of "You don't know what it's like to have kids!" statements.

My father (hint hint, that means he has children) absolutely loves children, and he'll play little games with kids he sees in public.

My dad hates parents that do not control the behavior of their children in public. When kids do things they shouldn't be doing, like running around and throwing things, my dad will stop them, whether they're his children or not. When they get too loud (which sometimes happens when he's playing with them) he'll give them a stern look that usually makes them quiet.

So. People that have children, that have had children for twenty eight years and have accumulated a vast degree of experience in the matter, can still believe that parents need to responsibly look after them.