Kids running in eating places

robfosters said:
I’m really sorry if this offends any parents, but I don’t like kids in pubs full stop. Doesn’t even matter about eating. If I’m sitting in the pub enjoying my pint and reading the paper, I don’t want kids running around screaming, especially when they run straight into your table, knock your pint everywhere and start crying, making you feel bad because it’s your table that’s hurt them.

I don’t know if I’m a just a miserable git or whether others feel that way too.
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As a pub lover myself I have to acknowledge that for the majority of pubs these days are gone. Most pubs can’t afford to live without food sales and consequently children. The economics just don’t work for most. Too many pubs are closing already because the costs are all stacked against them. There are still some quality boozers where children can be unwelcome but for most it’s not part of business model anymore.
 
Diddums said:
No, I agree 100%. Kids don't belong in pubs, that's what restaurants are for.
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Most pubs are restaurants now though.

We've always taken our kids to pubs for meals, esp when we're on holiday or a day out. They have never "run about screaming" though.
 
FoxEye said:
This. The air is constantly and continuously filled with the sounds of screaming, trantruming children these days.

In the supermarket, in their back gardens, walking around town. Kids just screaming and tantruming non-stop, and parents not doing diddly squat about it.

I think years ago parents would have been embarrassed at this behaviour, but now it's just 100% normal.

Made a thread a while back about other people's kids coming into our home and just wrecking the place. Parents just leaving them to their own devices and not even watching them.

What I've learned about modern society is that, as parents, your kids are everybody else's problem, and you (the parent) expect everybody to accommodate your kids no matter what.
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Years back, chatting in the back of a friend’s taxi in the Feeder Park at Heathrow, waiting to be sent to a Terminal, I noticed a printed laminated sticker on the glass divider that separates the driver from the passenger compartment.
It said, BRITISH PARENTS, PLEASE DO NOT LET YOUR CHILDREN PLAY WITH THE SWITCHES FOR LIGHTS, WINDOWS ETC.
I said, “That’s a bit near the mark Bob, only British parents?”
He said, “When was the last time that a French, German, Italian or American kid sat in your taxi putting the windows up and down, or the light on and off?”
“Fair enough”, I said, “but what about Arab kids?”
“I can’t write in Arabic” he said, “I just shout at those little ********, seems to work.”
 
Dis86 said:
Could possibly be your biased perception. Parents often don't see bad behaviour in their own kids.
Could also be they've never run about screaming too.
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No, they have never run about screaming. I would rather leave a meal and take them home if they started playing up. They know this though so it's never happened.

It's bums on seats unless they need the loo.
 
amigafan2003 said:
No, they have never run about screaming. I would rather leave a meal and take them home if they started playing up. They know this though so it's never happened.

It's bums on seats unless they need the loo.
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Sounds far too sensible.
 
amigafan2003 said:
Most pubs are restaurants now though.

We've always taken our kids to pubs for meals, esp when we're on holiday or a day out. They have never "run about screaming" though.
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If it’s just for a meal then I don’t have too much issue if they’re well behaved. What I absolutely cannot stand is parents who think it’s ok to drag their kids along while they go on a 4 hour drinking session. Imo, that is bad parenting.
 
Jean-F said:
Years back, chatting in the back of a friend’s taxi in the Feeder Park at Heathrow, waiting to be sent to a Terminal, I noticed a printed laminated sticker on the glass divider that separates the driver from the passenger compartment.
It said, BRITISH PARENTS, PLEASE DO NOT LET YOUR CHILDREN PLAY WITH THE SWITCHES FOR LIGHTS, WINDOWS ETC.
I said, “That’s a bit near the mark Bob, only British parents?”
He said, “When was the last time that a French, German, Italian or American kid sat in your taxi putting the windows up and down, or the light on and off?”
“Fair enough”, I said, “but what about Arab kids?”
“I can’t write in Arabic” he said, “I just shout at those little ********, seems to work.”
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My friends, family and myself have noticed when they have been on holiday and noticed screaming kids not sitting at tables, are always British! Parents are not bothered. Staring at their phones or have a argument with waiters on why there’s no Heinz tomato ketchup available. I have witnessed the latter,
 
cheesefest said:
When I see kids doing this, do you think it’s due to their parent(s)’ poor discipline, don’t sit up to a table at home for meals or something else? I believe it’s the not sitting at a table to eat. If the concept is alien for them, they will struggle to do this. The other is boredom. As at home, they are given the food almost immediately after being called that food is ready.

A friend was eating at a restaurant last night and it was ruined by two kids running around and screaming. Restaurant isn’t one of these with a play area next to it. Parents weren’t bothered or told them off as hand and eyes glued to their phones.

A few more diners complained and the manager asked them to leave after paying. The gobby mum said her kids are well behaved!! WTF? Running almost into waiters with trays of drink and hot food? Screaming at top their voices.


Got this information from a longer rant on FB she wrote last night.

What do you think? Seen experiences similar to this when dining out yourself (I have) or if you worked at a restaurant?
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Used to work in an diner and got to experience the consequences after they'd left. It looked like feeding time at the zoo and I'm not even joking. Its totally the parents and total absence of any kind of discipline or respect for the place they're in or even themselves.
 
Blackjack Davy said:
Used to work in an diner and got to experience the consequences after they'd left. It looked like feeding time at the zoo and I'm not even joking. Its totally the parents and total absence of any kind of discipline or respect for the place they're in or even themselves.
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Me and the mrs even pick up stuff the kids drop like chips and such. Can tell most don't though.
 
robj20 said:
He won't sit at the table, it's not comfortable for him.
His preferred option is sat on the floor, but we have to help him eat, and he's usually not interested in anything other than what's on his mum's plate.
We got rid of the table to make room for his various physio equipment. Our priority is his wellbeing not eating at a table because that's what some random people on the internet insist is the only way to eat for some reason.
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Quite right. I’m 41 and disabled. Eating upright at a table causes me severe back pain and dizziness. I eat sitting on my bed with a folding tray. Enjoying my dinner comfortably and staying well nourished is more important than conforming to the general public’s conventions.
 
Personally I would like women banning from pubs at the landlord's discretion, never mind kids. Decent golf clubs kept them, and other undesirables out quite stoically for a long time, but even that bastion of maleness had to succumb ;)
 
theone8181 said:
Me and the mrs even pick up stuff the kids drop like chips and such. Can tell most don't though.
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We do similar or at least tell them when we're leaving that he's dropped something. Think the worst one was he dropped a spoonful of rice, it went everywhere. Poor lad just got the soon to his mouth and then threw it over his shoulder, and said "arm jump" as he does when it happens. Our local is aware of it and go the extra mile for him so we don't feel as bad, they always try to sit is at a table with a booth style seat at one end for him as well.

We go on usually at dinner time with the pensioner crowd, a few times now someone's been leaving and commented how they didn't even realise we had children with is that were that quiet. It's sad but it's always done middle aged to younger people that just don't have the time of day for children. Much prefer the company of the older generation when eating out.
 
These kids will go on to be the ones who never tidy up behind themselves, have never been taught basic small responsibilities and practicalities like how to handle scissors or knives, treat public facilities like work toilets without any kind of respect for themselves or other people who will also use them, cause completely avoidable accidents, needlessly turn beauty spots into tips and so on. Sadly it is ever on the increase.

One of the few upsides of the lockdowns was the brief respite from that ****.

Jean-F said:
Years back, chatting in the back of a friend’s taxi in the Feeder Park at Heathrow, waiting to be sent to a Terminal, I noticed a printed laminated sticker on the glass divider that separates the driver from the passenger compartment.
It said, BRITISH PARENTS, PLEASE DO NOT LET YOUR CHILDREN PLAY WITH THE SWITCHES FOR LIGHTS, WINDOWS ETC.
I said, “That’s a bit near the mark Bob, only British parents?”
He said, “When was the last time that a French, German, Italian or American kid sat in your taxi putting the windows up and down, or the light on and off?”
“Fair enough”, I said, “but what about Arab kids?”
“I can’t write in Arabic” he said, “I just shout at those little ********, seems to work.”
Click to expand...

I can't really speak for some of those nationalities - but I've found American kids no different to British ones in this respect and on my short trips into France etc. eating at restaurants and so on it was no different. The Germans are probably a little bit better behaved as a generalisation but that is fairly limited experience.
 
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