Have I just discovered the secret to enjoying a dinner out!

[Thingcanonlygetbetter]

Just back from a fabulous family dinner out. No stress, fab food and good service. Restaurant we went to for the first time seems very popular and we could only get a table at 8pm. Which we would deem to be a bit late. We would normally be a 7pm
booking.
We have just chatted about why was this soo good and think we have hit the jackpot! No kids on bloody iPads with the volume turned up, that just kills the atmosphere and grinds me and my families gears. We went out last Sunday night at 6pm to a different restaurant, good food and good service. BUT not one, not two but three kids on the table next to us were all watching /using iPads with the volume up and it was torture and really spoiled the experience. So in future if I go out I am going to go late when the little people and their IPADS have gone to bed. They all need to put a set of headphones on their Santa list!!

haha, love it. Good for you.

Sure we do. We can see their screens. The Mums are almost always doom scrolling FB feeds. Read your kids a book! (Not aimed at you)

I allow my daughter to watch a Disney films on my phone when we are eating in restaurants, she is autistic and it’s all that settles her, she won’t wear headphones. I do however make sure the volume is minimum and I don’t believe it can be heard at the next table. Honestly, ideally, I don’t want her to be watching a film during dinner but it’s the only way to keep her settled and we rarely eat out these days, after a few bad experiences of our daughter having meltdowns midway through a meal and not being able to settle her, so leaving. That is my honest reason

Love it! Imagine we all did it! Was on a coach transfer to the airport and a woman give her little royal princess peach darling queen the iPad to watch guess what?
Peppa pig
Felt like giving the teens full permission to throw on whatever they wanted to watch and I might have listened to a bit of RTE radio ones Whine line with Joe Duffy. My husband has bought me really good noise cancelling headphones, the peri and this fecking entitlement is near sending me over the edge. There were no iPads or iPhones when my first was wee. (1st phone was created two months after they were born).
we were colouring books and interacting era.

I had ND kids before phones and things were even an option. We talked to them or let them draw, played things like noughts and crosses between courses. I now allow my older daughter to play games between but only with sound off. Though she did the whole meal sitting yesterday with just conversation, so I guess she's maturing. Not that you'd see kids at that restaurant.

I put UABU for another boring kids on iPads thread. I very rarely spot kids on iPads, although it’s sad when it happens. I regularly hear and see insufferable adults with zero self awareness in pubs and restaurants.

I was in the optometrist once and a mother was browsing glasses frames while her preschooler sat next to me was loudly watching Peppa Pig. I wondered quietly to myself how mean it would be to teach the kid about where bacon comes from, since the mother wasn't watching her kid at all.

Yes, the ones with the deep, loud belly laughs, or high pitched screechy laughs are pretty obnoxious too. There's often one. Maybe that's why their friends are meeting them for dinner? It's all they can take of them.

But I have found a solution! Go out late! But yes you are 💯 right, there can always be annoying adults. You might even have to watch a person eat only using a fork as both the knife and fork.

Could have just left it at 'no kids' for me.

Same I haven’t really had a lot of experience of kids on IPads in restaurants. But young men playing music or films on their phone out loud on public transport…? many times! I once in a very sleep deprived moment of early parenthood stood up and shouted at a group of 25-30 year old men who got on the train together and then proceeded to individually play their own movies/football games with no headphones 😳

i eat with a knife and fork but that comment makes you sound very snobby and you don’t need to watch anyone else in a restaurant, surely you go to enjoy a meal with your family or friends, not watch what other people are doing?

I think we need to dump this problem back onto restaurants and pubs. Complain to the wait staff and ask them to tackle the noisy feckers. If they won't or don't, get up and leave.

Once restaurants start feeling some pain over this, they have options - set a time later in the evening for adults only, or designate quiet rooms for diners who actually want to enjoy their meal.

Regardless of kids on ipads, most pubs / restaurants use frozen commercial catering supplies - that to me is more annoying than anything else but i get your point.

Interesting point about how many iPads or tablets do not seem to have volume control. Have experienced both kids (really it is parent’s who should control this) to adults who just don’t care. It’s easy to get in a flap about it. My nerves grate when adults laugh and talk so loudly they think the entire restaurant floor wants to know what a good time they are having. If you hear the conversation (as it can be very easy to hear every word with how loud people are), they are not remotely funny or witty and their audience laughs at such a loud volume it’s a surprise glasses don’t shatter and then they talk back in ear-piercing volumes. It’s especially when the alcohol flows and people think they are extra amusing.

This is why I don’t go out and take my DC to parks or we get takeaway for home. Don’t get me started on barking and uncontrollable dogs in cafes that seem to get the run of the place. Can’t go out in the morning or lunch, can’t go out at night. I stay in!

We always buy magazines for dinner with the kids but honestly I wouldn’t ever go to dinner before 8 if I didn’t have my kids with me anyway. Much nicer vibe after 8, with or without iPad families

@Thingcanonlygetbetter, why do mums allow this?
As the mum of a small child, I never have. He knows that, at restaurants or at the dining table, no iPads are allowed. He has been able to sit at a table, not bothering other guests, since he was a toddler. And if I he became upset or loud, we took him outside.
I just don't understand why parents don't teach their children basic skills (disabilities allowing, of course - I have a friend with an autistic child who is calmed by having familiar programs to watch while out, but he always has headphones on).
I don't get it either.

I thought you were going to say eating alone @Thingcanonlygetbetter.😆

I discovered that joy many years ago. Not only no annoying kids but no annoying adults either. Pure bliss.☺️

Why should the OP have to inconvenience herself by asking other parents to behave??

Is our bar really that low?? Parents need to parent

Or, how about this, don't take your kids to restaurants if they can't have an iPad glued to their faces??????

That last bit, though: is that good? I don’t know how the hell parents navigate these days.

Congrats on being a smug dickhead who has discovered booking meals later than most kids bedtimes

Be thankful that you don't have ND kids. I have one that we need to let on a device sometimes to calm their emotions. It is a tool we try everything else first. We do have volume low and it is better then them screaming their lungs out. We don't do it all the time as we don't go out often at all. I hate that people in here are so judgy I try tell myself that it is ok. but seeing some of these replies it is obvious that others are thinking i'm lazy or neglectful.

What did people do for thousands of years before iphones and tablets?