"Hmmmm. 'Destroy another foetus now, We don't like children anyhow' -- Leonard Cohen. "
Outstanding insight. Also indicates another reason why adoption isn't considered a very viable alternative to abortion given the pathetic whining about crumb crunchers on this thread.
I've seen my share of bad parenting in public, but folks kids are going to be kids, and its true that kids and parents are being nanny-stated into a corner in most cases, especially in dining options.
If you want kids to learn how to eat in public places, then they need to be taken to restaurants where people other than kids eat.
The comments about being 'forced' into using upscale eateries to 'avoid children' is the very best one on this thread. I've got McDonalds and Red Robin here in Western Washington as options.
Chuckie Cheese is an option if you want to suffer the horrible food and the fact that they are there to play the games anyway. Beyond that, what? Where else can I go that I won't run into some uppity idiot shooting me dirty looks because my kids are happy about what they just colored on their placemat?
People, keep in mind that if we stop having kids, you baby-boomers especially are going to be making some interesting choices between dog food and home heating bills, since the libs don't want to fix either medicare or social security. 75% of people about the age of 50 have saved less than $5,000 toward retirement.
As far as I'm concerned, if my three year old is going to be keeping you in depends and reruns of American Idol in some home somewhere, you can take the occasional squeal and ram it home uncomfortably.
Next time you hear a three year old screaming somewhere in your serene pageantry of epicurean rapture, just satisfy yourself with the words of Humbert Humphrey, "They don't know it yet, but we're going to tax the hell out of them."
Revenge, a dish served cold, like ice cream, right?
You're officially my hero! :)
Great commentary! I will never forget going to a restaurant in one of the casino in Laughlin, Nevada. When some woman made a loud comment of, "Oh no! Not another baby!" (this is the part where people will ask, "why did you have a baby in a casino?" we were staying in Laughlin for a rodeo) Our son didn't make so much as a squeak until the end when my husband was picking him up and our son started laughing the most infectious laugh (same laugh that livened up my dad's funeral. :-)) We had compliments on our son's behavior and people in tables around us were smiling at him. Even the companions of the lady who had complained. She didn't look too happy when my husband's stepmom made a comment loud enough before we left about the behavior of "some adults".
Leonard Cohen
"The Future"
from the album THE FUTURE (1992)
Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it's lonely here,
there's no one left to torture
Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that's an order!
Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that's left
and stuff it up the hole
in your culture
Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I've seen the future, brother:
it is murder.
Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
You don't know me from the wind
you never will, you never did
I'm the little jew
who wrote the Bible
I've seen the nations rise and fall
I've heard their stories, heard them all
but love's the only engine of survival
Your servant here, he has been told
to say it clear, to say it cold:
It's over, it ain't going
any further
And now the wheels of heaven stop
you feel the devil's riding crop
Get ready for the future:
it is murder
There'll be the breaking of the ancient
western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There'll be phantoms
There'll be fires on the road
and the white man dancing
You'll see a woman
hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson
and the white man dancin'
Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby:
it is murder