to think that children old enough to..............................

[GhostOfJuliet]

go to McDonalds should be able to behave?

I was in McD's at lunch time with my mum and kids (3 and 5). There were three boys in about 10/12 ish. Well just as my 3yo was taking a bite of her burger she was hit by a wad of paper thrown by one of the boys.

I spoke to them and told them clearly that I wasn't happy and it wasn't to happen again. How many MNetters would've done the same thing?

Well watch out for the headline "mum of one jailed for puncturing child's football"!

Agree that you were right to say something - too many people are afraid or unwilling to get involved to stop bad behaviour. Whilst they weren't behaving in a threatening manner, it is right that you should have a word with them if they were being arseholes and bothering others, especially your DD. I'm sure I would have too. I remember once telling off a boy in the park who was on a mission to hit my neice (4 y o) with something and make it look like an 'accident' (it was so obvious). He was only about 7 or 8, but a right little thug flicking stones with a stick in her direction and pitching sticks at her whilst she was climbing. I told him I was onto him, and he had better stop what he was doing before he hurt her - she was only little. It met with a shrug and 'You can't tell me what to do' 'Oh yes I can, if you are trying to hurt her' 'I'll get the coppers on you' he says. 'Good' says I, 'get them and I'll tell them what you are trying to do to her' He then wandered off and I spent the next twenty minutes expecting him to come back with a 22 stone, tattoed mum to sort me out....

Ho hum. (he didn't, BTW!)

gingerm - rofl thats exactly what they do!!!Those Littl' Bastards - (just like My Little Pony, but for teenagers)
You forgot to add "with their hoodies up so no faces could be seen - or like the ones I saw the other day - with "scream" masks under the hoodies!!!

Lock em all away, just in case! Boarding school for the lot of them - that's where my 2 will go if they don't watch out (and ds is only 16 mths, but currently waving a fork at me, they start young these days)

Absolutely, minor misdemenors that aren't dealt with now may not lead to them being social deviants but they will definately become arsehole adults that talk in the cinema (and yes much to my friends embarassment I tell them off too.)

I wonder if I'm right in thinking that some of the posters on this thread have children who are not yet old enough to go out alone?
The boys in McDonalds were annoying and disruptive, and I would have been cross if my small child had been startled or upset by them.
I would have commented and told the boys to stop, so I agree with the OP.
I would not have assumed that they are on the slippery slope to delinquency though, as some of the other posts seem to suggest.

Zombie 🧟‍♀️ 🧟‍♀️🧟‍♀️🧟‍♀️

Well, this seems to have happened about 15 years ago, so by now we may know whether the miscreants did indeed end up in jail!