We didn't eat out much when I was a child, because it was expensive, and my parents preferred to save money. So when we did, it was a special time. My brothers and I instinctively knew, if we acted like fools, there would be hell to pay when we got home - for embarrassing Mom and Dad, and ruining their night out. We kids also knew we wouldn't go out a second time either
So even young children can understand when its time not to be loud and rowdy, and when its time to behave - if the parents make it clear.
When we were kids, eating out was getting a quarter on the weekend to go to the local theater. It cost us 15 cents to get in, and 10 cents for a box of popcorn. We never ate out. We didn't have the money, and we didn't have a car to get us there, even if we had wanted to. When I got to high school in 1960, my mother gave me a $1.00 a day for lunch. We'd leave the school, and run down the street a few blocks to the sweet shoppe. I'd order a tuna sub which cost 50 cents, a coke, and a bag of chips. I usually had 10 cents left to put in the juke box. I think my first real experience of eating out at a restaurant was after I got my first full-time job in 1965. We had an hour for lunch, and one of the girls who had a car would take us to one of the area restaurants to eat.
True. Now that I think of it we weren’t rowdy at all when out at (rarely) at restaurants like Ponderosa. Just wasn’t done... but it was a long time ago.