Responsible Parenting
A few years ago I read an article in the paper about a fine dining restaurant that had banned small children from their premises. At the time I thought it was a bit harsh. However, with the benefit of experience, I now agree entirely with their position.
This past weekend I went out for dinner to a fine restaurant. I was wearing a suit both as sign of respect to the birthday girl (my mother in law), and as a nod to the establishment. We took my son who is about 21 months old. After a short while he was restless and bored and let us know by his ear splitting crying. At this point I made the executive decision to take him for a walk. Several doors down there was a book shop that opened late. In the children’s section they had a Thomas the Tank engine train set.
For the next hour and a half I sat on a small child’s stool, in the children’s section, in my suit, reading a book about amazing facts on the brain, whilst my son merrily played on the train set. The only reprieve I had was to duck back to the restaurant to wolf down my meal. In order to facilitate my meal eating I brought my son back to the restaurant where the little bugger cried the whole time.
Now, the conundrum is this. You don’t want to give in to every cry a child makes because you end up spoiling them and never teaching them about limits blah blah blah. However, to stay at the table whilst he made a hell of a racket would have been bloody rude to the other guests, who, it is fair to assume, have come to a fine dining restaurant with the expectation of a pleasant environment, great service and a wonderful meal. A loud crying baby is not conducive to this experience. The solution of course is to not take small children to such establishments in the first place.
I made the decision to be respectful of the other diners. If it was someone else’s child I would be wanting to choke the living shit out of both the parents and the child. So, if you have small children, then for fucks sake, don’t take them to nice restaurants. You could well be ruining someone’s night you selfish bastards. You have children, you are relegated to McDonalds. Suck it up.
This past weekend I went out for dinner to a fine restaurant. I was wearing a suit both as sign of respect to the birthday girl (my mother in law), and as a nod to the establishment. We took my son who is about 21 months old. After a short while he was restless and bored and let us know by his ear splitting crying. At this point I made the executive decision to take him for a walk. Several doors down there was a book shop that opened late. In the children’s section they had a Thomas the Tank engine train set.
For the next hour and a half I sat on a small child’s stool, in the children’s section, in my suit, reading a book about amazing facts on the brain, whilst my son merrily played on the train set. The only reprieve I had was to duck back to the restaurant to wolf down my meal. In order to facilitate my meal eating I brought my son back to the restaurant where the little bugger cried the whole time.
Now, the conundrum is this. You don’t want to give in to every cry a child makes because you end up spoiling them and never teaching them about limits blah blah blah. However, to stay at the table whilst he made a hell of a racket would have been bloody rude to the other guests, who, it is fair to assume, have come to a fine dining restaurant with the expectation of a pleasant environment, great service and a wonderful meal. A loud crying baby is not conducive to this experience. The solution of course is to not take small children to such establishments in the first place.
I made the decision to be respectful of the other diners. If it was someone else’s child I would be wanting to choke the living shit out of both the parents and the child. So, if you have small children, then for fucks sake, don’t take them to nice restaurants. You could well be ruining someone’s night you selfish bastards. You have children, you are relegated to McDonalds. Suck it up.
posted by Unknown at 11:45 PM
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