Another lunch ruined by other peoples’ children

[Bakeoffskateoff]

Am I being unreasonable to get really pissed off with other people being unable or unwillling to teach their children to sit quietly in cafes and restaurants. Went out for lunch today to our usual weekend cafe. Two lots of families with kids aged five to eight who were noisy, whiny, annoying, sat on tables, crying. I had to hurry my lunch down to get out of there as soon as possible. I’m sick of parents who think little Freddie is so cute for making loud tractor noises, causing other diners to turn around. No one else appreciates your child quite like you do.

If you can’t teach your child manners please don’t take them out where there are other people.

Plot twist op was at softplay

Planet good manners?
Children are perfectly capable of sitting and chatting, colouring etc.
If they wish to run and shriek, pack a picnic and head to a park.

How will children learn if they aren't taken out? My 2 year old is a handful as are most but I still take her out to cafes etc (if she is misbehaving I do try and keep her in line not always easily). As time goes on she's getting much better behaved out and about because she's learning, which she wouldn't do if I were to keep her at home.

You can always tell the posters who let their brats run riot.
Parent your kids FFS.

You need to go somewhere more expensive and non family friendly. It's the only way!

I agree. If my children were being like that, enough to disrupt other diners we would remove them. Either just leave or take it in turns to take them outside. It's not fair to ruin other people's meals. It seems to be getting worse now too, people seem to not want to tell children to sit nicely in their seats and not be too loud.

I'll bite. Why is it so hard for some parents to teach manners? When my DD was little, we took her to restaurants and if she behaved badly, one of us would take her out for a bit. It wasn't that tricky. If I go out for lunch, I see lots of lovely well-behaved kids, but there are always a few being absolutely feral. It can't be fun for either the children or their parents.

Expecting CHILDREN to be QUIET oh my god what a disgusting notion.

Come on now, this was the least expected of me behaviour wise as a child

Not sure when we pivoted away from this but..

...parent your children.

Thankfully we've moved on from being 'seen and not heard' and physical abuse as punishment.

I was in Pizza Express recently and a woman strapped her hysterically screaming 3yo into its buggy and proceeded to sit with her husband eating her dinner like nothing was happening. The sound was insane and went on and on. In the end the manager went over and told her it wasn’t acceptable.
I don’t mind noise from kids but this was unacceptable.

Cute tractor noises? Oh no! The world will end!
Running around, throwing things, making a mess, or screaming - totally with you - either they are bored or overwhelmed and need something to do or to go out for a break.

Two is still young and if you’re teaching her how to behave when out then I suspect OP not aimed at you 😊

Absolutely agree. I loath badly behaved children in aeroplanes, supermarkets and restaurants . If your little darlings can’t behave then stay at home , take them to the park, for a walk, to the trampoline park BUT don’t expect other people to put up with them.

Know I’m going to be flamed but I feel so much better to get that off my chest. And yes I have got children and they weren’t always well behaved but they were NEVER inflicted on others.

Yeah I'd bet it was a casual type place that was packed as well!

Go to adult only places then.
Where are these places? Many Michelin starred restaurants accept DC as long as you don't expect a child's menu. My DC were always fine to sit listening to adult chat and play with (silent) toys for a few hours but if your's are not, I do wonder why you would bring them.

Have you done the “thoughts are for inside your head, not out of your mouth” type sentence too?

Whatever you do OP don't catch the train anywhere. The number of people (adults!) listening to music and watching videos without headphones now is baffling. I'm not sure why they think it's okay. I think these are probably the young people who's parents didn't take them out as children as you suggest. They never learnt how to be in public places so they seem to genuinely not.realise that other people won't want to listen to their video or music. I know it's annoying but not taking childreb out seems counter productive too! I'm a fan of 'family' and 'no children' areas in cafes. Seems to work well for more people. Though as the train example.proves some adults can be a nuisance too

Why should other diners be subjected to loud children?

Probably a very unpopular opinion but the nature of kids TV/iPad apps/ YouTube/tick-tock videos has totally ruined the ability to concentrate, sit still etc.
Thus resulting in a generation of children who are fundamentally harder to keep still and quiet, which is then compounded by ineffectual parents.

Think 99% of the reason that kids run about in eating places as they have no concept of sitting at a table to eat meals at home. If the child finds this alien to them, then they will struggle.

Some families do not have a table to eat on at home. Look at the property listings on Rightmove for an idea.

Yep I have kids and they always know how to behave. They aren't going to be as quiet as adults but they do not run around screeching.

Could be worse. Could be the assholes who take under 3s on plane based holidays.

Many people think their children are the 'villages' responsibility unfortunately.

There was a post about a year back on here where a woman took her child to a church and left him with ppl to go to the loo and when she'd come back, he'd wrecked the place. The minster asked her to leave. Rightly so imo. But people on here were outraged! As if everyone should just tolerate their property being damaged and keep on smiling because 'diddums, the parents (who CHOSE to have them) are suffering too'.

I'm not your village.
Doesn't mean I don't sympathise but I'd like to eat my lunch in peace. Or heaven forbid, go on holiday without having my eardrums split for 4 hours. It's not the kids fault of course. It's the selfish parents.

Exactly that

It's crazy though isn't it.
30, even 20 years ago there were no screens or constant stimulation.
When I was a kid you did as you were told.
I was scared of my dad (not saying this is good) and me and my brother were able to sit wherever my parents wanted to go to eat quietly until they had finished. If you were told no, it meant no.
People let their kids run feral these days.
I'm probably as guilty of this as the next person but (and I will get flamed for this) I didn't have more kids than I felt I could handle in public (only got 1).

I usually avoid places on Easter Sunday as that is when families will be out in force so this was to be expected.