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Originally Posted by AXO Alum
As I have said before -- like most people, I was a great mom before I had kids. I get so discouraged when I hear so many young people talk about bratty kids, and how if they had a kid, he wouldn't act like that. There are going to be times that you cannot account for a child's behavior. Sometimes, even the best of circumstances turn ugly & a full fledged fit will occur before you know what is happening. These are the times where you, as a mom, want to crawl into a hole & never be seen again. I am NOT talking about the mom's (and dad's) that sit there & tolerate such behavior -- the ones that say "please don't yell" repeatedly, and keep bribing their kids to be good... I am talking about the ones (like myself) that try to correct the behavior, and if not, we leave. I believe that one of the best ways to teach a child to be polite & show good manners is at a dining establishment that doesn't have a play area! Now while we would much rather frequent Moe's once a week, it doesn't mean that once in awhile, I want to go someplace special & show my son how to behave appropriately in a nicer setting.
I disagree 100% with the DVD player -- even with headphones. You can teach your child the appreciation of dinner conversation versus allowing him or her to watch yet more TV. I was mortified to see a child that couldn't have been more than 15 months at a Cracker Barrel watching his DVD player. Yes, we eat dinner in front of the TV more than I'd like to admit, but I'm not taking it with me to a restaurant!
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The difference between your comments and behaviors of many parents I see with children out in resturants is that you said the magic words if he does not behave "we leave". My parents raised both my brother and I by taking us first to family resturants then to nicer ones as our behavior was able to handle it, if one of us had a trantrum then one of my parents left the behaving child with the other parent and the misbahaving one was in the car with mom or dad for the evening. I think that made a lot of sense. We had a consequence when we distrubed other diners. My mother has since told me that she felt like it was not her right to bother other peoples dinner. Sadly, I have a friend who is on the whole a good mother, but when it comes to resturants she will let her child act like a moron. She screams, cries, runs around, etc. Before she had children we were out at a resturant and we saw a child acting like this. I expressed my digust and she replied "well that's how kids learn by watching others, eventually the child will get it." Apparently she has used this on her own kids and they are monsters in resturants. She feels like she is paying to go there and she has "the right" to let her children act any way they want. That is the attitude that bothers me. Maybe it's because I don't have kids I say that, but my mom who raised two children seems to feel the same way, I know because we have discussed it.
I say as long as the child is not disturbing others and behaving fine, but even with headphones having a dvd player in a resturant is distracting and just plain rude. Sitting and coloring quietly fine, but a dvd player crosses the line to me. Frankly if I was in the resturant and paying what I am assuming are high prices for both the meal and the decor of a nice resturant and there was a dvd player next to me, I would ask the management to move my party and then let them know that I was dissatified with my dining experience and let them know why.