To think parents should bring babies to restaurants?

It depends. Obviously it’s a good thing to teach children how to behave in a restaurant and develop their social skills, but you can do that in Pizza Express or other family friendly places and there’s no need to have babies or small children in fine dining establishments where inevitably they just get bored. If the restaurant doesn’t give out crayons then it’s a signal that it’s not the place for kids.

I think they should. I've got 2 good babies. Who don't scream so my parents don't mind and enjoy having them there

Quiet babies are better than squads of teens squawking, doing full blown photo shoots for TikTok on the stairs and shouting at the top of their voices.

Guess who’s nice Saturday lunch in Roka was ruined by the Essex Express

In the case I mentioned above, the restaurant has maybe 20-25 seats for customers and a tasting menu only with option of wine pairing. They've closed now so I can't check but I'd say £100 per head before drinks, and that's in NI where costs are low. No kids menu, no highchairs. No one would bring small DC there for dinner at 8pm on a Saturday night. We had two preschoolers and no family nearby so a night out was rare and we chose a grown-up setting intentionally.

A newborn arriving at the table next to us wasn't the vibe we expected, or had experienced on previous nights there. In a more casual place, sure, fair play to them (and casual doesn't mean shit, there's loads of lovely places here I'd bring DC to at any time of day or night that they were likely to enjoy). The mum (only the mum) did bring the baby out when she started fussing but even that is disruptive in a tiny quiet room.

Agree.

OP YABU

Depends what kind of place your talking about a family restaurant during the day absolutely a nice restaurant at 9pm absolutely not. To be fair babies aren't really an issue it's more toddlers and young children and their not really the issue it's parents who allow them to treat it like a playground and run around getting in everyone's way or squealing

I think children should be more exposed to everyday things, not less. They need to learn, and that happens best by being guided through it from a young age, by parents who correct them and remove them when necessary but keep on exposing them to things and helping them learn over time.

Babies should not be allowed in fancy restuarants.

Babies are too young to learn correct etiquette for eating out, anyway.

DC (2.5) often comes out to dinner with us. Somehow none of the restaurants have gone on fire or had anything terrible happen and nobody's complained that we know of. We bring a couple of books, some colouring in and a (quiet) toy, and DC's usually fine to sit and enjoy things with distractions available as required. Children have to eat too, and they'll only learn about eating out if they get to practise it. If they get cranky or at risk of being disruptive, they can be taken outside if necessary.

I'd rather share a dining space with a young family than a group of foul mouthed/pissed up/obnoxious adults. So no, doesn't bother me at all.

If I do want a romantic, quiet, baby/child free dinner with DH then I choose the right time and place (and hope the pissed up/obnoxious/foul mouthed adults are not among us 🙄

There were 2 babies in the beefeater we ate in last month, the were both good as gold not a peep out of them.

Went in on Friday for my free birthday meal and the 6ish year old was pretending to be a ballet dancer in the aisle. One of their party took her outside for a runaround. The dancing was more off putting than the babies the previous month.

Guess is just depends on the child.

I have no issues if they are quiet. It’s when they’re not, lol. Must be a pain for the parents too although that’s obvs not my problem. I just eat later to help avoid the issue!

The current thinking on this is that parents have the right to ruin other people's nights out by inflicting their screaming kids on anybody and everybody.

Anybody who doesn't agree to having their evening ruined is somewhat akin to the childcatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Oh and in case you didn't notice I was being sarcastic!

Becoming a parent involves making sacrifices.

It'd be fine if people would take a baby out if he/she starts screaming, but they typically don't. And a baby isn't going to get much out of the experience at that age, and will probably be tired if they've been dragged out to an evening mea;. It's selfish for someone to ruin other people's dining experience, people who also 'might just want to step out and have a meal at a restaurant for a change', just because they can't get (or can't be arsed getting) a sitter - and, imo, not even in the baby's best interests.

No, nor mine (Italian family, go most years). Children everywhere, including at 1am. Babies carried around by waitresses when they're fussing so mom and dad can eat. Kids given plates of pasta and tomato for free. Random people talking and interacting. That is my experience of the Lazio region.

Maybe your the one that needs to stay at home.
Babies/children need to learn how to behave in these environments so unless exposed are unable to adapt their skills.
Much rather have a child kicking off than a completely judgemental adult sat along side me.

Absolutely YANBU.

Yeah, mine will just happily sleep in her buggy, drink her milk or sit quietly on my lap looking at her toys. No bother to anyone 🤷🏻‍♀️

Lunch time is OK surely.

Some restaurants are very child friendly, even advertise themselves as such so you can take little ones along at any time.

On the continent people eat out with their children all the time.

Depends on the restaurant. Would I rock up to fancy, candlelit, romantic restaurant with my baby when it’s obviously meant to be for adults/couples? No. Local family friendly pub or restaurant at tea time that obviously caters for children? Yes. If child-free people choose to eat at these places they know what they’re signing up for. Although tbh, it’s not the babies you have to worry about - half the time they will sleep through their parents meal - it’s the toddlers. If they can’t sit and eat and behave then they shouldn’t go - or should be taken out when they don’t listen when they’re asked to come and sit back down. And I have a toddler. It’s rough. Again, I pick and choose the restaurants we go to because of this. Our local family-friendly pub at 5pm on a Friday has so many kids running round and going to the play area, I see no issue my DC joining them. If he for one moment doesn’t listen to us and won’t stay where we can see him, or gets too hyped up, then he gets a quiet talking to and if he still doesn’t stop we leave. If we went somewhere and it was clearly a different vibe, he was the only kid and it was one of those days where he was just clearly not going to cooperate and sit quietly with his book/stickers, then we likely wouldn’t go or we’d leave the moment he started acting up.

God I feel like this could have been aimed at me earlier today. Trust me when baby is crying the parents aren't enjoying it and are trying to stop it but it's just a fact of life, children cry!

Spanish and Italian parents don’t eat at restaurants routinely with babies and toddlers unless it is a very special occasion. My friends find it weird that parents would prioritise anything other than homemade food under 5.

That isn't my experience. Of Italy at least.

And people always say, "yes but Italian children are well behaved". YES because they have practiced the skills. You need to take your child to a restaurant to learn restaurant manners.

We used to go to a lovely place with a French maître d' who would be prepped to give us the 'non' if DD wasn't well-behaved. She was far more scared of him than us

This is especially true of obnoxiously drunk adults and unfortunately you get plenty of them in restaurants

Babies are generally ok…now toddlers…totally different story…