A Restaurant to Ban Kids Under 6 -- Older Customers Complained About Rowdiness

ABC ^ | 7/13/11

[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.

[Poison Pill]

NO OLD people in grocery stores between 5-7pm, especially on Monday’s and Friday’s.... and Saturday’s..

8 am Saturday at the grocery store and the youngest customer there looks like the Crypt Keeper. And outside, half a dozen cars parked in 4 spaces. WTH!

[Thinkitude]

There are places where people who haven’t learned to sit still and keep their hands to themselves simply don’t belong. Duh.

[MamaB]

I had much rather have kids in a restaurant than a group of drunk as skunks adults. We went to a nice restaurant after a football game. There were a bunch of Bama fans in there that should never have been in a restaurant. They were so loud and obnoxious that our group could not hear one another talk at our table. It was not the first time that adults should have stayed home with their pacifiers. When are restaurants going to do something about those people? BTW, those people were not even in the section we were in.

[Eva]

My son was one of those kids. We couldn’t take him anywhere, where he would have to sit still. If we sat in a booth, he stood up on the seat (at 2yrs old) and would bother the people on the other side, play with their hair, or do something like he was teasing them, just to get attention.

My kids were absolutely the worst toddlers that any one could imagine. The only thing that they didn’t do was scream. They weren’t screamers.

I remember having to carry my son upside down by his feet to keep him from kicking me one time to put him in his car seat. He didn’t want go to my exercise class with me.

...but after that, my kids were pretty good. I never had any real trouble with them after they got past the pre-school age.

[RC51]

The parasitic class at it again,

Now they want their childless lives extended into restaurants outside their walled childless retirement communities.

How to make $$millions$$: market to narcissists and watch the Baby Boomers flock to you with SS cash in hand.

[Paved Paradise]

I understand what you mean about children crying on planes. However, I was on a lengthy overseas flight and the couple (from Switzerland) had their kids climbing over seats and just running amok on the plane (this was several years ago). Screaming and yelling...you know being kids. They didn’t even blink.

People need to plan carefully for children - a night flight when the child will sleep is good. Don’t let the kid nap right before the flight, etc. Lots of strategies that the goofballs just don’t think about.

[Paved Paradise]

ha ha... no. The problem is the Narcissists and their Narcissist kids. Read “The Kindergarchy: Every Child a Dauphin.” It’s easily found on the internet. THAT’S the problem. Spoiled little brats whose parents think they have given birth to royalty. It’s not the childless people. I have a child and had a foster child. My mom says that people didn’t do this in the old days and everyone had kids then.

[smalltownslick]

I looked this restaurant up - it is on a golf course, and the menu is heavy on steaks. With the clientele they’re shooting for, it makes sense.

[sport]

I see. I was under the impression that it was a mom and pop eatery.

[Above My Pay Grade]

I don’t have a problem with the restaurant doing this, but is seems like a money loser, unless the primary clients of the restaurant are grumpy, old people. I would think they would lose a lot more business from families with young children then they will gain.

I like the idea of putting up signs saying that unruly children will be asked to leave, but the arbitrary, 6 year old limit seems a bit silly. It’s not like loud, bratty, 5 year olds, (with parents who tolerate that behavior), suddenly become polite and quiet on their 6th birthdays.

[Yaelle]

As a mom, I want to remind people that we don’t whip our kids for acting like normal kids their age in public anymore so don’t expect every 3 year old to act like a 10 year old.

As a restaurant and plane and theatre customer, I agree with making certain places kid free. I absolutely hate going to the movies and seeing all these people (often from a culture south of our border) bringing BABIES to an adult film in the evening. (A not for kids movie, not a porn one). We pay good money to a babysitter to go out. Even if you take the baby out when he cries, it takes you 5 minutes of ruining our movie to get him out. I wish they would not allow babies in theaters. They don’t in Switzerland, because it really isn’t safe for under 2s in those chairs anyway.

[LoneConservative]

There are two places here in The People’s Republic of Park Slope that have banned strollers! It keeps the spoiled rotten kinds OUT, and I applaud them for it!

I have a 3YO son. When I take him to dinner at our favorite local place, he knows for a fact that if he acts up, his butt will be in the car seat, headed home in a heartbeat. It’s only happened once. They know us so well in there that I came back later to pay the tab!

[from occupied ga]

People bring their children out when they are tired and don’t care about other patrons. THAT’S the real problem.

Screaming children, barking dogs, loudmouthed a..holes bellowing into cell phones. All part of the same me me me me attitude that so many people exhibit. They have no consideration for anyone else. They're totally self absorbed.

My topper of a story happened in the dairy school cafateria at cornhole you in Ithaca. I was eating lunch and some woman came in with a crying baby and changed its #2 diaper right on a table nearby. Nothing quite like the smell of fresh sh!t from a diaper on the table nearby to get your appetite going at lunch! I complained to the management and they told me she was the wife of one of the faculty members (like that exempted her from acting like a human being.)

Last year I was waiting for my fries to finish at MacDonalds when some family came in ant the woman plopped a kid diaper down on the counter. In that case the management told the woman to get the kid off the counter. She gave the MacD's employee some lip but ultimately complied. (I noticed that they didn't clean the counter after though)

[Gumdrop]

When I was a kid we rarely went out to eat, and when we did, it was to a drive-in place like the A&W with those wonderful frosty glass root beer mugs. We’d all get hamburgers, fries and the RB.

Now you all know how old I am.

[Tax-chick]

I think I was on a plane from Amsterdam with those people ;-). Whatever the situation, there’s a difference between a child’s being allowed to cause an avoidable disturbance, and a child’s simply existing.

And you’re right - wise planning could help avoid or reduce many problems.

[Spudx7]

I’m speechless. That is one of the most disgusting stories I have ever heard.

[DesertSapper]

A private company/organization should be allowed to refuse service to anyone, at anytime, for any reason they want. The market will determine if the company exists in the future.

On the flip side, I believe any organization that does direct business with local, state, or the federal government has to play by that government's discrimination rules. Obviously that's not really the case - just look at the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus.

[wbill]

I’d rather hear a baby cry than an old man yell into his cell phone.

Roger that.

And, 99% of the time, it's utter banality. "Sup? I'm at Target, looking at toilet paper. What are YOU doing?" Hang up the @#%#$%# phone and pay attention to what's around you, for Pete's sake.

There's nothing that I love in this world more than my wife and kids, and even I don't care about what they're doing, every second of every day.

[from occupied ga]

It ranks in the top ten percent for me too. Disgusting, and even more remarkable for the total self absorption shown by the woman. It was a long time ago, but I remember how she smirked at the rest of us as as she changed her little darling’s load. The rest of the universe might as well not have existed - she was going to change her kid’s crap and that was all there was to it.