Another lunch ruined by other peoples’ children

I had this once in a lovely pub. Table nearby of around 3 families, big group with toddlers.
Adults were just sat drinking and chatting while the kids wandered round the pub annoying other diners, screaming, demanding attention, chucking stuff around.

At the end of the meal I went over to ask politely if I could have the 3 stuffed pandas back that one of the kids had grabbed despite our best efforts and was now merrily chewing and slobbering over. The mum was a bit shirty in the "he was only playing with them" vibe.

"Yes but they are my dog's favourite chew toys and we're leaving now" was my response. The mum's face was priceless when she realised her precious darling was sharing a chew toy with my spaniel.

YANBU at all, OP.

I love children, but can’t stand badly behaved ones. Unfortunately they are everywhere, because so many people have just opted out of parenting.

Gawd I wouldn't have gone out on Easter Sunday children even normally well behaved ones can be hyper. Full of chocolate yet hangry. Visiting my grandchildren today we were talking about this that eating out would today have been a disaster. Instead they had an Easter egg hunt, then lunch with family.

They were still bouncing at 7pm. 😂😂

Isn’t that what kids do? 🤷🏼‍♀️I get your point if they were lobbing them at you

Oh god, that miserable judgemental couple are here again without kids.

Every... Single...Week... Sneered at.

You'd think they'd have fucked off somewhere else by now.
Quick kids, drink your Red Bulls, make a scene! They'll get the message sooner or later.

Wholeheartedy agree with this.

DS is two. 90% of the time he’ll sit quietly and colour/chat/do stickers or whatever when we take him out, and then eat nicely. He’s good like that, but it’s taken practice. Sometimes he won’t, and then I’ll do everything I can to keep him quiet and remove him as quickly as possible. Today we went out for lunch and he was pretty well behaved, although he did wonder over to the window just behind us to look out while waiting for his food, which his Dad allowed and I wouldn’t usually.

There’s a balance to be struck. If kids stay in until they’re 10, they’ll never know how to behave, but everyone should be respectful.

And I’ve been lucky because DS has never been much of a crier or a tantrummer, so it’s been easy enough to keep him quiet! I expect it’s a different story if they are, and your only option is to keep leaving with them; which reinforces the behaviour.

Yes kids don't need to be running around and noisy in a restaurant

Equally if I'm out for a meal and take mini blondes 7 I take a colouring book/pens /reading book as she loves to read and then if last resort she can have my phone but that's not often

So yes parents need to think about the location

Equally you could go somewhere adult only rather then keep going to same place there you know kids are there

Children should be seen and not heard .

We sat in a tiny, quiet remote pub this afternoon and the table next to us had to kids playing dominoes. Except they weren’t playing normal dominoes, they were piling them up into towers and then knocking them down onto the wooden table. Again and again. Really loud. Parents did fuck all.

I don't give a toss if my kid is being loud while having fun out with me, I won't let him be rude. But I will not stop him being a 4 year old even if that means a boring old fart shoots us a shitty look.

👏🏼👏🏼👍🏻👍🏻

Yep, this.

Shit parents create shittier kids.

Yeah it's easy if there's two parents and one or two children.

I usually avoid places on Easter Sunday as that is when families will be out in force so this was to be expected.

It's crazy though isn't it.
30, even 20 years ago there were no screens or constant stimulation.
When I was a kid you did as you were told.
I was scared of my dad (not saying this is good) and me and my brother were able to sit wherever my parents wanted to go to eat quietly until they had finished. If you were told no, it meant no.
People let their kids run feral these days.
I'm probably as guilty of this as the next person but (and I will get flamed for this) I didn't have more kids than I felt I could handle in public (only got 1).

Exactly that

Could be worse. Could be the assholes who take under 3s on plane based holidays.

Many people think their children are the 'villages' responsibility unfortunately.

There was a post about a year back on here where a woman took her child to a church and left him with ppl to go to the loo and when she'd come back, he'd wrecked the place. The minster asked her to leave. Rightly so imo. But people on here were outraged! As if everyone should just tolerate their property being damaged and keep on smiling because 'diddums, the parents (who CHOSE to have them) are suffering too'.

I'm not your village.
Doesn't mean I don't sympathise but I'd like to eat my lunch in peace. Or heaven forbid, go on holiday without having my eardrums split for 4 hours. It's not the kids fault of course. It's the selfish parents.

Yep I have kids and they always know how to behave. They aren't going to be as quiet as adults but they do not run around screeching.

Think 99% of the reason that kids run about in eating places as they have no concept of sitting at a table to eat meals at home. If the child finds this alien to them, then they will struggle.

Some families do not have a table to eat on at home. Look at the property listings on Rightmove for an idea.

Probably a very unpopular opinion but the nature of kids TV/iPad apps/ YouTube/tick-tock videos has totally ruined the ability to concentrate, sit still etc.
Thus resulting in a generation of children who are fundamentally harder to keep still and quiet, which is then compounded by ineffectual parents.

Why should other diners be subjected to loud children?

Whatever you do OP don't catch the train anywhere. The number of people (adults!) listening to music and watching videos without headphones now is baffling. I'm not sure why they think it's okay. I think these are probably the young people who's parents didn't take them out as children as you suggest. They never learnt how to be in public places so they seem to genuinely not.realise that other people won't want to listen to their video or music. I know it's annoying but not taking childreb out seems counter productive too! I'm a fan of 'family' and 'no children' areas in cafes. Seems to work well for more people. Though as the train example.proves some adults can be a nuisance too

Have you done the “thoughts are for inside your head, not out of your mouth” type sentence too?

Go to adult only places then.
Where are these places? Many Michelin starred restaurants accept DC as long as you don't expect a child's menu. My DC were always fine to sit listening to adult chat and play with (silent) toys for a few hours but if your's are not, I do wonder why you would bring them.

Yeah I'd bet it was a casual type place that was packed as well!