To think if you're taking a baby of under 18 months out for a meal

[Souredstones]

It's ok to take some small toys for them but under no circumstances is it ok to take the annoying noisy battery operated ones especially if you're going to set them off and the child proceeds to ignore them.

Loud parenting
Noisy toys

Just need children eating chips and its restaurant bingo

Unless they are the usual gifted MN children.

My children have come to restaurants and never needed toys. Sufficient books etc worked for us- they never resorted to screaming or running around

You would love us then. Two dc with ASD. Non verbal so can't be entertained with conversation nor unfortunately with books and chunky crayons. We take iPads and mini DVD players on the rare occasions we venture out. We wouldn't expect swanky restaurants to cope with us but I would expect we should be accommodated in cafes and gastro pubs etc etc.

Here come the perfect parents.

That was to Nishky

Dc4 is 18mths and we tend to go to child friendly places at the moment. We take quiet toys and books, but he can make a noise with anything to be fair!

I think it's easy to forget how difficult it is to keep a small person entertained and, hopefully, quiet. I know I had! However, I think it's important to take them out to different situations otherwise they'll never learn how to behave.

Good for you Nishky. Not all children are the same though which is what so many people tend to forget on these threads.

At 18 months DS would have been happy scribbling on some paper, 6 months later he would have thought you were mad wanting to do that!

As long as parents are making an effort to keep their child happy and calm do we really need other parents judging?

I think people accept that children make noise, it is using noisy toys that the op objects to, not noise made by the children

I think I'd rather a crying child (something natural that cannot be helped) than a noisy toy that the child doesn't give two hoots about anyway!

Are people not reading the OP?! She said the child was ignoring the toy!

Yanbu, it's not rocket science. You don't take the most annoying toys out in public!

YANBU.

Even a young child can be diverted with a book and a bit of parental interaction. If they can't, it's probably best to leave eating out for a while and try again in a couple of months.

Sounds like the parents in question had hoped the child would be able to entertain him/herself for a while, so they could have their meal uninterrupted. Understandable, but not realistic.

Bringing out noisy toys is just discourteous to other diners.

If I go for dinner at 5-6 o clock I expect crying, screaming, kids running about, arguments over garlic bread and noisy toys.

If I go at 8-9 o clock I would expect older kids and less noise maybe a ds or iPhone hopefully with the sound turned down a bit as older kids are old enough to understand. Unless of course they have autism or something in which case if that's what the mum needs so she can finish her meal so be it. Two hours of my time when the mum has it 24/7

I don't understand why it's not ok to say 'actually, I'd like to go out for a nice meal with a reasonable level of noisiness in a restaurant that doesn't cater specifically to children' without it making you a child-hater or intolerant?
There are still some places surely where it's ok for adullts/adult behaviour to be expected and I say that as a DM of a VERY lively 3yr old, it shouldn't always be about including children?
It's not like there isn't a vast choice of child-friendly places to go.

Was the OP watching the child and its parents for her entire meal then?

My 7mo's favourite game in restaurants Tesco's caff is bashing a spoon off the table/highchair tray and shouting "Yayayayayaya". Far, far louder than anything plastic and factory made. How do you teach a 7mo "ssh"?

OP Had the toy not been Vtech would it be different? Are actually only bothered because it was a Vtech? If so YABU as that's roy discrimination

Seriously though I'd rather hear toys then hear a child scream and cry.

It sounds as though the problem was with the parents ignoring the baby-or expecting it to be "entertaining" itself.

Quiet toys better than noisy but any toys better than letting small children wander / race around the restaurant.

Maybe op wouldn't have minded if the baby was bashing a niace wooden toy on the high chair tray.

Rather a noisy toy than the woman yesterday who said 'delicious' 900 times at the top of her voice to her DS.

Honestly, usual you don't have to have a sour face all of the time. OP was having a whinge about a loud toy, not a noisy child.