Posted on 11/14/2005 5:51:48 AM PST by Cagey
Parent Says Restaurant Offers Kid Food, So It Should Cater To Kids
"We were surprised at how many times we would see children really out of control," McCauley said. "And we actually had people leaving the bakery because the children were so out of control."
So, he put a sign on the door at kids' eye-level, asking children of all ages to use their "indoor voices."
"We thought it was just a friendly reminder to people that when they come here, just be considerate of the people around them. We had no idea the kind of controversy that was going to explode out of this," McCauley said.
But some parents who spoke with NBC5's Natalie Martinez took immediate offense to the sign. The angry mothers said there are plenty of places in the Andersonville neighborhood where they can take their kids, even if they're acting out.
"I've e-mailed friends and said, 'Just so you know, this man has a sign up. I know there are lots of other options, and I'd encourage you not to go there,'" parent Kate Bremmer said.
When she spoke with Martinez, Bremmer and her kids were picking out goodies at a Swedish bakery, where all kids are welcome.
"Our custom has been to offer a cookie to every child that comes into the store for as long as I can remember," said Kathy Stanton-Cromwell, the co-owner of the bakery, which is just a few doors down from A Taste of Heaven.
Stanton-Cromwell said the cookie serves as "a good calmer" for kids who are acting up.
Bremmer said A Taste of Heaven "is not a five-star restaurant," so she thinks it should cater to kids, not the other way around.
"They offer ice cream cones and cookies and lots things that kids love, and therefore, I don't think that they should make such an issue of it," Bremmer said.
Other parents enjoying lunch with their kids at A Taste of Heaven were more diplomatic.
"I have mixed feelings about it. It's a little off-putting," one mother said.
Linda Wallace, also a mother who eats at A Taste of Heaven, said she thought McCauley was "sort of brave" for putting up the sign.
"It did cross my mind that he might offend some people," she said.
McCauley said he loves kids, although he has none of his own. He said he has no immediate plans to take the sign down.
I think we have to define a kid being a kid. Some people clearly think running around and screaming at the top of your lungs is a kid being a kid.
susie
I've had kids who were brats with their parents that wouldn't dare act that way with me. It is simply a matter of having certain expectations and enforcing them and establishing clear and consistent consequences for failing to work within those boundaries.
The problem is parents who have no control of themselves, so how can they have control over their kids?
So you approve of cowardly assaults? Something about striking someone unawares give you the giggles or what?
No, that wasn't a cowardly assault. He was facing a guy who'd just been spat upon by his Little Prince. Anyone with any amount of sense would have apologized before he was asked to put the boy down.
That's the cowardly assault...and hiding behind a child, no less. Society has been harmed since someone decided stupid, anti-social behavior shouldn't be painful.
He did the guy a favor.
Then you'd love my daughter. Has been using "please, thank you, yes sir, no ma'am", etc since she was old enough to talk.
My wife and I are fiercely adamant about manners and proper behavior (especially in public), we've been instilling it into her since she was old enough to bear the concepts.
It's something that's severely lacking in today's youth.
Let's define "restaurants" for a moment here. Before kids my wife and I would dine out at nice, fancy-ish restaurants. Now we go to Red Lobster, Outback, etc. Family restaurants, they have high-chairs and they're are noisy places.
If you want a nice quiet dinner and you go to one of these places, then you went to the wrong place.
Apparently the bakery in the article wants parents to bring their children in but only if they use their "indoor voices".
More rationalizations of criminal behavior. Simply disgusting. And my wife doesn't understand why I'm simply anal about carrying a gun 24/7...sigh. I'll give you a clue though, in Texas, I can legally stop a physical assault against another person with deadly force.
Whatever...you're free of course to respond to something like that or not, however you please. As I said, if I were on the jury I'd vote to acquit.
>>She came through yelling, "I'm gonna beat the hell out of every damn one of you!". Then she looked up to see Father Glenn standing in the doorway. She said she wasn't even chagrined to see him, she just shook the switch in his face and said, "You're just the man we need right now!". He just laughed and said "You remind me of MY mother!"<<
HAHAHAHA - oh wow, that is funny!
It's sad that today, in many areas (especially blue-counties) CPS would have been called and the kids would have been taken away.
Hmmmmmm
Sounds like the dojo is a dud. Where my boys go, courtesy and respect are emphasized as much as the physical work. The older boys are taught to look out for the smaller ones as well.
Well perhaps; I've had virtually no experience fighting (except with siblings), so I'm not going to argue. I'll say the guy deserved a punch (of some sort), or, better yet if possible, a public humiliation over how bad a parent and member of society he is.
I know kids that were raised by very good parents, yet they turned out to be scum. I've also seen kids in horrible families turn out great despite their parents screw ups.
Think anything you like but people have minds of their own. Kids don't always grow up to be fine upstanding adults just because parents were doing a good job raising them
Yes, and so? It's nice to be at a casual place with well behaved kids. It's really unpleasant to be anywhere with unruly, rude, etc kids. That's why I avoid McDonalds like the plague. I don't consider Outback or Red Lobster places to let your child run wild either. BTW my kids were required to sit in their seats and talk in a normal tone of voice even in Micky Ds. I guess I was a mean and terrible mother. But I would not have had a single worry about taking them into this bakery (and now, they would probably even buy MY coffee and muffin for me!)
susie
My wife is a teacher and gets flack from parents who think their child is Gifted/Talented or Accelerated.
Yet the child is not doing their homework, not bringing in completed assignments and basically failing. The parents claim that her curriculum is too hard. So they scream and cry to the administration. Come to find out that all of this comes about because the parent DOES NOT HAVE ANYMORE PERSONAL TIME because they are havingto help their child because they are slacking.
So, they are trying to blame my wife for piling in all the work. The parent is also still enabling their child with the notion that because their father died over 5 years ago, it is still alright to 'play that card' when situations don't go their way at school. They try and play on the sympathies of the other teachers administrators.
After 41 years on earth and 10 years of parenting, I've developed a parenting philosophy. It goes something like this:
There are many traits in children where parents have a definite effect - "good", "smart", "talented", "clean", "athletic", etc . There are only 24 hours in a day, and parents cannot stress each of these equally. Early on, they must choose which trait(s) they are going to stress, while not neccessarily neglecting the others. Almost always, whatever is stressed by parents usually "takes". Most parents I know decide to stress "smart". They buy Baby Einstein, they put their kids in advanced preschools, etc. Some dads stress "athletic", and Music Moms stress "talented". We decided even before our kids came home off the plane from Korea, we would stress "good" - particularly manners and morality.
Let me tell you: Smart is easy. Good is hard.
We've always joked that our kids may grow up to be serial killers, but by golly they're going to be POLITE serial killers. :)
Our primary job is to help our kids grow up to be "good" adults. We do what we can in the other areas, but we let the chips fall where they may. I would love nothing better than for my daughter to be a musician (like me), or my son to be a star football player (he's built like a linebacker). Barring that, maybe a lawyer, doctor, scientist, engineer, etc. BUT, my wife and I made a deal that our philosophy would be that if our children turned out to be good, moral, polite people, it doesn't matter if they work at WalMart or stay at low level jobs their entire lives. The same goes for their choices in spouses. Boy, that one's going to be hard.
But we have, from a very early age, stressed morality and manners. Our boy is overweight and his room is a pig sty. Our girl has no interest in anything besides school. They fuss and fight all the time. It's a battle to get either one to do chores. Needless to say, in the eyes of some, this makes us bad parents.
But they are well behaved, and have solid moral compasses. They call adults "m'am" and "sir", they say please and thank you, they're learning Christian ethics. That's all we want. Anything else is gravy.
Heh, heh...that was funny. Glad you didn't last long in that "buddie" "girlfriend" mentality of a lot of parents. Good for you. Keep up the good work.
They HAVE friends. Friends tell them what they WANT TO HEAR. Whaat they need are PARENTS. Old fashioned moms and dads who say NO and mean it and tell you what you need to know even though it may NOT BE WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR.
Not "off-putting." Anything but that!
There was a time when MOST kids behaved reasonably well in public. This tells me it's not only not impossible, it's quite doable.
There was a time we could say the same thing for mostly everyone.
A voice of sanity. Thank you.
BTW, I agree with the restaurant owner. Parents should not take out of control children out for other people to ENDURE. When I get an occasional 'date' WITHOUT the kids, I don't want to hear other people's whiney loud obnoxious brats!
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