Posted on 07/13/2011 7:26:05 AM PDT by markomalley
It hasn't been a banner year for the under-6 set.
Starting July 16, McDain's, a Pittsburgh-area restaurant, will ban children under the age of 6 from its dining area. Restaurant owner Mike Vuick said the policy came in response to complaints he'd received from older customers about kids causing a ruckus. In an email to his clientele, Vuick wrote, "We feel that McDain's is a not a place for young children … and many, many times they have disturbed other customers."
A few weeks ago, Malaysia Airlines announced that it would ban infants from flying in the first-class cabin because other passengers had complained about squalling babies. And last February it was rumored that Virgin Atlantic and British Airways had been pressured to consider child-free zones and even child-free planes to appease business travelers who, according to a travel survey, listed unruly children as their No. 1 travel-related complaint.
So, just when did our precious "pets" become everyone else's pet peeves? Are these bans even legal? Apparently yes. Federal law forbids discrimination on racial or religious grounds, but there is no blanket protection for children. For business owners like Vuick that means they can set the rules.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Did your waiter/waitress determine that you should be "taken to the cheap seats"? Letting the manager know that you wouldn't be back is one thing; shorting the wait staff for carrying out a management policy is another. (How does one "vet" an 18-month-old anyway?)
I agree the market will decide. I also believe this will go over quite well with the 99.99% of people who, when they go out to dinner do NOT relish bratty little kids whining and raising hell because their parents are unable or unwilling to control them.
My guess is this restaurant picks up some serious numbers of new customers.
“It has become a spare the rod, spoil the child world. Parents now want to be “friends” with their children instead of parents.....or parent, another problem.”
To a point. There are just some bad seeds out there, and even a super parent can’t make the kid behave. How do you reconcile a parent who raises three kids, two are successful and were model kids, the other an out of control drug addict. Obviously they were doing something right and the assumption being they used the same general approach to all three kids. Sometimes kids just have no desire to behave or listen to their parents.
So what? They ought to be able to ban anybody they want.
Considering how many parents view their kids as pets and allow them to go feral after getting bored with them, I think it is an appropriate word.
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There are a lot of them. An appalling number of them are quite affluent too. It amazes me that people who are clearly socially adept with regard to their peers or in professional settings then resolutely ignore the chaotic barbarisms of their undisciplined, largely castaway children. I do not blame the children in these situations.
;-)
I’d rather hear a baby cry than an old man yell into his cell phone.
I can live with this. Now where can I find the grocery store that bans old people?
It would make Chuck E Cheese more tolerable.
>Now, if they start having restaurants that don’t allow cell phones or children under 5, I’ll be there.
Hell, just the cell-phone.
Do you know how rude I think it is with all the texting in the middle of a conversation? It’s almost like people are afraid to give their full attention to someone.
Or just one that doesn’t supply scooters or allow them into the store.
It used to be that parents wouldn’t take young children to formal restaurants except for special occasions—and even then one parent would quickly take any misbehaving kids outdoors.
“We asked the waitress if they could try to do something....the adults were busy chatting and making NO attempt to make the kid stop screaming”
That’s the kind of thing that would make me pull up a chair at their table and start whining at the top of my lungs.
LOL! I pride myself on never having entered a Chuck E. Cheese, although I believe DP took some child to a friend’s birthday party there once.
“cheap seats” are part of the wait stations in the restaurant, and the hostess’ job is to take turns seating customers in each section of the restaurant so the wait staff all get equal number of customers at their assigned tables
I know this is probably falling on deaf indignant ears (how dare they assume MY baby would be noisy),but next time you don’t like your table, ask the manager to re-seat you - or leave. Don’t stiff the server in retaliation for your table assignment
>(to celebrate his birthday, our anniversary, and my raise and bonus at work).
Congratulations on all the good fortune.
You are absolutely correct. However, if your family is out and 1 child is causing a disturbance, all of the family left, or one parent took the child out to calm him/her down.
If that didn’t work, then the whole family left. I believe in bad seeds, no matter how great the parents are.
I believe the point of this article is not to inflict the bad seed upon the public.
It all goes back to the parents. My DD/DSIL have been taking their 2 girls to fine restaurants since they were 3 and 4. People in tables around them would come up and comment on their good behavior and nice manners. It all goes back to teaching and expectations. These girls are now 12 and 13 and are a pleasure to take anywhere.
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