That being said, I disagree with the writer that this is always a left-right issue. I know plenty of liberals who have very well behaved children.
I see kids acting-out in public in ways we’d have been lambasted for.
Absolutely true. Many parents let their brats walk all over them. One result: teachers assaulted in schools.
I also love the idiot “parents” who pull a brand new bike off the rack at Walmart for their little brat to ride around at the store then leave at the cash register.
You see the young kids running around with no concept of proper behavior?
Those kids are that way because their parents do not know how to parent.
Guess what?
Those young kids running around with no concept of proper behavior are going to be reproducing and raising their own children in about 20 years or so.
What do you think THAT generation will be like?
Not sure why they are attracting so many unruly children to their establishment. Location, lots of terrible parents live in the area, price to cheap, decor not fancy enough, chicken nuggets on the menu? Who knows.
There was a time when all schoolchildren took a subject called “Etiquette” and were graded on it.
Yes, even in public schools.
Little Barbarians must be taught the rules of civilized society.
This restaurant is also not open on Valentine’s Day this year. I think this is a huge mistake.
Our kids loved to eat out, but they learned to do so at church first when we used to have Wed Family night dinners before Wed prayer meeting and youth activities.
They were a huge help in making Wed evenings easier for adults with kids and the kids loved it. But they also loved to eat out and KNEW, with no doubt, that if they ever acted up in a restaurant, that would be the end of eating out. Period.
the tales
the poems
The Gods of the
Copybook Headings
As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is Death.”
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
I use to advise poor parents to subscribe to a daily newspaper and let their child at least see them reading the sports page every day as though reading meant something, and also to try and take their children to a simple restaurant once a month to familiarize them and teach them (casually) formal behavior in public and while dining.
Whoever runs Nettie’s is wise.
“Both young and old are quite out of hand and unmanageable; they have no sense of respect or honor; they will do nothing unless driven to it be force; they slander and put down one another behind each other’s back as much as they can. God therefore punishes so that they get into all sorts of trouble and misery. Usually the parents can do nothing about this, for it was simply a case of one fool raising another, and as the parents had lived, so live their children after them.” - Martin Luther, The Large Catechism, Fourth Commandment. 1529.
A Mother or Father can do this. The problem nowadays is people believed that crap about "It takes a village to raise a child" so parents no longer do their job because they think others will, but they won't and they don't.
Chilun!
The one thing I do have in common with my liberal friends is the standard of child rearing. Maybe it is a generational bond.
bkmk
This is nothing new. It’s the parents. 50 years ago I was a busboy. Some people brought a tot with them. I setup the highchair and all. The parents gave the kid saltine crackers to keep him busy. You can guess what happened. The kid pulverized the crackers and the wreckage got all over the floor. The manager wouldn’t let me use a vacuum as it would disturb the customers so I had to use a carpet sweeper. That just ground the crumbs deeper into the carpet. Gosh was I mad.
I took my kids out to nice restaurants starting when they were 5 and 3. They had been to chain restaurants many times growing up. The simple rule was if I didn’t get to enjoy my dinner then the pain level would increase when we got home. Interesting, I probably just got lucky, the kids loved eating out in nice restaurants. Table cloths, people dressed up, weight staff that did great jobs.
Ultimately it became an issue. They would get free deserts and people would talk to them like people … buy the way never talk baby talk to kids. Their brains work better than ours. The kids could have conversations, order their dinner, even knew what utensils to use (Mostly). Somehow they ended up learning to behave real well, act like adult little people and free deserts kept coming. As the grew up, the deserts stopped because it was expected they could behave
‘Anyway it was always fun to me to walk into a nice restaurant, see the look of terror in people’s eyes (our nights ruined) then then coming over to say something nice because they expected the worse and saw kids act right. Older people love that. Made me proud. I did have to smack a few butts in private on occasion but after one or two they knew the rules.
Parents and the kids can’t behave good enough for fast food these days.