Is it rude to let your kids run around in a restaurant?

Is it rude to let your kids run around in a restaurant?

Dear John: Try to think about this differently. I pretty much scarred a young child for life as he and his friends shoved past me with a tray of food in my hands. Fajitas, soup, and molten cheese all over his little body and they had to rush out without paying to take him to the ER in screaming agony. They couldn’t sue me or the place if they tried, and believe me, they made the threat. However, the tapes showed it all. Including me frantically trying to help him get the quickly hardening cheese off of his face. I was in tears and yelling for anyone to come help, I don’t even think he was aware of what was happening. If you don’t see the restaurant staff running, consider why. It is so unsafe, who cares about being rude at that point? Could you look your kid in the face every day knowing the reason they will never look the same is because you couldn’t be bothered to explain why they should stay seated?

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A women in a restaurant was having a row with her husband and her kids were running all over the place being a general nuisance to all the diners. Eventually the women threw her glass of wine over the husband and as she got up to storm out, her kids came racing past her table and she slipped on the wine - all over the floor - and with her kids racing past pushing her out of the way, she fell backwards onto her table and everything went smashing everywhere - cutlery went flying, glasses smashing to the floor, drinks and food everywhere. She screamed and her kids did nothing. The husband got up and simply left as it turns out they were arguing as he wanted the kids to sit and behave and she wanted them to have a fun meal with no rules - despite it being obnoxious for other diners.

She sued the restaurant and won $50,000 ( this was decades ago ) even though it was her own badly behaved children.

Madness.

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I was brought up to be seen and not heard. To sit at the dining table and behave myself. To smile and be polite and say please and thankyou. Todays yobbish youths know no such guidelines and the parents all too often do not give a shit and leave them to run riot, expecting others to be as amused and lovie dovie over their little brats as they are. Too many kids today have bad parents who do not teach them a better way and then the kid gets into a gang and it is all hell let loose.

Walter

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To answer your question John, yes it is damned rude to allow your children to run around in a restaurant. It is NOT a playground, it is not a school yard, or anything else, it is a place of business and if someone cannot control their kids then social services needs to be involved as if a parent has no control, what sort of person will that child be in the future if out of control now. Larry.

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I am disabled and walk with two sticks. Children recently pushed past me in a restaurant and I fell and broke my shoulder. I screamed and the staff and other patrons were brilliant but the parents of the brats that pushed me over - initially said absolutely noting at all and although an ambulance was called, offered no help at all. Other people in the restaurant shouted at them and they just told us all to ' fuck off.'- So I sued them and when the court saw the video of the kids and how the parents did nothing, I won compensation from the parents, - a handsome sum of money they claimed would ruin them financially but the court stood firm and they had to pay - and they were also reported to Social Services and their lives changed dramatically after the local paper reported the whole incident and named and shamed them. It seems they made excuse after excuse rather than take responsibility and even right up to the end, STILL claimed it was not their responsibility to take charge of their children when in a restaurant and claimed it was the restaurant owners responsibility, which absolutely beggars belief.

Patrick

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As I entered a local bar/restaurant I use frequently as they do a very reasonable roast every day, when a ton of brats ran towards me as I entered and tried pushing past me to get out the door and as there was no room, I panicked and shouted and everyone looked and saw what was happening and as they pushed past me at full running speed - I fell against the door frame luckily not going over, while the parents did nothing at all - and I let my walking stick slip out of my hand, all accidentally, and this tripped one of the brats up and he went flying over, taking one other brat with him, one broke his ankle and the other dislocated his shoulder.

Naturally that got the parents attention and for the first time, they stood and demanded to know why I had deliberately tripped them up. I refused to speak to them until the police arrived as I was too shaken up and too emotional that at 76, brats like this so disrespect their elders in such a fashion.

An ambulance was called and the police and - thank God for modern technology, as the cafe had cameras and this showed exactly how they tried pushing me out of the way and on camera, the ' trip' was 100% seen as accidental so the brats were responsible for their own falls and own broken ankle and a dislocated shoulder - while sadly - not even an apology from the parents who seemed unable to control their own children.

They tried to sue me for damages but lost and the court made them pay all costs and a Victim Charge to me, which was just £75, but well worth the hassle of going to court and the manner in which the judge vehemently told the parents off for not controlling their children. I watch Judge Judy on TV and loved the way my judge did a Judge Judy on them and really had a go, really shouted at the brats and really pointed out that a custodial sentence could be placed but he hoped - with council help, the family would learn some parenting skills and bring the brats under control.

I did laugh later at home - as a broken ankle might slow him down a bit and make him realise he cannot run riot like this around old age pensioners such as myself.

Mind you, it did shake me up and took me a while to get over it.

Richard.

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