To expect parents to keep their children relatively quiet in a pizza restaurant...?

[confuseddoiordonti]

I have just got back from a pizza (Planet Pizza in Bristol in case anyone's wondering) and me and DH were driven bonkers by the number of overexcited shrieking childen in there (we got there just before 7pm.)

I am not against children in restaurants, and I realise this is a pizza place rather than the Ivy, but I do object to them charging about and shouting where there are people there with no dc's (like myself.) I realise that some noise is to be expected and I don't have a problem with that, but I do have a problem with the same children running about, shouting and crawling around under tables. Am I being unreasonable by getting a) pissed off and b) wishing they were someplace else so I could eat my pizza in peace...?

Lastly, while I was tempted to go over and ask some of the parents to get their children to keep it down a bit, I did chicken out and hoped they'd realise the kids were too noisey themselves (they didn't.)

mmrsceptic - you must live in a world where you have complete control of family events, work commitments etc.

They live in Smugland - it's one of the larger Home Counties.

all those people were just forced into pizza planet at 7pm on saturday night?

yeah right

whoever it was said it: they presumably thought it was a place where "the kids get to eat pizza and run around"

am not smug, my children are v v normal and i've been red-faced under smuggery myself so I don't inflict it on others

but i'm not slack either

I believe like mmrsceptic its not about being in control, its about teaching boundaries and not having them breached

'the kids get to eat pizza and run around'. Gah to that. Tell me, all those of you who think it's okay for your children to make other diners' lives a misery: do you also leave the table and wander round restaurants, interfering with other people? If not, why not? Ah yes, because it's Not On.

I think HulaBaby puts it very nicely.

By the way, I am an ordinarily rubbish mother with ordinarily delightful-cum-foul children, much as I enjoy being described as perfect. I just think that children who can't behave themselves in public should be removed until they can.

Actually, I think running round in restaurants represents a whole take on parenting that I intensely dislike (namely: you, my wonderful child, are the centre of the entire universe, which means that you can do anything you like, when you want to, regardless of the effect on other people). It normally follows reading too many child-rearing manuals. Grr, grr, grr.

Well I hope you'll both be very happy together (somewhere Greek,Russian and child-free).

hully you didn't answer my question.. why do you think it's right to allow children to run around in restaurants?

I refer you to my posts of 15:11:22; 15:15:50 and 15:26:06.

there will be three of us now...cheers NellyNoNorks...

rofl as if i'm going to scroll back

what did you say?

actually more .sorry i forgot TheHeadbangingWombat in previous posts

If you really want to know, you'll look back. I'm afraid I have to leave now as I've lost the will to live.

Agree with Hula's 14.13 post. Every word.

It's not the easy option to keep correcting and distracting children but it is how they learn and takes a bit of effort.

I am tragic enough to scroll back, mmr. She says that pizza places are positively made for letting children run round while their parents have a glass of wine in peace and quiet. I think the gist is that if we took the pokers out of our bottoms and let our children behave badly too, everyone would be happy.

Sorry to be pedantic, Hully, but I think the three posts you mention beg far more questions than they give answers! (And I'm using the expression as it should be used, not as in the way BBC journalists now use it. I bet their children can't behave in restaurants either).

My question is: why, Hully, shouldn't I be able to go for a pizza with my children without having it spoilt by other people's offspring? Is there something about pizza that gives special 'bad behaviour' dispensation?

Oh please HateTheHoover tell me that you didn't teach "thankyou" but "thank you"

Nelly, I believe Hully's original posts were just poking fun at the rather (I think) pompous responses by some posters. I don't believe anyone thinks it's acceptable for children to run around screaming in any restaurant but getting off their seat and being a bit noisy in a pizza place is NOT the end of the world nor a sign of the dissolution of good parenting as we know it. Most parents will try and stop their children and I suspect there may have been some exageration within the original discription by the OP.

I actually would do most of the things as described by mmrsceptic, alypaly etc. in order to calm down my children if they were playing up but I certainly would not be judging others whose children are getting a little over excited having been on the other side of it. As I said earlier, I was at pizza hut yesterday and the waitress looked to seat us on a table next to an older couple without children - I asked for a different table in the corner so as not to disturb them as I have a rather loud 2 year old.

I think it is a ridculous thing to say people shouldn't be allowed out if they can't behave like grown ups. Children are not adults, they are unpredictable and heavily influenced by their emotions. I, for one, will certainly continue to take my well brought up but sometimes lively children out with me and if you don't like it then you know what you can do.

nelly you are a noble soul

i think it's ridiculous too, that's why i didn't say it

hope you're not teaching your children that aggressive stance moon

"you know what you can do"

honestly

Aren't you a wit.

temper

Step away now, Moon. You'll end up drained of all life force like me (just popped back from beyond the grave there. It's very noisy amongst the dead, the dead kids just WON'T shut up).

Is in check. Your sense of perspective?

nelly you are a noble soul

Those two are getting really weird now..