oh tori am i your friends!!!lol only joking.
my ds 2.6yo behaves when we're out. but he's going thru a wee testing phase. trying to stand up on chairs, swap seats, etc when we're at restaurants. so i spend the whole time giving him a telling. although he does it. i dont class it as running wild as evertime he removes his butt cheeks from the seat i'm reminding him there's a bad corner waiting if he doesn't sit back down.
think it's running wild if they act up and you ignore them and carry on eating your lunch or doing what your doing without keeping them in order.
but there's 2 extremes. i've got a friend who's son is a nightmare, he screams, hits throws things in restaurants. and she just keep asking in a nice voice "aw whats up baby" then she snaps. leathers the boy in front of everyone. then she starts apologising to him and embarasses herself and leaves early.
i no longer go to public places with her anymore.
not after the clarks incident.he wouldn't try on shoes and she gave him about 6 slaps all over the body. i walked out the shop and left her and went to my car.
i still see her at her house , and at mine as the boy seems to be behaved ok there.
if your in public i think acceptable to use techniques like naughty corner. go to toilet to do it. bacause they also quickly learn that when they're in public they can do stuff they wouldn't at home cause you won't punish them in public