Was I being unreasonable to ask to move to a different section of the restaurant today?

I hate it
I’m really easy going but I cannot stand the selfish entitlement of this now very common behaviour

It's all about choices isn't it? They chose to start up a house band in the Bistro, you decided that you'd rather sit elsewhere than ask the staff to ask the parents to stop their children from disturbing the peace of everyone else with musical instruments. But you moved, that was your choice and you weren't unreasonable to make it. If you had chosen to stay and asked the staff to intervene that would have been fine too. Any push back or rudeness on behalf of the family in response to being asked to not stage Live Aid 2026 in the middle of a hotel dining room would then have been referred on to the manager and they would have given the family two choices - instruments away or leave the establishment. People who work in hotels, sadly, have to very regularly ask people to behave properly - they are well-versed in how to handle it.

I do hate this 'minimum wage' business every time a MNetter posts about a problem in a restaurant or supermarket. And I hate this attitude that working in retail or anything customer facing means you should have to put up with being treated and spoken to like absolute shit by the public, often by the management, etc.

As for saying if they don’t like it/can’t do it they should find something else, let’s be honest nobody chooses to work in retail or hospitality, or any other public facing role for that matter. Most people do it because they need the money and can’t find anything else.

Instead of taking the attitude that staff are paid to put up with being treated like shit, maybe we need to start having less tolerance with some of the absolute entitled arseholes who call themselves customers.

The ideal would be the unreasonable family to be refused service and asked to leave because of their behaviour (bringing such musical instruments is choosing to be unreasonable, very different from a noisy child or loud speech which is not premeditated).

However, low paid staff are not always supported if they act, so I don't blame you for taking the action you did.

I mean, even if it was unreasonable for you to move which of course it isn’t….

who cares?

also instruments in a restaurant isn’t great but you can’t control others. You can only control how you react to the situation.

I've asked to sit elsewhere before. There was a table of adults, loads of booze on their table, kids running around, screaming, absolutley no supervision, as if the waiting staff were there to provide childcare. We asked to be moved.

The staff always have the manager or proprietor to appeal to.
Deffo leave a critical post about the noise which was ignored by manager.

The trouble is a lot of weekend staff , at least here locally, are school kids earning a bit of money and don't have the confidence/life experience to do this.

However, there should be a manager on hand to deal with it

They need better training and support. My DD works in retail, its sometimes shit. But also you have to be pretty robust to put up, or not, with some peoples behaviour. They could have asked them to leave, nicely, sorry, we have been asked by several other customers, and we have nowhere else to move them too, so please be quiet or leave the premises. Sorry and goodbye.

Thing is, if nobody tells these kinds of parents that the behaviour is unacceptable and ruining everyone else's day, they probably are completely oblivious and carry on, because, you know, kids will be kids..... Like phones and eating in cinemas, singing along at theatres, people have lost the plot. Do what you like in your own home, coming out into the community requires acceptance of social norms, and not pissing everyone else off. See also dogs licking and barking and jumping up and mothers changing nappies on cafe tables. IT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

Who the frig takes instruments to a restaurant

Was this them OP? Sorry, but I was laughing so much reading your thread.

YANBU to ask to move at all. The staff should have said something to them, especially when multiple tables started getting away from it.

I agree. I hate the "only minimum wage" crap that's so often spouted these days. So what? It's STILL their job, regardless of their wage. If they don't like it, and don't want to do the job, then bugger off and let someone else have the job who'll do it properly. Being "only" on minimum wage doesn't let them off doing the job to the required standard.

Well I would, as would most of the staff I worked with.

"Excuse me, do you think you could take the instruments off the kids, just while they're in the restaurant - thanks" 🤷‍♂️

Any resistance and the manager deals with it.

Posters say this all the time on here. It's honestly really patronising.

Yes it is the staff's job to ask customers to behave and stop disturbing other customers. If the customer berates them or the staff don't feel comfortable then they should go ask a manager to deal with it.
Just because they get minimum wage it doesn't mean they shouldn't do the job that they are paid for.

The parents who chose to allow their children to play with bloody musical instruments in a restaurant are absolute selfish entitled twats.

Why would you think you might be unreasonable to ask to move in this circumstance?
Of course not. I asked to be moved yesterday because despite how warm it was outside I did not want to sit right under the aircon which was blowing my hair around it was on so high.
And of course decent parents/carers don't allow their children to play musical instruments in a dining area. Very poor management if they didn't ask them to stop.

I don't know when it became the norm, but these days there are people who have gone fucking mad - cackling like hyenas in cafes and restaurants, loud, carrying voices in theatres, braying laughter, both men and women in public places. Manners have gone unless you are in a normal rules-enforced school with strict teachers. Shrieking on their mobile phones - on public transport and in quiet carriages. People put up with this shit, nobody tells anyone to shut the f up.

Not unreasonable to ask to be moved, especially as you'd given it some time for it to stop. It's also not unreasonable the family had instruments with them; they might have been coming or going from somewhere where it would be appropriate to play them. But if the children were too young to know better than to play in the restaurant the parents should have stopped them.

I don't even see it as a "children" issue, though; it could have been a teen or adult playing an instrument - regardless, they'd typically have been asked to stop by staff. It may not be fair to expect staff to do this but if the situation arises it makes sense that they do ask the noisemakers to stop rather than having multiple groups of customers request to be moved or walk out. I suspect if buskers had come in, playing quite a bit more competently, they'd have been moved on quickly enough.

Ask to be moved in a restaurant for whatever reason you choose, sun in your eyes, too near the window, door toilet, just prefer elsewhere, anything! Why would you doubt this?

secondly politely asking for kids to stop unreasonable noise, music to be turned down, dog to stop jumping on you, kids running round your table, is not ‘causing a scene’. It is making a polite , direct, reasonable request. Modelling standing up for reasonable requests with politeness is good for children.

And obviously equipping kids with musical instruments in a restaurant is ridiculous behaviour..

The restaurant owners were surely at fault for allowing the noise pollution. You definitely weren’t unreasonable. I’ve left restaurants entirely due to people placing their phones on their table and playing their own music! Unbelievably selfish and anti social. It’s Entitled behaviour that repulses me.

Came here to be annoyed at another kid-bashing post. Quickly changed my mind. YANBU, that’s 100% unreasonable. I believe kids need to be in public spaces (that they are allowed into) to learn to be in the world but that it’s the parents responsibility to make sure that, in the process, they are ACTIVELY making sure they are teaching them to be around other people.