Re children in restaurant

[Arbesque]

Four of us booked a table in an expensive restaurant last night for 7.30.
About 10 minutes after we'd sat down a couple came in pushing a buggy and with 2 other children in tow. They were seated at the table beside us.
One child kept bashing his spoon off the table, another kept crawling along the wide windowsill so that he was right behind my head, and the baby was kept amused by the father playing peek a boo while she screamed excitedly. This went on and on.

We asked to be moved to another table. There were none available.Then the baby started crying loudly and the toddler got tired and cranky and joined the wailing.

We left without dessert and complained on the way out. They knocked the price of a bottle of wine off our bill.

AIBU to think expensive restaurants, charging a fortune, should have a policy for dealing with situations like this?

We paid a lot of money for a meal we couldn't enjoy.

I've reported it as well. Sorry you had to read that.

@BerryTiredMama

youre very cold and lacking in empathy aren’t you?

are you ones of those people that think only children have feelings and only children matter?

I bet you’re a terrible friend…well, I bet you don’t have any mates after becoming a parent. Can you imagine them coming to you with any problems they were having in their life? Your lack of empathy would make them feel ten times worse

People need more problems in their lives to fully appreciate what a MINOR inconvenience this is/was.

Along with the 'first world problems' argument being advanced earlier this is just lazy and reductive. It is entirely possible to get irritated by certain inconsiderate behaviours and situations without said inconvenience/problem having to be calibrated against an unrelated 'major' problem.

Self praise is no recommendation!

Thank you - I meant my own comment, I shouldn’t have posted something so personal to someone posting as they are.

@rainbowmilk , don't apologise

💐

I meant the original quote which was dripping with patronising faux concern for the OP. I don't see why she should have to put up with a toddler crawling round her head either!

I can’t believe the parents on here, wanting to let kids crawl around and annoy other dinners as their kids needs trump everyone else

some of these same posters will be back complaining how teachers and schools won’t let their kids do what they want…followed by ……

Parents who think others want to listen to their kids are the worst! Entitled and ill mannered IMO

To clarify I think @BerryTiredMama has posted in a way that is utterly spiteful.

You could have enjoyed the baby playing peek a boo and squealing in excitement

i wouldn’t have enjoyed that remotely when out for a meal

I go for meals to relax and have conversation with my partner or mates or whatever not play games with some random baby I’ll never see again

why is it assumed that op would enjoy playing peek a boo and hearing a baby squeal? Because she’s a woman? Cos she’s got a vagina and therefore automatically loves babies?!

nah!

lolol has a history for goading posters from what I’ve seen from their other posts @Arbesque
dont rise to it , just report
I’m sorry for your loss

You know those really annoying and loud, drunken, anti social adults that people are complaining about? Well that's what these types of parents are raising.

I too have lots of experience of restaurants in the med, having spent many summers waitressing at my cousins fairly high end restaurant in Greece. There are lots of children around in the evening, but as other people have mentioned, they are well behaved (that doesn't mean silent but not screeching all evening). Their parents expect them to be behaved. And if they aren't, other patrons and staff all tell them off.
That's the difference between the med and UK parenting.

Is it parental and control and behaviour that is the issue? In the med my experience is children don't seem as uncontrolled and rowdy?

This is a parenting problem entirely. Teach your kids how to enjoy a meal with family and friends in a nice restaurant, it’s not easy, but then parenting isn’t. Start small and work up from ‘family’ places. This starts at home with families eating together at the table and sets the standard from the start. Table manners, good food and conversation…and yes even toddlers can do this.

Wholly agree.

They are. Spanish kids are the same and sometimes worse than English kids (I've been a teacher in both countries and on the whole children are certainly more polite in the U.K.). It's just the atmosphere is different, more noisy and animated, and there are families everywhere. Also a lot of the dining is done outside, or at the type of place where there's outside space for the kids to play and run around. You just notice it more in the U.K. because after in the evenings most places are not child friendly, unless you go to Frankie & Benny's or a pizza restaurant. I remember being in a pub in the west end when we came to visit when DD was around 8 and at 7:30pm they told us to finish our food, drink up and leave as kids weren't allowed there after 8pm. This would literally never happen in Spain. The only place they can't go is a nightclub. Even at bars that don't serve food and have a dance area generally let kids sit on the terraces.

It's definitely a big cultural difference, although reading this thread I was quite surprised. It seems there's a shift towards places being more child-friendly in the evening.

Thank-you.

To clarify I think BerryTiredMama has posted in a way that is utterly spiteful.

Yep. And probably belies her own lack of parenting skills too.

@YetAnotherSpartacus

and she’ll be on here looking for advice when her kids get ASBO’s 😉

why is it assumed that op would enjoy playing peek a boo and hearing a baby squeal? Because she’s a woman? Cos she’s got a vagina and therefore automatically loves babies?!

I definitely don't enjoy other peoples noisy screaming children.

😀

Echoing this. 💐@Arbesque .