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 ...
Back in the day when "breeders" were the norm and homosexuals were outcast, parents were expected to have well behaved children.
That's as bad as my husband going up to a woman and telling her she needed to beat her kids more.
Very good analogy, 2J!
A few years back, my wife and I were eating at a Ruby Tuesday's. This one brat was running all over the place and the parents thought it was darling. I made the mistake of mentioning something about confining/restraining the kid to the kids mother and the white trash dad nearly wanted to take me outside and beat me up. My wife told me to not make waves and for her sake I did not. But it bothered me. I vowed next time something like that happens, I will get up and complain directly to the the management.
We have a theatre that will offer a free ticket to come back another time if baby cries too much.
About 20 some odd years ago, when we lived in Ft. Lauderdale, the Seminole Indian tribe confiscated some ATV's from some kids who were riding on the Seminoles' property. Seems they were tearing up some sacred burial grounds. The kids had been warned once, and told to leave and not return. They did return the next day and the tribe security officers confiscated the ATV's and escorted the kids off tribal property. The parents were outraged and called county sheriff's deputies. They were told the Seminoles can do whatever they want on the reservation and the ATV's were essentially now tribal property........
> Actually, no, they don't have to misbehave before
> knowing they shouldn't. Personally, as a kid, I was
> told what to do in public before we ever left the
> house. In no uncertain terms!
You must have been a remarable two-year old, then, if you learned entirely from verbal instructions and not from correction!!!
But surely you'll agree that others have the right to be annoyed by your misbehaving child?
'...kids aren't the only ones misbehaving, says Wasmund. "I see more adults behaving badly in public than children,” she says, noting they leave messes around the tables at bookstores, they speak too loudly on their cell phones and they’re more likely than children to be pushy and rude.'
Like father, like son....monkey see, monkey do....etc, etc.....
But go to the "in-spots" in Norman or OKC--well, bring your earplugs, and prepare to have kids running into you, spilling food on you, and parents glower at you when you indicate you don't like it.
There's a big difference between the hip or "in" places that target free-spending yuppies and upscale traditional places targeting an older well-to-do class. The former will almost invariably be filled with brats; the latter will have a mix, but parents will be far more likely to insist on good behavior from their kids.
Seems so. There is a fine line, or at least a limit, between allowing the child to explore and refusing to set limits, between what is good for the child and what makes the parent feel good. Most of us who have kids or have been around kids know this, or learn it. Kids need limits to feel secure.
I was in a Denny's recently with some friends and their charming and quite well behaved kids and the obviously gay waiter was unbelievably hostile from the moment he introduced himself. I grinned at him and he toned it down but I was secetly shocked. My friends seemed used to it. Why work at Denny's if you loathe children?
Great commercial! I would never have guessed the end.
I don't mind seeing kids in restaurants or stores - I expect to see them there, although I also expect that they will be reasonbly well behaved.
What I do mind is going to a bar or nightclub and all the adults are asked to moderate their behavior because some fool thought a bar was a cool place to bring his kids.
Won't do any good. At least, not until one of the little darlings trips a waiter and ends up underneath a tray of heavy plates. (I've seen that happen--and the parents actually said they would sue--don't know if they followed through.)
Children = Noise = Life. The aversion to it is pathological and endemic in the West.
Ah, that's a great policy. I think "crying rooms" are better though.
Sometimes kids will have bad days. My 4 year old started running away and having a tantrum while grocery shopping. His dad checked out, while I dragged him to the truck. The looks I got in the parking lot I was waiting for a police car to pull up for child abuse. Especially after I had just spanked him once we got to the truck.
> But surely you'll agree that others have the
> right to be annoyed by your misbehaving child?
Everyone has a right to be annoyed about anything they like, but to pretend that kids will always be perfect is to deny the nature of what kids are. They are learning. They are being socialized. They are a work in progress. And that means they will do things that are inappropriate or downright annoying. And a society that doesn't understand that and can't tolerate it is a society that has a big problem. We all get upset when parents encourage or ignore bad behavior, but let's not expand the scope of our ire to include those who are trying their best but whose kids frustrate their efforts.
When I was two, I was usually left with a babysitter (usually my gramma). That's an amazing concept a lot of today's parents have never heard of--apparently.
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