Goldenbear I agree with you to an extent here. My DS is only small and we haven’t taken him anywhere yet because I think the last place he wants to be is in a restaurant. When he’s older, however, I’ll expect that he sits still, eats properly, converses with DH and I and doesn’t need ‘occupying’ during a meal. I’d be pretty aggrieved at having put all of my efforts into teaching him good manners to be restricted to going to shitty restaurants with other kids running riot if I can guarantee that he’ll behave well.
That said, I also appreciate that there are some places that aren’t appropriate for kids, regardless of how well-behaved they are.
A few posts have commented on the attitudes ‘on the continent’. There is a problem with this comparison and it’s that people generally apply more sense when taking their kids out. In the UK, many think it’s ok to take their kids EVERYWHERE. I’d never experienced that before I moved here. Kids are taken to the pub, to restaurants until late at night where I live now. Back home, if I went into a restaurant during the daytime/early evening, I’d expect to see families. At night time, it’s an adult environment.
I still find it strange that children are taken into bars to watch adults drinking, get (understandably) bored and then there’s this whole dialogue about how ‘unfriendly’ people are towards kids when actually, they really have nothing to gain from being in a pub in the first place.