[LIforrelaxin]

I am glad to see the numbers for Banning Children are low.

I understand that going out for a nice meal is important for people and that the atmosphere is part of the whole evening. Having a yelling screaming kid two tables away can certainly ruin the mode.

However as lucky1 notes how else are kids supposed to learn what is appropriate and what is not. Additionally who really is to blame when a kid acts up in a restaurant. I quite often don't believe it is the kids that need to be blamed. I am not trying to indicate that there is bad parenting involved. However what I do believe is that all to often the kids have not been prepared to go out to eat. Mom and Dad decided to go out for a nice meal and bring the kids, who have been playing outside and going crazy all day, and quite frankly are over tired. What do all of us do when we are over tired. We get cranky and sometime, raise or voice etc. Well it is no different for a kid.

Growing up, and when on vacation we almost never went out to a nice restaurant while on vacation. Sure we went out but it was always to appropriate places for family on vacations... the Local pizza joint, the local gressy spoon etc. We didn't go to place like Canoe, or the Woodshed, unless we had a down day, where we hadn't been busy, and had probably even taken a nap. So that while we where getting a treat and going somewhere nice, we where well behaved.

I now have two stepsons ages 9 and 10, I would take them to any restaurant with out hesitation, because their mother and I have distilled proper behavior into them. However I wouldn't try and take them to the Woodshed after a day on the water. It just doesn't work that way, they would be tired, and start to get board and misbehave. As a step parent or a parent I need to make sure I don't set my kids up for misbehavior.

Unfortunately, not all people think this way..... but I will state as I have often have stated, If a restaurant refuses to seat my family, they will loose my business. It is in my mind discrimination, and therefore not acceptable. Having empty tables in an "Adult only Section" and having a line at the door, of families with kids, is segregation, and demeaning. It appears as though these phrases, discrimination, and segregation, will not disappear, as people always need to have something to complain about, and blame.