Badly behaved children in restaurants = £40

[Jewelspun]

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/restaurants-parenting-policy-could-see-28010645.amp

A restaurant has sparked controversy for charging extra for “adults unable to parent”, adding £40 to the bill for families with badly behaved children. Toccoa Riverside Restaurant said the charge has been around for a long time, but is just now garnering attention.

I can't see how this woud be legally enforceable.

You pay for the product and service, if the restaurant is unhappy with the behaviour they should refuse service

I hate badly behaved children running around restaurants and ruining everyone else's meal, but I wouldn't go to a restaurant where if the owner decided that in his subjective opinion a child had been "too loud", he'd add £40 to the bill.

Define "too loud". At a guess I'd say my definition is a much lower volume than a lot of people's. If I was the owner I'd be charging people every day!

Why does someone always bring 'stressed parents' into this sort of thing?

Read the story, the kids made up 3 families and all their parents were there.

There was no talk of being 'stressed' because the parents thought their kids were well behaved, despite being shoved down the end of the table on their own.

Problem is you'd likely get people who'd pay the 40 and let their kids go bonkers.

It would be better to have clear rules and behaviours that will result in you being asked to leave and that actually being enforced.

When my kids were little we had to leave places at times because they would not behave. The half eaten meals we had to abandon!

But. It taught them that they either sat and behaved or they got slung over our shoulders and taken straight home.

I agree. Even if I were paid the £40, it does not give me my night back.

The other day I walked past a lovely, fashionable, expensive cafe where a group of adults was seated around a table. An older woman, very well groomed and dressed and with excellent posture, had her dog on her lap while the dog had its paws on the table. Nobody - dog owner, her companions, the cafe staff - batted an eyelid.

Now let the parent and kid bashing continue.

I think that this is only fair if they tax other antisocial people like loud adults who have had too much to drink (hen and stag parties)

Having just spent 2 weeks visiting family through out the UK and having eaten out at least 20 times and travelled on many trains and buses i wholly agree with taxing/fining/ cattle prodding useless parents that let their children run wild/ scream /throw food or have tablets and phones playing without head phones. It seems the U.K has too many bone idle/useless/bad mannered idiotic parents.

I like the idea in principle, but the restaurant staff should never have allowed this party in. Eleven children!

Yeah and there was this one time my auntie's neighbour's friend's niece saw something equally irreverent to this thread too.

And you are from?

Well, that will sort the restaurants who need to close down from those that actually can manage awkward customers effectively.

Some restaurants deserve to close, what an astounding stupid 'policy' which is all about making an extra buck, nothing to do with teaching parents a lesson.

Good riddance to those places.

Agreed!

This whole story is about a restaurant in America but don't let that stop you bashing UK parents.

Where are you from just out of interest?

As far as I am concerned, @Parakeetamol, what you do is not bad parenting - the opposite, in fact. I don’t expect parents to be able to predict their children’s behaviour correctly every time, and even the most well behaved child can have an off day - but what matters is that you deal with the situation positively - you try to stop the unacceptable behaviour, and if that doesn’t work, you all leave.

If I was in a restaurant near you, and you had the situation you describe, I would see a parent doing their best, and I would not think that you’d get fined because you are clearly parenting, unlike the parents in this story.

A publicity stunt, I expect. The payment wouldn't be enforceable and if it was paid, it wouldn't achieve anything.

My DH tells me there's a 'chef's special sauce' that some customers can get added to their meals, at no extra charge.

I was in a famous TV chef’s restaurant and saw shocking pre-emptive treatment of a group with several children. They were told to wait while the waiters cleared a two-metre zone around their table, I suppose to avoid complaints from diners about disturbance during their (pretty expensive) meal.

It looked as if they were providing the evening’s entertainment!

The children behaved fine but I felt embarrassed for the parents. I bet they never went back, which was probably just what the owner wanted.

Potentially it pays for the free drinks/food/discount that is demanded because someone else's experience was ruined by unruly children, meaning the owner isn't out of pocket because someone else decided to behave like an arse.

@Parakeetamol you’re taking this v personally. It’s quite clear from what you’ve described that you work hard to not let your kids run amok. I get the impression this is more aimed at the parents who stop parenting completely and don’t give a shit about the actions of their kids on other diners. This wouldn’t be about you. It’s the same everywhere. When you can tell a parent is trying hard, I’ve so much empathy because we’ve all been there. But it’s when they completely disengage and don’t care that other peoples experience is being affected, my empathy disappears.

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius cross post!

Let me spell it out:

Objectively unhygienic behaviour from a dog in a cafe = acceptable and commonplace in the UK judging from many MN threads and my own experience

Subjective poor behaviour / parenting in a restaurant = fine the feckless parents. Other people's kids are intolerable, etc.

Sometimes kids will misbehave. The adult needs to remove themselves and the child if they have tried and failed to reign them in. If my children ran around etc they would get a warning and then taken out if they continued, it’s a shame if food is left due to this but it’s your job as a parent Not to inflict your kids on others if they are ruining other peoples experience. It’s not fair on everyone else. If a child can’t cope in such a setting then they shouldn’t be there and spoil it for others. The fine is a good idea.

So I guess that means that parents with ND children, traumatised children, Foster children/adopted children are more likely to have to pay extra to take their children out to a restaurant? Not all children will be able to 'behave' in a restaurant setting, some will need time and exposure to learn how to behave. So I don't think it's fair that parents should be charged extra. It's not always obvious why a child might be behaving differently in a restaurant and parents are under no obligation to disclose their child's medical or personal history to the staff in the restaurant. Obviously some people don't supervise their kids at all and I understand that's frustrating and can be dangerous in a restaurant, but how do they work out who's got genuine reasons for that and who doesn't?

Fully expected this to be a local news story. The restaurant is in America!! - no idea why Wales on line is reporting it.