To think parents should bring babies to restaurants?

AGREE 👍

Shouldn't.

My evening in a German, high class, all expenses paid restuarant was ruined by my baby crying.

I ended up back in my hotel room, with a takeaway pizza. 🙁

I’ve never had a child present at the restaurants I’ve eaten in over the last few years….probably down the cost and the time I eat.

Babies and small children won’t feel alienated by being taken outside to calm down if they’re being very noisy. What an utterly stupid suggestion.

I took my daughter to restaurants when she was a baby, but I went to relatively quiet places and went either at lunchtime or very early evening. She generally slept through the meal but on the odd occasion she woke up and cried, I took her straight outside to settle her. I would never have been so disrespectful to have allowed her to disturb people who were paying for a nice meal out.

I'm wondering where everyone eats in company if drunk adults? I can't ever remember seeing drunk adults in a restaurant? And I've eaten out quite a lot in the last 25 years!

@SwingTheMonkey im not being funny but why should your disability take precedence? We all share this planet and public spaces, babies are vulnerable too, you know. As someone who id think understands vulnerability, you should know how alienating it can be to feel excluded. It's important to foster an inclusive environment for everyone.

That’s… nice of you.

Do you realise that your loud or fussy child’s noise amplifies 10 fold in the hearing aid of someone who is partially deaf?

You’d hope they’d take baby out if screaming for ages as no that’s not fair on fellow diners but otherwise a bit of crying doesn’t bother me. I didn’t eat out much at all when mine were little, reasons I wont go into incase anyone is having a late dinner! Now that they’ve grown up i’m always eating out with friends / grown up kids. I definitely did not enjoy eating out with them one bit when young. If i wanted a break from cooking I got a take away, and met friends / colleagues for lunch etc

I don’t mind so long as everyone’s behaving themselves!

Yes, you’re right, children should absolutely not be seen in public.
As a new mum I used to get quite anxious if my baby was being loud or fussy, but I soon realised she wasn’t misbehaving, she was just being a child, and now I quite enjoy it if she annoys people.

So babies ie small humans shouldn’t go to restaurants but dogs can?
And anyone who has a baby can’t go out?

Ifs a tricky one. I would choose where to go carefully when my kids were young and I’d take them out if they started crying. However some parents are very blasé about the children making noise and running around.

Depends on the restaurant. I went to the Oxo tower for an anniversary meal and there was a couple there with a toddler a baby. I’m glad we weren’t seated near them. At the time we had a toddler and a baby and there was a good reason we didn’t bring them with us. Nandos would be fine.

YABU.

We've brought our son to restaurants since he was a baby. Now he's 2, nearly 3. If he's ever making lots of noise, we are conscious of that and make sure nobody is disturbed (we distract. If it doesn't work, we remove him). We don't just leave him crying and ignore it. He's generally very good at sitting at restaurants. I think to get them used to being well behaved in restaurants, the more you do it, the better they learn to behave when in one.

AGREE! 😂

They never know which cutlery to use first. It’s embarrassing.

When mine were younger my rule of thumb was anywhere less than a tenner for a main was fair game. Probably 15 now!

Babies are completely different to toddlers. When I had my first and she was tiny we took her to restaurants all the time - a number of michelin starred places and smart central London places, often with a fairly late (8ish) table reservation. Slept, woke up for a quick feed, slept again. I felt really smug and couldn't understand why people said dining out had to end. Then she got to about 9 months, started screaming and throwing food and I now if we manage 45 mins in Pizza Express at lunch I count it as a win. Toddlers in smart restaurants I probably agree but babies are great.

No but it becomes inconsiderate if the child is very distressed and after a bit the parents don’t take it away from others to calm them down.

I don't mind it but if the baby starts screaming and it goes on longer than a few minutes take the bubs outside.

It's not fair on people who are trying to talk and enjoy their evening if there's a screamer right next door for the whole 2 hours.

Take the wee one out and walk it around, get some fresh air. Don't subject people on and on and on to screaming. It's really not fair.

I can't stand it when people keep on shhing over and over as the bubs screams its heart out relentlessly. It's like the parents are deaf or something or they are so used to it, they forgot that actually, we have re-adjusted from the 100db baby phase and now would like it to be something of the past, thank you very much.

As I say I'm quite tolerant for a bit, but we all know when a baby is unsettled for more than it a bit, that's it. It's not going to calm down, is it?? Just quit the evening and go.

Oh yawn. I bet youre someone who thinks babies shouldn’t be on planes either

I said yes YABU - but that's because your OP said parents shouldn't bring babies to restaurants - full stop - and that is entirely unreasonable in my opinion.
There are restaurants - and then there are Restaurants!!

Babies and children need to learn how to behave when eating out. They are small people after all, not a separate species, but there is a time and a place for everything. Perfectly ok to take them to a lot of the family oriented chains, to start learning. Families with babies shouldn't be made to feel they aren't welcome to eat out at all.

I agree that top-end restaurants where the clientele are looking for excellent food in a peaceful, adult type, atmosphere, and spending a lot of money as well, are not appropriate until you know your children can be trusted to behave, (and babies can be unpredictable, so that also applies to them too). Especially after, say 7.30pm in the evening. But that is not what you asked in your question!

The biggest problem anywhere is 1) parents who let their little darlings run riot, or don't remove a screaming baby when it is being very disruptive to those sitting nearby and 2) Loud obnoxious, drunk adults who don't give a fig about the effect they have on those sitting near them.

Depends on the baby, the restaurant and the situation
Anyone eating out needs to be conscious of the people around them whether that's removing a crying baby or a friend that's had too much to drink.

This and not everyone has a babysitter!