To think children should be allowed to run around and have fun in McDonalds

[JimmyNail]

It’s a children’s restaurant so children should be allowed to have fun while they eat their meal. Nothing outrageous but things like crawling under our own table, playing a little chase around our table. Not in any way bothering other customers. Being a little loud. Just a bit of fun.

5 and 6 year olds are at school so of course they can sit down for the 15 minutes (if that) it takes to eat a McDonalds!

Its a child friendly fast food restaurant not a childrens restaurant, ie they welcome families with happy meals, high chairs, etc. That definitely does not mean running around (potentially bumping into customers carrying food) or crawling on the floor (yuk). Other families with children don’t want complete chaos either (imagine if all the children were running around, getting in the way). Loud shrieking also unacceptable. A certain amount of general noise obviously fine.

Seems to be only you that thinks it's a child's restaurant though, everyone else has said child friendly which is not the same.
If your children can't sit and eat a fast food meal which doesn't involve sitting around for a long time, I'd suggest finding coping strategies to teach them social skills first.
And before you jump, I managed with twins so no older role model apart from me.

That damn play equipment is great until some poor staff member (me) had to crawl through it because kids started using it as a toilet. The best was when they wouldn't tell you where. 5.50 an hour was not enough to crawl through tunnels looking for the surprise poo.

😂😂😂

After the update this is definitely a reverse. Too pass agg.

But it’s a child’s space. Children shitting everywhere is totally normal and there’s no way anyone should expect their parents to either deal with it or support them to learn more appropriate toileting habits….
🙄

At least that seems to be what a minority of people actually think.

Meanwhile, the rest of us would be mortified in our 6 year old was using the play equipment as a toilet.

It is not a children's restaurant, it is a fast food restaurant

But it’s very hard to expect a 5 year old and 6 year old to stay sitting down. Especially in a children’s restaurant

It's really not. We have a lot of kids in our family aged between 2 and 8. All of them are expected to do the bare minimum of sitting at the table and not screaming or shouting. You get the odd bit of misbehaving but none of them have ever been permitted to crawl under or run around tables like they were raised by wolves.

It's dangerous and bad manners.

Obviously you do get children with SEN who can't be expected to sit quietly but their parents know how to manage them and even so, they are not usually allowed to run around where people are carrying hot food and drink.

I bet @JimmyNail would be the first to complain if one of her children got hurt because they tripped someone up while crawling round on the floor or running round the table!

And it definitely would not be their responsibility if their child’s actions caused someone else to get hurt - badly scalded by hot coffee, for example. A simple fall, for someone elderly or with brittle bones could cause a broken hip, which can cause someone who was previously able to live independently to be unable to do so any more. If someone was allowing their children to run riot in a cafe, and tripped my mum, it would probably cause her to be permanently disabled - she has spinal arthritis, and a fall could easily break her back.

I wonder how @JimmyNail would feel if their poor parenting caused someone a serious injury?

It's really not at those ages

Well my dinner plans of going to Mcdonalds now have to change... Given its a restaurant for children and I am certainly not a child. Damn, if only I knew this before!

Sorry but you are so U.

No, it’s not a childrens restaurant! Children should be taught to respect others when eating out but some parents are ignorant and lazy

No, being a little bit loud, fair enough, but running around, getting under peoples feet when there's hot food and drinks being carried around. Definitely not.
I get that McDonalds is kind of a "grab and go" type place, but there's nothing wrong with teaching good "restaurant manners" anywhere.

... playing a little chase around our table

Says it all really; however since OP's now seems to have disappeared it looks as if the responses were unwelcome

Surprised nobody's insisted they must have ADHD though ...

I've only ever found this hard when other people's kids were running around. I thought my son from toddlerhood how to behave in a restaurant. But it's very hard for a small child to have to stay in his seat and talk in a normal voice when other kids are running around.

So you are not just abdicating your own parenting responsibilities but making other parents lives harder.

YABVU, for your sense of entitlement and for thinking there is such thing as a "children's restaurant"

I'm very let kids be kids but running around a restaurant is really unsafe & very stressful for the servers (our local MaccyDs is table service now).

At 5 and 6 they should be able to sit at a table to eat a meal. They shouldn’t be running round the table. Can you imagine if every kid in there did that? It’d be chaos and hot drinks and food flying everywhere.

Poor OP, people on here are so unreasonable - they actually expect you to parent your own children. I'm guessing the little monsters darlings have never been told NO in their lives. Good luck when they get older.

5/6 year old children should be able to sit and eat a meal for 15/20 minutes.

They will not be allowed to run around or crawl under tables at school , nor should they be doing that at home.

Methinks a reverse update will come along very soon...

This!⬆️ It's a restaurant - not a playground! Dangerous & annoying for other customers & the serving staff. What a ridiculously entitled attitude.

1. No its not.
2. Don't take them then.

Simple.

And McDonald's ISN'T a children's restaurant. It's a fast food restaurant that undoubtedly serves as many adults as kids!

Under the table, quietly, I would tolerate. Anything away from our own table, no. And how is it a "kid's restaurant"?