Screaming Kids Will NOT Be Tolerated

Just read a great article about a restaurant in North Carolina and a few other places saying "No" to screaming kids. You can read about it here.

I cannot express enough thanks to these restaurants standing up for what is right. Thanks so much. There's nothing in the world that can ruin a meal faster than screaming brats (Okay, maybe food poisoning, but just barely).

This isn't a case of me just getting old and wishing for the good ol' days. There is a trend of kids becoming increasingly more belligerent in public places period, not just restaurants.

There are restaurants now I won't go to because they seem to be way too bratty-kid-friendly (I'm looking at you Frisco Gloria's). I understand if the kids are raising corn and cane at a place meant for children like a Chuck E. Cheese or something that's a kid's birthday party destination. But kids are started to run around like wild banshees at places that are supposed to be for adults and families (with children that know how to act inside a restaurant). They need to be stopped.

I was eating breakfast a couple of years ago at a place that is definitely family-friendly, but it's also a place where a lot of people like to have business meetings or just get together with friends. The day I was there I was by myself, reading the paper and enjoying my breakfast.

Then it happened.

A family came in with two kids — a little girl who was probably 3 or 4 and a toddler. The 3-year-old began with just a few screams at the top of her lungs. Then she started using the restaurant as her own personal play area, while she continued to scream. It wasn't just me disturbed by this scene. Everybody was giving her the evil glare. It was a solid 30 minutes of running around and screaming.

Now, some of you may be thinking that her poor single mother was probably just lucky to have enough energy to get the kids in and out of the car and couldn't muster the strength to discipline her child "that technically wasn't killing anyone." I would agree somewhat if that was the case. But this wasn't the case. Her father and mother both sat idly by while this young human being/animal meted out her reign of terror on a room full of people trying to eat their meals. They never said one thing to her. Not one.

When they left, I led the restaurant in the slow clap, celebrating their departure. I asked the owner if these folks came in a lot and she said they were in all the time. Can you imagine?

So I like it when restaurants stand up and say, "the money for a kid's meal isn't enough to offset the lost cost of a bunch of adults and families with well-behaved children leaving and going down the street." I hope more restaurants issue policies like this. I would support those places.

You're kid acts up, You. Are. Not. Welcome. Here.

That's all. It's a simple policy.

And who does it punish? It punishes the parents. They have limited choices where they can take their brats, and they should have fewer. You know why? It's the parents fault. It's all their fault.

Hopefully, I'm not talking about you in this post. Hopefully, I'm just preaching to the choir. But if I am talking about you, shame on you. Teach your kids to act right in public or keep them home until they are old enough or until I pass on, which will probably be another 60 years or so.

That's a long time to do without margaritas at Gloria's.