Posted on 08/15/2006 6:24:16 AM PDT by steve-b
For Cindy Nooney's 3-year-old twin boys, playing with the Thomas the Train set at their local bookstore in Southern California is a major thrill. Jack and Sam push Thomas, Arthur and friends down the track, they run around the table, jump up and down — and, of course, they squeeeaal.
Nooney expects as much in the children's section of the store. But on a recent afternoon, she was surprised by an employee who confronted her, calling her darling Jack a tyrant.
"He was a little loud but this is a children's section," says Nooney. "They run a noisy, cavernous bookstore but they don’t want kids to make any noise? It just seems ridiculous and leads me to believe that they don't want kids, they want silent kids."
The bookstore is not the only place that likes quiet, controlled children — and isn't afraid to say so. Across the nation, there are signs of a low-burning uprising against children supposedly behaving badly in public.
Eateries from California to Massachusetts have posted signs on doors and menus saying "We love children, especially when they are tucked in chairs and well behaved" or "Kids must use indoor voices." In North Carolina an online petition was started last year to establish child-free restaurants — the petition loosely compared dining with children to dining with cigarette smoke....
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Xena, this one went on for days...and it was HILARIOUS. Well, and somewhat acrimonious.
FREERIDERS FOREVER!
Sweet story! Good for you.
Why thank you! My DILs love me. I babysit for free (3-4 days a week) listen when needed, DON'T TAKE SIDES, potty train and train to sleep in a "big boy" bed, provide their kids with their very own room, homeschool the little darlings, teach their sons to be gentlemen, and love them all dearly, no matter what they do. Oh, my sons love me too.
Thanks for reminding me!
That is so funny. I love it that it is a condom commercial. I actually have seen kids close to this acting that way. My three would be in deep kimchi if they acted that way. My wife and I don't put up with that. In restaurants they behave extremely well or we leave. That is it. We began doing this at a very young age and has been effective. They know that if we are at Chucky cheese and they don't come to the table when we say then we leave and they don't get any more tokens or pizza etc. It really has worked quite well. Even better is getting them to eat a meal. They get ice cream at the end, but if they don't eat it we leave. It works!!! I don't know why parents don't use this. I guess they are more interested in eatting than the kids. I have no problem with going home and grabbing a sandwich if it teaches the kids to behave the next time we go. Try it about three times and you will have angels. We had to walk out of a McDonald's...that taught them big time. lol.
And those who left their own brats with a babysitter so that they could enjoy a quiet, romantic meal on their anniversary.
Recently, I have been to two rather swank restaurants. Both times, my friends and I had dining experiences that were disturbed by kids who were quite loud.
Only the loud and obnoxious kids were not 2 and 3 years old.
Rather, they were in their 20's.
These "kids" -- for they were certainly as loud as any 2 or 3 year olds -- were simply unable to understand that they were not alone in the restaurant. Like 2 or 3 year lods, they simply made noise.
That humbling is the first step in realizing that bringing up kids is not about me in the short term, but about raising good and decent contributing members of society in the long run.
For me, it's a very vivid reminder of just how weak and flawed I am, but how much time and effort was invested into getting me even to this point!
Thank you. This is becoming a very child-hostile culture.
On a business trip by air a child knocked over a glass of wine into my briefcase. It was an accident. The stews were all over it, cleaning up and apologizing. Because I didn't act like a jerk, they even gave me a free bottle of wine out of first class! Even turned out that because I had packed my case so tight, none of the papers was damaged. Kids have accidents and spills, which they learn from.
Why do you use that picture of Hillary. She looks pretty dang good there. I don't understand. I thought we didn't like Hillary. Why make her look good? I don't get it.
I'm guessing she's not figured out why never gets asked for a second date.
The bruises have to be there 48 hours later to be charged. That is what I heard on Law and Order. lol.
We realize that, but if the kid had been screaming and throwing fits and running around when he knocked over your wine, I bet you would feel differently.
We all know the difference between kids being kids and kids being spoiled, bratty monsters.
As a father of four (all wanted and planned) I have found many restaurants don’t know what to do with you, you don’t fit the yuppie template 2.3 kids, (Table for 4.3 people please). My children are generally well behaved, but since you aren’t allowed to discipline them in public what do you expect? (You just wait till we get home cannot carry the impact of an immediate swat) We have a society that has outlawed discipline in public. Schools that teach children their “Rights” so Mommy and Daddy won’t discipline at home.
I do not beat my children (just to make it clear) I spank for “German Shepard” commands (Sit, Stay, Come, etc. if my dog can do it, my children can do it), willful disobedience and for anything that endangers life and limb (theirs, mine or another child’s). Otherwise, I come up with punishments that fit the crime. (It is not unusual to see one of my children walking beside me in the store with their arms folded because they have been touching things.) (My children never run wild in a store)
My daughter came home from school one day, hit her brother and took his toy and threw it in the street, she then told me I couldn’t spank her, it was child abuse, her teacher said so. (She was testing to see if this was true) I responded that se could go and live with the teacher if she wanted, but in my family, I made the rules. She threatened to call the police, I told her, “Go ahead, I won’t stop you, and if they do take you away from me, you will never have all the things I am giving you (including love) and you will regret it for the rest of your life.” I explained to her that parents, who love their children, discipline them, because they care, if I didn’t care, I would not bother with her until her behavior became inconvenient for ME. I gave her two swats (one for the behavior, one for the defiance) then I went to the school and had a talk with her teacher (this is a private school) the next day she had a discussion with the students about the difference between discipline and abuse. In a public school, the government recommended course on children reporting abuse would have been all that would have been taught.
I have a handicapped son, he is autistic (high functioning which means he talks and reads and mostly acts like a normal kid). As an autistic he is sometimes not completely silent in stores. He will sometimes jump up and down in place (usually while we are in lines) and “vocalize” (He keeps it down, and if it starts to get louder than a normal talking voice, I remind him, and it stops) It is his response to being over stimulated. (Autistic children cannot filter out the lights and sounds, the conversations) You cannot imagine the comments I have gotten, then again, maybe you can. Adults that say these things are usually shocked by my response, it is usually something like “He’s autistic, what’s your excuse for being rude?”
Sorry, I went off after reading that because I have run into this even in “Kid Friendly” places. Some adults think the world should be like a movie.
Look people, life’s messy and at the end we all make a really big mess, Deal with it.
Agreed.
It's also hard because it's such a 24/7 job, and even if you're "on" 99.9% of the time, someone is always happy to make a didactic comment or glare judgingly at your or your child's miscues that other .01% of the time.
I'm not a perfect parent, and my kids are not perfect kids. But I try. And they try. I don't expect props from anyone for doing so as it is my job, but a little deference now and then would be nice.
My dad had what we called "the hairy eyeball".
I can pretty much guarantee you that my parents felt like that on occasion. And they were loving parents. ;-)
Actually, I love kids. It was just not in the good Lord's plans for me for some reason.
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