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.)

All the family restaurants I go to do serve a selection of smaller portions of what's on the adult menu or something similar but more basic. That is usually served with chips, jacket, new potatoes, wedges or mash. The only places where i've seen the food you described as kid's meals is in soft play areas.

I work as a waitress and whilst I don't mind the noise (you generally lose inidividual table's noise amongst everyone elses) I cannot stand people that let their kids run around or let their babies and toddlers toddle or walk around a few steps in front of them. They are quite unpredictable and can go off course and before you know it whoops I've just knocked your child out because they've almost walked into me. Hold their frigging hands!! Another pet hate is when people walk behind their cruising babies, all bent over and holding their hands in the air realllllllllllly slowly so no one can get by. Oh and my final pet hate is when people let their kids go and sit on the empty table next to them or round the corner. They either mess the table up and I have to relay it or the person on the door doesn't expect anyone to be sitting there, comes to seat a table and has to figure out where these children have come from. Rant over!!

No way acceptable, YANBU. If your children behave like that and you can't stop them, and if it's a regular restaurant, then don't go.

Children running around not acceptable in a restaurant AT ALL. Also children allowed to wander up and talk to other eaters without intervention from the parents, just ridiculous. Crying babies you can't help, screaming children -- not on. Should be taken outside.

Oh jeez this one again.

lets see, all usual suspects covered?

• children should be in bed at that time
• poor childless people being disturbed by other peoples offspring, not fair smug protestations of how perfect my* child is in restaurants having been weaned on sushi in posh eateries
• europe being so much more child friendly
• you'll change your tune when you have a kid
• don't go to family style restaurants if you don't like it
• those type of people who don't know how to behave properly anyway.

Yawn. Its all a bit "rod up your arse" english manners isn't it?

YANBU

family restaurant does not = right to allow you children to run riot. They are out for somthing to eat, not out at the local soft play place!!!!!!

Op, where precisely were these children running wild, that place is pretty small! Were u sat by the football table?!

Noise is perfectly acceptable, shreiking, running around and crawling under tables is bloody terrible.

PS. Planet pizza is a nice restaurant that accepts and welcomes children, not some god awful pub chain with frozen deep fried and bread crumbed vegetables.

I think that if you take your children to a restuarant, they must sit in complete silence. All evening. And if they utter one sound there will be no ice cream factory or whatever it is called. And, to top it off, you must expect your 3 year old to be silent after their second pint of coke.

I mean what about the poor childless people who do not want to listen to this type of behaviour. They have nowhere to go these days.

'I have a son with Autism, and even he knows that he is not to get up and run around or shout and scream in a restaurant. If he did, DH & I would be so mortified that we would probably leave

One of mine does, the other one though screams (or rather communicatesin an incredibly loud high pitched voice all the time almost- nowt I can do about it and I won't allow it to stop us going out as a family before 7pm on a weekend.

Hoowever more fenerally bad behaviour never OK, excitable children par for the course at Pizza Hut though. There's a difference.

'That?s nothing, in other parts of Bristol, they eat their children. In certain areas you wished they would."'

I don't live far from bristol and that amde me PMSL

god, when did it become rod-up-your-arse to have any behaviour expectations at all?

my children weren't perfect -- so we didn't take them to restaurants until they had some idea of how to behave

is that weird? why is that weird? it's normal -- why would I inflict any screaming and running around on strangers?

at pooexplosions!

I expect my children (and anyone else's) to behave in a restaurant, be it MaccyD's or the Ivy,to behave as they would at their own dinner table....ie they sit, they eat, they behave. Yes, they get bored, at which point, if the meal is finished, you get up and leave.

I completely agree bucharest and I dislike being labelled some kind of anti-free expression child hater or whatever is implied.

mmr it doesn't

but there is a general them - and - us attitude that appears on here from time to time that mplies that if your child even dares breathe loudly in a restaurant then your aprenting must be at fault and SocialServices should be called to your benefits claiming council shack immediately.

Whereas, in most cases (we all know there are some parents with no idea at all) it's a apir of aprents with a rare evening out trying to make the best of a meal without tipping the balance towards irreparable meltdown.

YANBU. I don't get up in restaurants and start running around and annoying people, so why should my children?

I think people whose children run around in restaurants must be allowed to do it at mealtimes at home, too. That, to my mind, is a big no-no.

Surely one of our jobs is to turn our children into people who know how to behave in public and without making themselves a nuisance to other people? (Oh, so that's now regarded as having a rod up your arse, pooexplosions? )

Of course, all children are capable of being foul at the wrong moment and disturbing other people by squawking at the table (I'm thinking here of the poster with the Cambridge Pizza Express story!) That, to my mind, is very different from parents who just don't care that their children are bothering other people.

Some of my proudest parenting moments have involved other people saying what well behaved children I have, following meals in restaurants (and some very posh hotels). Of course, I bask in the admiration, conveniently failing to mention how frightful they are capable of being at home.

it's not even judgey -- it's just normal

however am seriously considering judging some people on this thread who seem upset and defensive at the thought of having to teach children to behave

is that me MMR? because people compliment me on my 4 boys, which is good going with 2 asd. My limits for the moresevere ar slightly different- loud voice and repeateda ccompanied trips tro loo OK, running about/naughtiness not, but tbhit doesn't take much to work out he has SN and if someone can't amend their exepctations slightly for five mnutes they vanish off my radar anyway.

I'm proud of my boys behaviour, but we got here through taing them out, and I do think that what one will find in Pizza Ht on a sunday at 7 will be markedly different thasn even an hour later. And that whilst decent behaviour is a minimum, if you want not to even notice children then you choose somewhere else, I would.

My older two btw OP are montessori educated andagree it is great. Shame we moved away from the Nursery but moving away from Bridgwater (you will know it if you live in Bristol) a plus on the whole.

no Red, sorry not you, I should have responded to you -- you were most reasoned

plus I don't really judge anybody -- empty threat

navyeyelash We were sat outside (too noisy in) but then went inside and sat at some of the fist tables when it was too cold.

I agree there does seem to be a them (parents)and us (non-parents) theme coming out here!

Ooops - I meant one of the FIRST tables, not 'fist'!

there aren't any non parents on here are there?

"Its simple, if kids start to get a bit noisy, you have to tell them to quieten down. If they are getting up and down to much and start to run around, you tell them to sit down."

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
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Can we have that for quote of the week please?

I'm not a parent for starters!