i proberly am BUT it really pi$$es me off !!!

[smeeinit]

I know im proberly just being a miserable old cow BUT ive just taken ds2 out for tea (finished work early so thought would make the most of it!) we were having a lovely meal untill a family with 2 kiddies sits on the table next to us and all 4 of them are playing with hand held game consoles at full volume, dad and son plays with thier psp's while mum and daughter play with ds's.

it may well be a family restaurant but ffs leave the noisy game consoles at home or on farking silent!

jeez whats wrong with going out for a meal and talking to each other????

Hello smee, how are you?

I don't think you are being unreasonable. We went out with the Dses for a meal on Hogmanay and all we could hear was phones going off, either ringing or text messages, beeping sounds from games consoles and a bloody Dora thing that kept singing "back pack, backpack". Surely people could turn things down?

That's awful.
What is the point of going out for a meal if you are not even going to talk to each other.
Fair enough if one of them was on one because they refused to behave in a restaurant but the others were having a nice time but all of them

at teh thought of "backpack backpack" ringing in your ears all night saltire!!!

im good thanks, very busy! and you???

I'm not too bad. Coping ok with a job and Fibromyalgia, coping better than I thought actually. Glad to hear you're busy, I take it from that comment you are full?

yes im full, thank goodness, when i think how bad i was feeling this time last year and was considering quitting it makes me thankfull that i kept at it as im loving being so busy!

A lot of people have lost the ability to just be with each other.

It seems we are stuck in 'Entertain Me, Entertain Me' mode, with our games thingies and all the tv and the portable music whatsits.

We are losing our social skills and becoming very isolated from each other. It's sad how you can have a group of people, sharing space, who are all doing their own thing and not interacting at all.

totally agree hecate...well said.

Very true helcat. I took ds (3) and dd(6 today) out for supper this evening (dh is away) and they were so well behaved and polite even the waityress commented on it [proud mummy emoticon]

hecate even (sorry )

I like Helcat...it's feisty

YANBU!

YANBU, this drives me up the wall too but I'm so touchy I get annoyed by overloud mobile phones (which just have to be left - apparantly - for a good 20 seconds, to show everyone else what a funky polyphonic tone you have) in restaurants, never mind the cacophony which would have come from 4 wretched consoles all bleeping, pinging and buzzing at the same time.

Why are some people so extraordinarily rude ? ....... yeah, family restaurant maybe but it's an entirely different sort of noise to talking, even loud talking, which, in that environment, no-one would object to.

TBH though ...... apart from their lack of grace, what annoys me more in situations like this is the inability (or head in sand attitude) of the restaurant manager, whose job it should be to see that no diners are overly disturbed and/or irritated by any others. Did you ask them to have a word ?

YANBU.

They could all ignore each other in comfort at home.

yanbu why bother goin out for the meal just to ignore each other

Definately nbu!! Drives me up the wall too.

YANBU - it drives me mad.

We went to a pub a couple of months ago - ds was about 2.6 and sat and was as good as gold. We took a notebook and pens for him to draw and chatted throughout the meal, etc...

The boy - same age - at the next table with his family - mom, dad , older brother and sister, as well as a couple of friends was sat watching a portable dvd player with bob the builder playing the whole time.

I thought it was so sad.... and annoying...yes we can...

Ha - "good as gold" was the phrase used by the Indian waiter when we took our two out on new year's eve. I would not have dreamt of taking DS's new DS with us.