FREERIDER Ping
My parents decided to stop going out to eat when my younger brother was born. This lasted for a few years. At least they had the sense to know other people would be annoyed with his antics.
Parents today let their kids run wild.
Too many people are trying to be their kids' friends and not parents. It was bad as I was raising mine (and the source of many a confrontation with my kids on why I was not like those other parents); I bet it is only getting worse.
Let’s also spend the country into bankruptcy to pay for our Medicare and Social Security. That will fix the little *&%$#@s!
If we want to go to a beach resort, my wife and I go to either Sandals' or Couples' resorts, which do not allow children. Another we frequent is the Hilton in Key Largo, which has an adult only pool. I not only want peace and quiet but don't want to worry about what is in the pool water.
I live in a odd area of the world because I rarely see a out-of-control kids. There was a little tike running around last Saturday between the tables at the ice cream shop. He made a half a round before dad caught him up and said in a low but firm voice, "ok, that's enough bud. We don't do that here."
Kid went and sat down and ate his ice cream.
Those kinds of kids I have no problem with.
I think if I ran into some of the horror stories other people do I would have a different opinion.
Thank you, Dr. Spock, and the Montessori Method! Both of them helped set child-rearing back to neanderthal days. Kids are not “Buddies”, nor are parents “Friends”, and the lawyers who push those attributes for their clients are the enemy!
Good!
Nowadays most of my socializing is among the Viet Emigré community and with them there is not a social event that does not include the whole family. The kids are well behaved and events are in places with space for the little ones to run and tussle. When it is time for dinner all are in their places and suitably well behaved.If we go to a restaurant there is no play but the kids manage to be appropriate.
My own are grown and gone and I do not resent the presence of other folks' children.
It is no problem for me that establishments make rules that exclude children, or any other groups or individuals. That is the free market which we have been truncating pretty severely for a long time now. Those places are not my personal favorites, though.
My husband and I brought our kids on many plane trips, to restaurants, theaters, etc...during their younger days (they are teenagers now).
Exposing them is the only way to teach them. But we had a very strict policy that if they began to act up we would immediately leave. We never had to but they knew we would.
My longest marathon trip was a solo AMC journey from Norfolk to the Middle East with multiple stops along the way—approximately 32 total hours traveling with layovers during which we had to get off the plane so they could fuel and resupply.
Our only nightmarish trip was one in which my 1 y/o son was ill with an ear infection and I was pregnant and suffering from morning/air sickness and actually using the barf bag and as many extras as I could find. Luckily we were at the very rear of the plane and my son’s crying (and my retching) was drowned out by engine noise. My husband won the “husband/father of the year” crown on that trip, for sure!
That said, I completely understand and respect “child free zones”, particularly as I’ve witnessed far too many “my children can do no wrong” indulgent/blind parents who don’t even pay attention to their hellion. Heck I’ve dealt with that type enough at school events and playgroups!!
when I was a kid (60’s and 70’s) the only places we ever went with our parents was a pizza place or a burger joint. If my parents went out, which was a rarity, they got a neighbor to watch us.
Now, going out to eat is not as special and rare and it’s the exception when we go out to see no kids around us and we go to nice restaurants as well as family style.
Given that my kids tend to have their episodes at the most inopportune times, I can totally understand a restaurant testing a “no child” business model and seeing if it works for them. Like the no-smoking restaurants before there was a mandated no smoking policy, we would seek out places that were no-smoking and my parents would seek out places that allowed smoking.
Let the market decide if this works.
I don’t mind well-behaved children in restaurants either.
I don’t think it is so much that people don’t like the idea of children in restaurants as it is that people don’t like bad disruptive behavior in restaurants on the part of children whose parents think their brats can do no wrong.
I have been in restaurants where children have been allowed to behave like little animals running wild and trashing the table and their immediate surroundings so that it took one waitress a half-hour just to clean up the mess.
This is the fault of both inconsiderate, over-indulgent parents AND gutless business owners.
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A considerate person wouldn’t bring their children to restaurants if they are disturbing other diners. And when it comes to inconsiderate parents, business owners should, out of consideration for their other customers, have the wuevos to confront (and if necessary) expel rude parents and their kids.
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Punishing the good with the bad to avoid confronting the bad is how limp-wristed nannies and liberals deal with a problem.
FREERIDER Ping
Baby Boomers are reaching retirement age en-masse. This is the most selfish generation the USA has seen (my generation). Everything has always been about them. Now that they are empty-nesters and leisure retirees, it is all about them once again. Sure, they are joined by another selfish generation - the Gen-X Dinks, but really this is an issue of the Baby Boomers.
Selfish to the core. It is always ALWAYS only about them. Give me. Mine. Me, me, me, me, me.
Selfish pukes.
Fear = peace
In a couple of decades we’ll be wondering while the birth rate is way down.
I have children and have no problem with this. Free Enterprise allows for a private business to set their own rules. Many bitched about non-smoking places but I loved it because I don’t like cigarette smoke. There will be people who bitch about this but they can take their screaming kids to someplace that welcomes them.
I have a relative who, when she got married, requested that parents not bring children to the ceremony (this included close relatives), so as to avoid the possibility of any sort of disruption of the “perfect” wedding.
The wedding was a lavish but sad and shallow affair. The marriage failed in an ugly crack-up after 2 years.